21. Charlie
CHAPTER 21
CHARLIE
“S ince this is our final meeting, there are a couple of documents I need the two of you to sign,” Rogan said. “This one is a statement guaranteeing that your marriage is a real one.”
“Well, obviously they can’t sign that,” Cait said. “Not legally, surely.”
“If the marriage is real, they can,” Rogan said. “And I should be very clear that for legal purposes, this document can only ask you to guarantee that your marriage was legally binding. This isn’t a document asking you to swear to your feelings for one another. There’s really no legal provision for anything like that.”
“So what’s the point?” Charlie asked. “You’ve already got our marriage license.”
“It’s so that we can have something on file to show that we followed your aunt’s wishes,” Rogan explained. “We aren’t keeping a copy of the marriage license on file — that was just for me to look at. But now that we know the license was legitimate, it will be enough to have you sign these papers.”
“I can’t believe that signing a couple of papers is really all they need to do,” Cait said. “You know as well as I do what’s going to happen, right?” She looked from Scott to John. “The moment we walk out of here, he’s going to stage some big fight with her, and the two of them will break up. It won’t matter, because they’ll have signed all these documents, and we’ll be standing here looking like idiots even though we saw this coming right from the start.”
“Stop it, Cait,” Charlie said. He felt exhausted, and his sister’s antics were making everything worse. “Just stop, all right? We’ve done everything we’ve been asked to do, and you’ve been nothing but horrible to us the whole time.”
“Charlie, any fool could see that the two of you don’t mean anything to one another,” Cait said. “Look at you. Look at her. You always come to these meetings looking as if you were in the throes of new romance. It was so obviously for show. If you wanted to be believable, you really should have toned it down a little bit. And now that you’re at the end of your charade, the two of you are acting as if you’re strangers to one another. You’re fooling no one with this crap.”
Olivia began to rise to her feet. “I can’t do this.”
“You have to,” John said. “You got yourself into this, Olivia. Whatever this has meant to you, you have to see it through now.”
“No, she doesn’t.” Cait’s eyes were bright with sudden eagerness. “Is this a confession, Olivia? You can’t sign the paperwork because your marriage to my brother hasn’t been real? You don’t want to lie anymore? That’s it, isn’t it? You want to back out of this before you have to tell any more lies.”
Olivia shook her head. “I don’t feel well,” she murmured. “I need to go.”
Charlie frowned. “Olivia, just sign the papers,” he said. “This is our last meeting here. I’ll take you straight home to rest after this, or to the doctor — whatever you need. But can’t we finish this up first?”
“No, I—” Olivia lurched to her feet, her face suddenly gray.
She barely made it to the planter in the corner of the room in time. Everyone fell silent in shock as she bent over and vomited into it.
“Jesus Christ,” Scott said. “Is she drunk?”
“Of course she isn’t,” Charlie snapped. He rose from his seat and hurried to Olivia’s side. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Olivia didn’t protest. She allowed him to shepherd her toward the door.
Charlie glanced over his shoulder at Rogan. “I’m sorry about this,” he said. “I’ll pay for it.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Rogan said, sounding confused. “Call me to reschedule, will you?”
“They’re going to try to say we invalidated the terms of the will,” Olivia whispered as Charlie hustled her out into the parking lot. “They’re going to say you don’t get the house because we left before the papers were signed.”
“I’m sure they’ll try,” Charlie agreed. “It won’t work. You’ve seen how Rogan operates — he’s a reasonable man. He won’t let them get away with that.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am right. Listen, don’t worry about that. You said you wanted to leave.”
“I didn’t mean to make trouble. I’m embarrassed.”
“You’re sick. I think we should go to the hospital.”
“We don’t need to go to the hospital.”
They had reached Charlie’s car. He helped her in, slightly surprised that she hadn’t insisted on going to her own car — but the fact that she hadn’t let him know just how serious this really was. “I’m going to take you to the hospital,” he said.
She closed her eyes. “No, Charlie.”
“It could be something really severe, Olivia. We can’t just ignore it.”
“It’s not. I know what’s wrong.”
“What is it?”
She opened her eyes, and her eyebrows shot up. “Your siblings are coming over.”
Charlie turned. Sure enough, Cait was storming across the parking lot, trailed by Scott and John. Rogan followed some distance behind, and Charlie could see the frown etched on his face.
Cait reached them. “You’re not getting away with this,” she hissed.
“Getting away with what , for God’s sake?” Charlie felt as if he was about to lose his mind. “Cait, you saw what happened back there. She isn’t well. I have to get her to the hospital.”
“Because she’s your wife and you love her so much , right? Not because the two of you have realized you can’t go through with this charade and you need to get out of here so you can formulate another plan. It couldn’t be that.”
