“There’s no way you’d go unnoticed anywhere, Rain,” he murmured.
I was grateful for the seriously optimistic view he had of me, but I’d slipped through the cracks plenty.
We followed the crowd into the conference room. I started to walk toward the two chairs in the last row, but Jimmy’s hand was clasped around mine and he led us to the front. On one side of the row, Parker sat next to his father, Grayson, and their lawyer. Parker scowled, and I noticed his fists were balled in his lap. Grayson, on the other hand, watched me like a snake watches its dinner; silent and still, but menacing none-the-less.
Jimmy and I sat down next to Mona on the left side of the row. Blood pounded in my head. I kept my eyes on the carpet. I clasped hands in my lap, and Jimmy put his hand on mine. Bennet sat at the table in the front of the room and started to read the will.
I thought it would be more dramatic, like in the movies, but Bennet managed to monotone his way through the first half of the reading without incident.
Mona even kept from flipping out when Bennet read the part about me and Jimmy being co-executors of Autumn’s estate. Although the actual words were, ‘any surviving child’s estate, and not Autumn’s actual name. I’d been holding my breath, waiting for Mona or Parker’s lawyer to object, but no one said anything. I glanced up at Jimmy. His eyes were red-rimmed and downcast, but he grimaced sadly when I caressed his hand in my lap.
It wasn’t until the distribution of property that things got interesting. Apparently Summer still had a few tricks up her sleeve.
“I leave Lavender Plantation, the estate and lands of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana to Reyna Marie Cruz. I also stipulate the amount of two million per year be set in a trust to maintain the estate for the duration of ownership.”
My gaze snapped up to Bennet and I opened my mouth to say something.
Mona beat me to it. She stood up, whirled in my direction, and screeched. “What!”
Jimmy also stood, but he didn’t seem overly shocked by the news. He stepped in front of me blocking Mona’s view.
“Not here, Mona,” he growled.
She whirled on him. “Did you know about this?”
Jimmy nodded.
I thought the room was silent before. Everyone froze in a tableau of startled faces. Parker helped things along by standing up next to Mona and yelling at Bennet.
“I’ve never even heard of this place!”
Then he turned in my direction, a wild look of anger on his face and yelled. “How did you get her to buy this for you?”
Jimmy moved towards Parker quicker than anyone expected. He was clearly angry. “You don’t speak to her!”
Parker stumbled back from Jimmy’s advance.
Mona hopped in between them holding Jimmy back. “James Samuel!” she shouted with her mom voice.
Jimmy glared at Parker and for a moment I thought he would just reach over Mona and punch Parker, but he didn’t. Instead he pointed at Parker menacingly and a chill ran up my back because I hadn’t seen Jimmy this angry since high school. Parker tried to recover by squaring his shoulders, but the look of fear on his features was unmistakable. Jimmy could be a bear if provoked.
“Gentlemen, please.” Bennet regarded everyone over his glasses.
“Mrs. Evans purchased Lavender Plantation nine months ago. She used money from a trust set aside for her future children. I was told it was to be an investment.” He looked perfectly calm. Maybe standing and shouting was the norm for bereaved rich people.
I stayed in my seat behind Jimmy and concentrated on trying to melt into the floor.
Jimmy scowled at Parker one more time and then sat back down next to me.
Mona nodded to Parker and they took their seats.
Jimmy reached for my hand. He was shaking, and I bit my lip. Thankfully, I wasn’t involved in anything else and when Bennet finished I practically jumped out of my seat. I was suddenly nauseous. I excused myself and left the conference room for the bathrooms.
I splashed water on my face and leaned my forehead against the cool mirror. I whirled around when I heard Mona’s voice behind me.
“Well, I guess you’re smarter than I gave you credit for.”
I looked at the sneer on her face and tried to remember that she’d just lost her daughter. I sighed and looked for my small clutch purse. “I don’t want any trouble, Mona,” I said quietly.
Mona walked around to my side.
I looked at her and the expression on her face made the hair on my arms stand on end.
