Chapter Four #2
She’s not always drenched in Hermès, Cartier, and Dior, as she’d say, “Real wealth doesn’t need to be flashy.” And Addison would add, “Wealth whispers.” But my mom does usually appear like she’s a walking celestial perfume ad. Ready to grace your life with heavenly charm.
She’s not angelic right now. She’s evoking hangover chic. Is her mascara smudged?
After Addison and Elizabeth hug, my mom sinks down in her seat while greeting too brightly, “Hi, spiders.” Her smile is too caked on. Phony. “You’re both looking cute today.”
I open my mouth, but a server interrupts us. “Would you two like anything to drink?”
“Water’s fine,” I say.
“I’ll have what she’s having.” My mom points to Addison’s empty wineglass.
“We’ll take a whole bottle,” Addison chimes in. “Four glasses, please.”
Hailey slumps in her chair, cupping her coffee in two tight palms. I slip her a subtle reassuring look before waving a casual hand at the server. “That won’t be necessary. Just two glasses for them.”
“You sure?” My mom smiles to draw mine out. “You have a reason to celebrate.” She must detect my confusion because she adds, “Your breakup with Jake.”
Right…“No, we’re good,” I tell the server. “Just two glasses.” Once she disappears from earshot, I explain, “I’m sure it’s a hundred-dollar bottle. At minimum. Hailey and I didn’t come to this lunch flush.” I pick up a menu. “I’ll be lucky to afford the breadbasket.”
It’s not a lie, but it’s not the real reason we’re sober.
I’m protecting Hailey’s baby secret. To my fucking grave. I won’t tell a soul, not even my boyfriend. Her brother. Not until she’s ready to share this news—which she’s not. She literally just found out a week ago.
My mom zips up her Birkin. “Aren’t you dating Rocky, bug? He can pay for you.”
“For a lunch he’s not even attending?” I set down the menu, my stomach tossing. “That’s demoralizing.”
“More demoralizing than taking the bus here?” Addison retorts.
Elizabeth lets out a shocked breath. “You didn’t.”
I growl out a sigh. “Okay, the real issue isn’t my mode of transportation.” I rotate toward my mom beside me. “Did you tell Varrick about this lunch?” My frown deepens into pits of concern. “And why do you look so…?”
She flattens her hair quicky, almost embarrassed.
Flustered. This woman could make a period stain appear like the latest fashion trend.
I’ve never seen her wear embarrassment—not a single day of my life.
Hell, she’s never been this ruffled. Even on the drive away from an abusive mark who left a handprint on her cheek, she’d have perfect posture in the car.
She spends a great deal of time untwisting the knotted chain of her gold heart-shaped locket before reaching for her water.
“I left our beach rental in a hurry,” she explains with a barbaric slurp.
Water drizzles down her chin. She curses under her breath, dabs the spill with the cloth napkin.
“I did mention to him that I’d be meeting you for lunch. I didn’t tell him where we’d be.”
We go abruptly silent as the server returns with a wine bottle, another dozen oysters, and a creamy crab dip. Tension mounts as she slowly pours a taster for Addison. None of us put on a facade that everything is okey fucking dokey. Even my mom’s smile—a tiny gesture to expel my worry—has vanished.
Once the two wineglasses are filled and the server leaves us, I angle back toward Elizabeth. “Why tell that creep anything at all?”
“I’m trying to reason with him, bug, and…and that means being open. He can tell when I evade.”
“Can he be reasoned with?” Hailey asks, a lot less hostilely than I would.
“I don’t know.” My mom perches her sunglasses on the top of her head. I almost feel bad for the heat off my questions when I notice the deep bags under her eyes. “There are things he wants and things he clearly doesn’t.”
We all look unsettled.
Addison starts piling mignonette sauce onto her shellfish with a little spoon, her shoulders more constricted.
“What doesn’t he want?” I ask.
“A payout. I offered him a portion of the Koning job, and in return, he would leave Victoria permanently.”
My brows spring. “You did what?”
“It was necessary—”
“No, you don’t get to include him in a fucking job without including all of us in this decision. We don’t even know him, and that job was ours.” We involved our parents because we needed their help, but they weren’t supposed to ever take the helm.
I am hurt.
Rocky will always believe the godmothers want to control us, and so badly, I want my mom to prove him wrong. But if she continues yanking the strings from us, then how are we anything but her puppets?