“Oh my God, have you always been like this? Don’t answer that. I know you have.” He looked over Cait’s shoulder at his brothers. “You’re seeing this, right? I know we all wanted a portion of the sales of that house, but Aunt Marge left it to me. And as mad as you guys might be about that, it certainly isn’t Olivia’s fault. There’s no excuse for taking it out on her, especially while she’s unwell. I need to get her to the hospital. Something might be seriously wrong with her.”
“Is something seriously wrong with you?” Scott asked Olivia.
Olivia shook her head. “No,” she said. “It isn’t.”
“She is drunk. Or hungover, maybe,” John guessed.
Rogan had reached them now. He had his papers in hand. “Are we still doing this?” he asked.
“She won’t sign,” Cait said scathingly.
“Of course I’ll sign.” Olivia held out a hand and Rogan handed her the papers and a pen. She scrawled her name and handed them over to Charlie so that he could follow suit.
She turned to look at Cait. “Are you serious?” she asked. “You really didn’t think I would be willing to sign a paper saying that I had gotten married? You thought that I would get married, but then I wouldn’t say I had done it? Why on earth would that be where I drew the line?”
“Don’t ask me to explain how your mind works,” Cait said. “I’m not like you.”
“And what am I like? Go ahead. You seem to know all about me.”
“Of course I do,” Cait said. “You know, I’m sure you think you’re a perfectly nice girl. People like you always do. And maybe you used to be. But something happens to you people when you get around money. Something happens when you meet someone of greater means than you’ll ever have. I’ve seen it so many times. It’s the reason my brothers and I all married people from our social class. You can’t trust anybody else. They’re only after one thing — a paycheck.”
Olivia shook her head. “Cait… I’m sorry. I genuinely feel bad for you.”
“You feel bad for me ?” Cait laughed unkindly. “I’m not the one who needs to go sniffing around men who are out of my league. What are you doing with my brother, if you’re not after his money?”
“It’s just… shocking that you don’t believe I could actually care about Charlie,” Olivia said. “I understand that you’ve had some bad experiences. That sucks, and I’m really sorry about that. But that doesn’t mean the same thing is always going to be true for everyone. Do you really think Charlie isn’t good enough for me?”
“That’s what you heard me say? That’s not what I said. I said you weren’t good enough for him .”
“I mean, I know you think you said that, but you really didn’t. You said that the only reason I could have for being with Charlie was his money. That means that you don’t think there’s anything about him that’s worth more than what he has in the bank.” Olivia shook her head. “It’s a terrible thing to think about your own brother. Don’t you know him? Don’t you know how smart and funny he is? How endearing? Don’t you see how when there’s something he wants, he never gives up on it? You don’t see how any of those attributes might appeal to a woman? Or do you just think I’m so blinded by money that I never noticed what a great guy he is?”
Charlie was stunned. He’d had no idea that Olivia felt all those things for him, and it made him dizzy to realize it now. Guilt flooded him. He hadn’t just fallen for her. He had made her fall for him. It felt as if he had tricked her somehow — he must have. There was no way she could have developed those feelings genuinely.
No one had ever said such kind things about him before.
Cait turned to Rogan. “Do we have any recourse here? Is there any way for us to protest this?” she asked. “These two could sign every document in the world and I still wouldn’t believe they’re taking this seriously.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Olivia said heavily.
“I’ll decide for myself what I need to do,” Cait told her. “Trust me, there has never been a moment since all this began that I’ve wanted advice from you.”
“I mean you don’t need to do that because this is all going to come out soon enough anyway,” Olivia said.
Charlie’s heart stopped. What was she doing? Was she really about to confess the truth here, in front of everyone? She couldn’t even wait until they were on their own to make a plan for what they would do next?
Olivia turned to Charlie. “I wanted to wait to talk to you about this when we were alone,” she said.
“Then I think you should .” He hoped she would take the hint.
But Olivia shook her head. “I’m tired,” she told him. “I’m tired of your family fighting us at every turn. I’m tired of being made to feel as if I’m some villain who’s only here to disrupt things that are supposed to be good for the four of you. I’m sick to death of your sister suggesting that I’m after your money, when you and I both know that’s not quite the way things are.”
He wondered what she meant by that. She had married him for money. There wasn’t any getting around that. Did she really think she could convince Cait that there had been something noble about her motives? Cait wasn’t the type to understand that Olivia had needed the money to help her family. She wouldn’t sympathize with that.
“Is there something we should know?” Rogan asked. “Now is the time, if there is.”
“I don’t know about should ,” Olivia said. “But I can see that no one is going to leave us alone until they get every scrap of information they’re after, so all right.”
She looked around at all of them, and the expression on her face was so exhausted, so resigned, that Charlie’s heart ached. He wanted nothing more than to chase his siblings away from her so that she wouldn’t have to deal with them ever again.
And then she spoke. “I’m pregnant.”