“You couldn’t get in through one twin, so you suckered the other into taking care of you.”
I stumbled back like I’d been hit in the chest. Her words, so vicious, tore through me.
“I didn’t know about the house…I never asked…”
Mona made a ‘whatever’ gesture with her hands and rolled her eyes. Then abruptly, her gaze got hard. She leaned in and growled through her teeth at me. “It’s not just a house, Reyna. It’s a thirteen-million dollar estate!”
I shook my head. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what she was saying. Why would Summer give me a house in Louisiana? I’d never even been there. I’d never been further east than Las Vegas. I tried to scoot around Mona, but she blocked my path. Did she want to throw down in the girls’ bathroom like a bad heavy metal video?
“Mona, like I said, I didn’t know about any estate in Louisiana. I had no idea that Summer would leave anything to me in her will. She never said anything.”
“Oh, give up the act, Reyna. Jimmy isn’t in the room.”
I stepped back for a moment and wondered if I could get past her with a fake-lefty football maneuver. She looked more sober than usual, so I doubted it. I flapped my arms at my side and sighed. “Mona, I want to leave.”
“You think you’re so smart, huh?”
“No, I’m a moron, you happy?” I was losing my patience.
A maniacal smile pulled her coral lips back, and I noticed that she had lipstick on her two front teeth. I couldn’t pull my gaze from the smudge.
“We’ll see how long Jimmy sticks around when he hears that you knew about the Power of Attorney ahead of time.”
I blinked with confusion. “What?”
“Oh I think you’re going to have to work on your innocent face,” she sneered.
“I didn’t know about it ahead of time.”
Mona shrugged and nodded with mock sympathy on her face. “Oh, sure, you didn’t sign the papers a month ago?”
“I didn’t, Mona. What are you talking about?” Panic started to rise in my chest. I felt like I knew a trap was closing in, but I couldn’t figure out which direction I should duck.
“Then the copy Parker gave to his lawyer is what, a fake? I saw it myself. You signed the power of attorney a month ago. Around the time you suddenly stopped caring if Summer was hurt.”
I didn’t understand what she was saying. How could Parker have a copy of something I never signed? “I never stopped caring that she was in danger if she stayed with Parker. Jimmy knows that.” I had to fight the urge to shake the answers out of her.
“From what I hear, you and Jimmy had a fight over you not wanting to come down last month. I mean, her husband is arrested and she’s in the emergency room, and her “best friend” doesn’t bother to come down?” She made air quotes in the air and I flashed on my phone conversation with Jimmy that night. Anger boiled in my stomach and I took a step toward her.
“Summer was in the hospital because Parker hit her, again!”
Mona waved her hand dismissively as if her daughter’s abusive relationship was of no relevance. “Well, all I know is that you signed those papers, and all of a sudden you had no interest in helping Summer.”
“What!” I yelled. “I offered to take her in.”
Mona snorted. “I’ll bet Jimmy finds the timing suspicious. I’ll bet he takes a second look at your motives for rushing to the hospital that night.”
I stepped back and put my hand
s on my hips looking at her. If she wanted to drive a wedge between me and Jimmy this would do it. I remember the look of suspicion on his face when he asked if I’d known about the power of attorney ahead of time.
“I don’t know what you and Parker are trying to do, but the papers have to be fake.”
“Because you say so?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“You couldn’t get Jimmy one way, so now you’re trying another. I mean, I know you’re still trying the first tactic. People have seen you on that boat with Jimmy all night. I guess you’re trying to cover your bases.”
I shook my head. She thought I was trying to get pregnant again. As if I did it on purpose four years before to make Jimmy marry me. I balled my fists at my side and blood screamed in my ears. “I suggest you move before I go through you, Mona!”
She blinked surprise at my sudden screaming and took a step back but didn’t move completely. Someone knocked on the ladies room door and Jimmy’s worried voice wafted through the crack.
“Rain, you OK in there?”