Hailey looks ashen. “You told Varrick we’re trying to screw over Jake’s brother?”
“He already suspected since Phoebe was dating a Koning heir.” Her eyes flit worriedly between me and Hails. “I promise I wasn’t trying to undermine any of you kids.”
“We aren’t kids,” I mutter angrily under my breath. “You should’ve told us before posing anything to him.”
“It was my idea,” Addison pipes in quickly, attempting to redirect my anger to her. News flash, I’m pissed at both of them. “I told Bethy we could potentially use Varrick to finish the job you all started. If he promised to leave once Jake’s inheritance is secured, it’d solve two issues at once.”
My jaw unhinges. “So, now he knows we don’t want him in this town?”
“He already knew,” my mom professes deeply.
“He’s not an idiot, spider. He’s known we’ve been avoiding him for years because I’ve kept you and your brothers a secret from him.
” She’s already confessed how he’s aware I’m his daughter now.
It makes his whole Michael Myers knockoff routine a little more unnerving.
I teeter toward concern for her again. “Is he angry?”
“No…he’s…impressed that we managed to deceive him.” She downs her wine in minutes before pouring herself another glass, not even waiting for a refill from the server.
“But he doesn’t want to help us with the job?” Hailey wonders, genuinely curious.
I really wish Rocky were here. My emotions burn too hot. At least he’d share in the overflowing rage. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel like I’m overreacting.
“He’s uninterested in the money,” my mom says dazedly, just staring at the ice beneath the oyster shells.
“That’s not a shock, right?” I chime in. “He has the Wolfe family fortune. What does he need the money for? He’s been hibernating in that mansion for how many years?”
My mom chokes on a sharp noise. “You think he’s spent over two decades as a hermit? In a three-story mansion on an island? With no yard and the only way in or out is by boat?”
My lips pull downward. “That’s what everyone in town believes…” I trail off, realizing how wrong I am almost instantly.
“A town myth he uses to his benefit, bug,” Elizabeth says, almost sadly. “That man has been traveling the country under different aliases. He only just returned to Victoria when Emilia Wolfe became sick and died.”
Hailey stares around the patio before looking between the godmothers. “So he’ll leave again if he leaves often. It’s logical.”
Addison turns to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth frowns at the crab dip, then pours a third glass of wine, and downs the entire thing in one gulp.
“Bethy—”
“We can’t pay him to leave, Addy,” my mom declares. “It’s not what he wants. It’s not why he’s staying in Victoria indefinitely.”
Addison sets an uneaten oyster on her plate. “You can’t live your life with a monster—”
“It’s not me either,” she whispers, as if this is a fragile secret. “He’s not interested in me.”
Cold drips down my spine when her brown eyes veer over to mine. “He wants all six of you.”
My stomach drops out. “For what?”
“As we thought, he’s been observing you to see how well we raised you, but he’d prefer to have you all in his back pocket. He wants you to trust him more than you trust us. He might even attempt to sway you against us.”
Addison sends an apprehensive glance to my mom. My head spins, and Hailey digs her nose and mouth into her forearm before springing up.
Oh shit. She’s going to be sick. She shoos me not to follow, then rushes toward the bathroom. I wonder if the fishy smell from the oysters is upsetting her already queasy stomach. This pregnancy hasn’t been kind to her on the morning sickness front.
Addison swings her head toward the door. “Is Hailey ill?”
“We drank a lot of wine last night. I think the hangover mixed with oysters is getting to her,” I lie casually.
“Should I go check on her?” Addison asks, more to Elizabeth than me. It’s an odd question from someone so supremely confident in any role she takes. But I suppose the role of mother has been tarnished a bit. She doesn’t know exactly where she stands with Hails.
“I’ll text her,” I offer, sending Hailey a quick message on my burner: You okay?
Her response is almost instant:
“Assumptions confirmed.” I slip my phone away.
“It’s the hangover.” I thread my arms over my chest and drop my voice so only they can hear.
“So…if he’d prefer to use us in the art of confidence games, then why hasn’t he said boo to me?
Seems like he’s done a pretty shitty job convincing us to be a part of his one-man team. ”
Slowly, Elizabeth reaches into her Birkin and pulls out six envelopes. She hands me the stack, Rocky’s alias written in cursive on the top one.
Grey Thornhall
Elizabeth never blinks as she says, “That’s about to change.”