Hidden Riches Read Online Free

holder—it featured a beach scene with M IAMI, F LORIDA scrawled in faded pink stenciling at the bottom.
    â€œWonder where she got this,” JoJo said. “Ana Mae wouldn’t get on a plane if you paid her.”
    â€œProbably from a junk shop,” Delcine said. “Or a so-called gift from one of the families she cleaned for.”
    The table, like much of the counter, overflowed with Tupperware containers and casserole dishes, all brought to the house by Ana Mae’s neighbors, friends, and fellow church members. They’d run out of room in the fridge. JoJo pinched a piece of ham from under a platter. After sampling it, she cut a bigger slice and put it on a napkin plucked from the plastic holder.
    â€œYou want some?” she offered.
    Delcine shook her head no.
    â€œI remember the last time I talked to her,” JoJo said. “We had a fight.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    JoJo opened her mouth, closed it and looked away. “It . . . it doesn’t matter now. It’s not important.”
    Marguerite studied her younger sister for a moment. For all her boldness, JoJo kept some things pretty close to the vest.
    Sort of the way Win and I are doing?
    Marguerite ignored the question that was bothering her. She and Winslow literally couldn’t afford to stay in North Carolina for any extra days—not, of course, that they would ever admit that to anyone in the family. Pressing matters called for them at home. Now was not a good time for Ana Mae to up and die.
    She smiled.
    â€œWhat?” JoJo asked.
    Marguerite shook her head. “I was just thinking how Ana Mae never did anything the way the rest of us did.”
    â€œShe was happy here,” JoJo said. “God knows why. This place was a dump, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s not that much better now than it was then.”
    â€œIt’s not so bad,” Marguerite said.
    â€œSince when did you start loving on Ahoskie and Drapersville, North Carolina? As I recall, you were the first one up and out of here.”
    â€œThat’s because I was the oldest. Well, the oldest after Ana Mae.”
    â€œYou got out by going to college,” JoJo said.
    Marguerite heard the defensive edge in JoJo’s voice—even after all this time.
    â€œYou could have gone to college if you’d wanted to.”
    JoJo shook her head. “Mama didn’t have the money for that, not after Clay cut out the way he did.”
    â€œWell, can you blame him? He was like a leper here.”
    As the two sisters chewed on that for a moment, JoJo started shredding one of the blue paper napkins.
    â€œI’m glad he made it to San Francisco and that he and Archer found each other,” JoJo said. “Archer is good for him.”
    When Marguerite appeared not to have anything to add to that observation, JoJo continued.
    â€œYou know, back home in Vegas there’s this street-corner preacher guy off the Strip. He’s out there trying to get people to stop gambling and drinking. Nobody pays him much mind. But one day, he was out there screaming about how Las Vegas was the new Sodom and Gomorrah and God was gonna smite down the gays because they chose a lifestyle of abomination.”
    â€œHmmph,” Marguerite said. “What did you do?”
    â€œI got right up in that so-called preacher’s face and told him my brother was gay and that he wasn’t an abomination. That he didn’t choose to be gay, he was born that way, and God didn’t make any mistakes.”
    â€œGood for you,” Marguerite said. “What did the street-corner preacher say to that?”
    â€œHe told me I was going to hell too.”
    Marguerite frowned. “Well, that’s not very Christian, or charitable.” Still frowning, she said, “Maybe I’ll ask Clay to talk to him.”
    â€œTalk to who?”
    â€œCedric. He hasn’t said anything . . .”
    JoJo knew that if her sister