Mona held my eyes with a burning gaze. “You take your inheritance from Summer, and step down as Autumn’s executor, and I’ll make sure he never finds out about your lies.”
“He won’t believe it.” Even I could hear the uncertainty in my voice.
Mona shrugged and smirked through her wrinkly, coral lips. “You want to bank your future on that?”
Jimmy cracked the door open, and his eyes took in the standoff between me and Mona. He stepped into the bathroom and held out his hand to me. “Let’s go, Rain,” He whispered. He kept his eyes on his mother.
She turned to him, whipped her head back to me, and smiled sweetly. “I hope you enjoy West Feliciana Parish, it’s so beautiful in the Autumn.”
I actually saw her gnash her teeth as she said it.
“Mona,” Jimmy’s guttural voice warned.
I slipped past Mona, took Jimmy’s hand, and followed him into the elevator. In the back of my mind a tiny voice started to wail.
He’ll never believe you.
Purple Knot
27
“What did Mona say to you?”
We sat in the SUV in the dark hotel garage. I looked at my hands and folded them to stop their trembling.
“She just spouted her usual joy and fairy dust.”
Jimmy groaned, leaned forward in his seat, and rested his forehead against the steering wheel. “Rain, why won’t you tell me? Why won’t you talk to me?”
I blinked, trying to push the tears back into my eyes. Inside, I cried out to him. I couldn’t tell him what Mona said because I felt like he and I were teetering on the edge of ruin. I believed one more push would be the end of us.
“Jimmy, I’m just all out of talk right now. The reading was bad enough, but your mother cornered me in the bathroom… the bathroom!”
He watched me with his somber slate eyes and they looked so sad I wanted to start bawling.
“I’m sorry for whatever she said, Rain.”
“I just want to go to sleep. I think I’m just tired.” I folded my arms across my chest hugging myself.
“We need to get away, you and I,” he said finally. He looked down through the steering wheel to his knees.
“I don’t understand.”
Jimmy sat up. He seemed to be debating something. Finally he blew a breath out slowly. “You’re troubled, Rain. I can see it.”
“I can handle it.” I sniffled and looked down at my hands again.
“Rain!” Jimmy bellowed. “Don’t do that, don’t do this again.”
I looked up at him and started to cry. “You can’t help me with this, Jimmy. You…we can’t weather…” I shook my head frustrated. He’d never believe me. If I waited for Mona to, it would still tear us apart. What would he do when confronted with evidence, even if it was fake?
He started to talk but my cell phone buzzed. It was Salem.
“He’s picked up the receiver for the key logger on Parker’s computer.” I checked my watch. It was already four in the afternoon and the sun was on its way down. I didn’t want it to get dark.
Jimmy sighed and started the SUV’s engine. “Tell him we’ll see him tomorrow.”
I stared at Jimmy. He didn’t wait for my response. He just pulled out of the parking space and merged into traffic. I looked at the phone in my hands and typed out a text message to Salem to compile the keystrokes and print out everything. It was the kind of thing that took hours anyway. I turned my phone off and looked out the window at stores and buildings as we flitted past them.
Jimmy didn’t talk.
I didn’t talk.
An hour into our drive it got dark outside, and I stared at my face in the window’s reflection. I had no idea where we were going, and didn’t care. My lawyer, Sierra Hopkins had been right. The big bomb Parker and Mona intended to drop on me was not intended to win them the wrongful death suit. She’d predicted they had something strong enough to make me step down from co-executorship of Autumn’s estate, but not strong enough to use in court. The whole suit was a distraction. It was a reason to request medical records, to shake me up with depositions, and to leverage the fake evidence for my silence.
My stomach churned.
Jimmy pulled onto a dirt road. A few yards in, a silver metal gate appeared in the headlights. Jimmy stopped the vehicle. He got out and pulled the gate open. A wood sign to the right of the gate read; Olvidar. Jimmy had brought me to the animal sanctuary.
