Chapter 41
VIOLET
I go into the bakery the next morning.
Lennox kept saying that I shouldn’t, that I should make Isabelle wait until after the holidays if she wants my building so bad, but the thought of dragging it out just makes my stomach hurt.
All three of the guys were hovering around me over breakfast and while I got ready, and I know they were just trying to be protective because they’re worried about me.
It’s the same way I felt when Rhett got hurt, and it’s wild to think that it was just two days ago when that happened.
It feels like it happened to someone else, honestly.
When I didn’t relent on going in, they started insisting they should come with me, but I shot that down too. I told them I was just going to get the things I needed immediately, and that I would start moving more stuff out later.
When I get there, I’m glad they didn’t come because the sign on the door saying the bakery is closed makes my stomach twist and tears spring to my eyes.
I’ve cried in front of them enough.
I know they didn’t like letting me come here alone, the grim looks on their faces told me that much, but I really needed to be by myself for this. I need the space to come to terms with what happened and process all of it.
Being here just makes it feel all the more real.
Especially when customers come to the door and I have to turn them away.
It feels like the end of something that never even got to begin properly.
I was picking up momentum, starting to really bring in some business, but now…
Now that’s all over. I don’t know what I’m going to do or what comes next. I don’t even know where to begin.
I keep getting hung up on the fact that my own sister did this to me.
Isabelle and I haven’t always been close, not since we were kids and we started going down our own paths, but we never hated each other. At least, I didn’t think so.
I never wished bad things for her, even when she would get what she wanted when I didn’t or when it became clear our parents were always going to take her side.
Or at least Mom would. Dad wouldn’t go against the two strongest willed members of our family if his life depended on it, which somehow was even more disappointing.
But I tried to move past all that. I took all the comments about my weight, about being single, about not having a ‘real job.’ I tried to get over the fact that Isabelle started dating my ex, and I agreed to be her maid of honor even though seeing her and Andrew together used to hurt so bad.
I never raised a fuss or called her out, and this—this is what I get in return.
I never in a million years thought Isabelle would do something like this.
She’s always been spoiled and selfish, but I never thought she was just straight up cruel.
She knows how much the bakery means to me, even if she never really cared, and for her to just snatch it away from me like this, for her own whims…
My fingers curl into fists, nails biting into my palms. I have to take a few deep breaths to calm myself down because I can’t start spiraling again. What’s done is done.
Here, in the quiet of what was my bakery, I can admit to myself that I’m worried. I’m so grateful that the guys support me and that when I go home, they’ll be there, but there’s a part of me that worries that this will make them see me differently.
I just lost everything. I lost something that defined me so entirely, something I was so proud of.
It’s silly to deny that I’ve been developing real feelings for them, and I’ve been starting to feel like maybe it was mutual.
But now… now I feel like I’m unworthy of them.
They’re all intimidating, powerful men, who built a successful security company from the ground up.
They have more money, separately and between them, than I’ll probably ever see in my life.
They were already out of my league to begin with, and now I’m just a failed bakery owner with no prospects.
What could they possibly see in me now? I have even less to offer them than I did before.
My thoughts start to run away with me, but I’m startled out of them by a knock on the glass of the door.
I take a deep breath and force my best customer service smile, ready to turn away another customer with the news that the bakery is closed, but when I look up, I see Simon standing there on the other side of the door.
I go to open it, swallowing hard. “Hi. What are you doing here?”
He gives me a gentle smile as he steps inside out of the cold. “Rhett called me. He told me what happened.”
“Oh.” I look down at the floor. “Yeah, it’s—” I don’t have the words to express how I feel, but Simon takes my hand, sparing me from finding them.
“Rhett thought maybe you needed someone to talk to. Someone with some distance from the situation.”
I’m filled with warmth, touched that Rhett was thinking of me and looking out for me even when I turned him away this morning.
“I’m okay,” I tell Simon, trying to put on a brave face. “It’s going to be okay.”
Simon gives me a skeptical look. “I think if I had been through what you’ve been through in the last twenty-four hours, I wouldn’t be okay.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, Violet, my dear.
It’s alright to feel hurt that your sister would do that.
And it’s more than alright to mourn the loss of something you worked so hard for. ”
His words break something open inside me, and I start crying all over again. It’s less panicky than yesterday, but it still feels like my heart is shattering in my chest.
“It’s just—how could she do this?” I ask, crying harder. “She’s supposed to be my sister. My family. I’ve done everything for her, everything she’s ever asked, and this is what I get back? She takes the only thing I’ve ever had for myself?”
“That’s the thing about family,” Simon says gently. “They’re the people you’re supposed to be able to trust the most, so it hurts even more when they betray you.”