He got back in, and drove down a windy pitch black road. The only thing in sight was the five foot length of dirt road visible in the light cast by the headlights. Jimmy rolled the windows down and the smell of the woods floated in. Pine oil and wood mingled with churned up dirt to take me back to the scents of camping with friends. I closed my eyes and went to those cool fall nights, laughter, and sitting by the fire in Jimmy’s arms.
“I can’t even see it yet and I love it already,” I whispered.
Jimmy looked at me and the corners of his mouth turned up, slightly sad. “I hope you like it here,” he said quietly.
We drove a few minutes up the dirt road and then the lodge’s outside lights came into view. It was a sprawling one story structure with floor to ceiling glass along the front façade. Built at an angle to the tree line it seemed to melt into the darkness. We pulled to a stop in front. Jimmy got out and took my hand. He led me up the steps and into the front door. Inside the foyer, he hit the lights and the gorgeous house lit up before me like an incandescent dream.
It was beautiful. It was masculine and warm at the same time. It screamed Jimmy. I looked at the dark leather furniture, the parquetry floor, and the stained glass skylight.
“I see why you call it a sanctuary.”
His face was filled with tension. He pulled me to his chest and kissed the top of my head.
I stepped away, and my whole body trembled. The drive had given me time to decide what to do. But now my heart rammed in my chest and my mouth went dry.
Worry flashed behind Jimmy’s eyes and he reached a hand out to me.
I pushed it away. “Jimmy, I can’t keep doing this...”
“Rain, please…”
I shook my head. His shoulders slumped, and I felt my heart start to tear open. I walked to the leather sofa and sat down. He took the seat next to me, his eyes on the polished wood table in front of us.
“I have to do this, even though I don’t want to with all my heart,” I began.
Jimmy tensed and when I put my hand in his he closed his eyes and a tear slipped down his face. Did he know already? Had he overheard Mona and I in the bathroom? My heart slammed fast, painfully but I needed to tell him. I took a breath and told him everything.
He looked up at my face with surprise when I got to the part about the evidence that Mona and Parker had.
I started crying halfway through. I finished, and Jimmy stood up abruptly. I thought he was going to walk out of the house, into the dark, and out of my life for
ever. Inside the little voice wailed.
He’ll never believe you.
Jimmy stood with his back to me. He put his hands at his sides and looked up at the ceiling. He was drawing in deep breaths like he was trying to control his temper.
I crumbled inside. My voice sounded so small when I spoke. “Jimmy, please tell me what you’re thinking,” I said through the lump in my throat. “Please talk to me.”
Jimmy turned and my heart jumped. Pain had etched dark circles under his eyes. He sat down next to me on the couch and took my hand between both of his. He looked relieved, which confused me. “What I’m thinking….” He muttered. “Actually, I’m terrified of what you’re thinking.” He rubbed my hands between his.
The knot in my stomach loosened a little. “What I’m thinking?” I hadn’t expected that one.
Jimmy’s gaze held mine, their gray color just as striking to me as when I’d first seen them.
My heart fluttered nervously when I saw his worried look. I shook my head, not understanding.
“I’ve spent the past few days trying to convince you to give us another chance. But then this thing that Mona and Parker…My family is just…” He struggled to find his voice. It was low and gruff when he tried again. “I always believed that we were supposed to be together. I mean, I’ve prayed and prayed and I know in my bones that you’re the only one for me.”
“Jimmy, I’m really sorry…”
“Rain, stop saying that you’re sorry,” he interrupted.
The tone of his voice stabbed through me and a hot tear slid down my cheek. He started again, but wouldn’t look at me. He concentrated on my hands in his.
“When you said you missed us, I started to believe that we could finally…” He looked away. His jaw worked and I waited, desperate to hear what he was thinking, and dreading that it was goodbye at the same time.
“Jimmy, please don’t do this,” I breathed suddenly. My chest ached. I didn’t think I could bear this. Why when we were so close to making it, did everything line up to pull us apart?
Jimmy looked at me and I made myself take breaths. I willed myself to look at him despite what he was about to do. But his face had a tender expression. His eyes searched mine with worry, not finality.
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