I nod, and I don’t fight it when Simon takes my arm and gently steers me to one of the tables so we can sit down. He pats my hand as I cry it out, just letting me feel however I feel.
“I keep doubting myself,” I admit. “I was so happy when Grandmother said she was giving me this building, but if she never took Isabelle’s name off the deed, then what does that mean? Did she change her mind? Did she think I couldn’t handle it or didn’t deserve it?”
Isabelle has always been the more outgoing of the two of us, so maybe… maybe Grandmother worried that I wasn’t cut out for running a business. Maybe she always thought Isabelle was better suited for it.
Before I can spiral down that path, Simon shakes his head.
“No, Violet. Eleanor talked all the time about how much faith she had in you. She wanted to do something that would help you get a leg up in following your dreams. Isabelle still being listed as the owner was a mistake. I know that for a fact. Your grandmother loved you dearly, and all she wanted was to see you thriving.”
That sets me off again, and I bury my face in my hands. Simon just sits there, patient and steady.
“I don’t know what comes next,” I admit when I can talk again.
“This was everything to me. All of my plans, all of my dreams. Everything was built around this bakery and trying to make it a success. I don’t have the money to buy a new place.
I barely had the money to get this one outfitted the way I needed it. I can’t start over.”
“Something will come along for you,” Simon says.
“How are you so sure?”
“Because you deserve it. It’s true that life lets good things happen to bad people and that good people have too many bad things happen to them.
But you are one of the hardest working young women it has been my pleasure to know, Violet.
You have an entire community of people who will rally around you.
You’re not alone in this. And you’re not starting over.
You’ll be… rebuilding on the foundation you’ve already built.
It will probably be hard, but you’re strong, and you have people who care. ”
His words are sincere, and I sniffle, trying not to start crying again.
“Thank you,” I murmur.
“My pleasure, dear heart.” He gets up and pulls me into a hug. He’s getting older, but his hug is solid and warm. “Now,” he says, stepping back. “You should go home.”
“But—”
“No buts. You can finish packing things up later. It won’t kill your sister to wait. You should go home and be with the men you love.”
My cheeks immediately flush. “I—I mean—”
Simon just chuckles. “You know, it’s funny, considering what a big splash you all made around town with your… untraditional relationship.” He smiles. “You all seem flustered when people call out the obvious love between you.”
I have no idea what to say to that, so I just offer Simon some of the leftover baked goods and tell him to get home safe.
When he’s gone, I stand there in the center of the room and try to memorize the image of my bakery as it is now. In a few days, this will be nothing but an empty space again, and I want to remember it as it was when it was mine.
Then I turn out all the lights, lock the door, and drive home.
All three of the guys are at the house when I get there. There’s a fire going, and Rhett doesn’t even seem to have anything negative to say about Sawyer’s fire building skills.
Lennox is in the kitchen making lunch, and my stomach growls at the smell.
“How was it?” Rhett asks, looking like he’s not sure how to proceed.
“It was… sad,” I tell him. “But then Simon came by.”
He hides a smile. “That was nice of him.”
“It was. I needed the pep talk after everything. It was just hard being there, knowing that it’s not really mine anymore. I keep trying not to think that it was never really mine, since Isabelle’s name is on it, but it’s hard.”
Lennox scowls, flipping burgers in a pan. “She might own it legally, but it was your hard work that made it into what it is. She can’t replicate that.”
“Does she even have a business idea?” Sawyer asks.
I shrug my shoulders. “I have no idea. Knowing her, it’s something she saw online or just made up.”
“Well, most new businesses fail within the first couple of years,” Lennox says. “So there’s that. She doesn’t seem like the type to stick it out once it stops being fun and the shine of her ‘winning’ wears off.”
That still leaves me with nothing, but I don’t say that. The guys are already pissed enough at my sister. I don’t know why I’m trying to protect her. Maybe because I know being mad at her won’t change anything.
“You should skip the wedding,” Rhett says.
I look over at him. “What?”
“Why should you go and support her when she’s treating you like this? She doesn’t deserve to have you standing there with her. Let everyone wonder what she did to alienate her own sister on what’s supposed to be a happy day.”
For a moment, I consider it. I never wanted to go in the first place, but I knew my mom would have a fit if I even thought about not going over hurt feelings. She’d tell me to be the bigger person, and then probably get a jab in about my weight for good measure.
“No,” I sigh. “I’m going to go. If I don’t show up, Isabelle will just think she won. She’ll think I’m too miserable to come and probably spend the whole time badmouthing me to everyone there.”
“Fair point,” Sawyer admits. “Well, at least you’ll have us with you. And hey, just say the word and I’ll be ready to spill some wine on her dress or something.”
I laugh, feeling a bit lighter for their support.