Chapter 51
Brynne
The move with Colin was uneventful. I donated whatever Oliver didn’t destroy to a women’s shelter. My condo has been on the market for three days, and I’ve rented all but the basement unit, though the tenants won’t move in for another month.
Work has been busy, but I’ve also completed my business plan and have a clear vision for how I want to run my own architecture firm. As it stands, I will have no living expenses while I stay with Colin. He has refused to take any money from me and assures me that a family trust covers all his living expenses.
He’s even bought me a new wardrobe for our trip. When I showed him what I had in my shopping cart, he went behind my back and bought everything. He also sent the links to his personal shopper, and she put together a wardrobe for me based on my shopping history.
I thought living and working together would be too much, but it’s not. It’s shockingly perfect, which makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Oliver is still hiding out somewhere, but I have the sick suspicion that he’s at his mother’s house. Knowing what I know about them and their relationship, it won’t be long until she kicks him out again and the police catch him.
The most upsetting thing about what he did was desecrating my mother’s resting place. Everything else was replaceable. Now, my mother’s ashes are in a new urn and sit in my new home office.
Colin offered to turn one of the downstairs rooms into an office for me, but I said no. I vowed to conquer my fear of the second floor. Now, the biggest upstairs bedroom is my office. It’s a minimalist space with two monitors, a desk, and a table. Colin puts a bouquet of fresh flowers on my home office desk every few days, and today’s bouquet is tiger lilies.
I’ve never dated a wealthy man, and there are some perks. His housekeeper does all the cleaning, shopping, and laundry. The only thing she does not do is the cooking. We started taking turns, but now we do it together, and that’s brought us closer. My favorite thing to do is to wrap my arms around him from behind while he chops vegetables on the cutting board.
My stomach growls at the thought of food.
“Oh,” I say out loud in my office, realizing it’s after seven. My office door swings open as if he heard me, and he taps his watch.
Just as I stand and stretch, my phone vibrates, and the name of the detective handling my case flashes across the screen. I quickly accept the call and put it on speaker.
“This is Brynneka Barber,” I say. I hold my breath while he tells me that they apprehended Oliver at his mother’s house.
I exhale in relief and let Colin take me in his arms. After ending the call, I stay safe in his embrace. Despite my anger at Oliver, his actions brought Colin and me closer together.
“Let’s go have some dinner. You want to go to our little bistro?” He plants soft kisses on my forehead.
“I want their food, but I want to eat it at home with you.”
“At home with me. I love the sound of that.”
“Well, that’s because you love me, Mr. Kincaid,” I say as I look into his face.
“I do.”
“And I love you too.”
“You’d better.”
I didn’t bother taking any work home tonight, and since the May weather has brought mild temperatures, we leave the office and walk across the street like two lovers without a care in the world.
“Just five more days, and I get to take you away and have you all to myself for the next ten,” he says when we get home.
I smile and shake my head at him. “Baby, we live together and work together. You might get tired of me.”
“Stop fishing for compliments. You know that won’t happen.” He kisses my forehead again and volunteers to get our food. While he’s gone, I change into something comfortable.
While I’m in the bedroom, my phone rings. It’s a number I don’t recognize, but I decide to answer it.
“Hello,” I say.
“You have some fucking nerve having my son arrested for some shit he didn’t do.” The voice of Oliver’s mother’s voice makes me instantly regret my decision to answer. Any other time, I’d hang up. I’m not a pushover, but my life’s mission is not to argue with difficult people.
“He did it, though,” I say, doing my best to sound bored. “He’s on camera.”
She gasps at that. Of course, he lied to her and played the victim.
“You saw his face?” she asks.
“I did. My building has security cameras everywhere. Even before I saw Oliver’s face, I knew it was him from his coat and the way he walked.”
She takes another deep breath, and I wonder if she will apologize on his behalf. “Well, if you had only given him a place to live, it wouldn’t have come to that.” And I guess I know my answer. “You have so much, and he has nothing. That woman left him. He lost the house, and you have it. Let him have something.”
I rub the bridge of my nose and ask a higher power for strength. “Vanna, I didn’t get the house. I bought it and spent a ton of money fixing it. It’s an investment, and I don’t remember you fighting for me when your son threw me out of my mother’s house,” I hiss.
“I told him not to do it, but he never listens.”
“I don’t owe him anything.”
“You’re just going to let them throw him in jail?”
“I’m not going to do anything. I will follow the law, and you better pray they don’t arrest you for aiding and abetting.”
“You can help him. You can say it was a misunderstanding. The boy is a fuck up, but he won’t do well in jail. He’s always been jealous of you.”
I don’t know how to take that, and I don’t know if it’s true. Oliver is lazy but talented and intelligent. We didn’t have the same friends or even go to the same schools, so I don’t know why he would be jealous of me.
“It’s true,” Vanna says after a few moments. “You were the smart one, and he was jealous of your relationship with your mother.” But my mother loved him too; I don’t say that, though. It doesn’t matter at this point.
“Do you know he destroyed the urn with her ashes? He threw her all over the floor. He desecrated her resting place, and for that, I can never forgive him.”
“I didn’t know about that,” she whispers.
“It seems you don’t know much, Vanna, yet you constantly blame me for Oliver’s circumstances. All he had to do was leave me alone, like I asked, but he didn’t. When he didn’t get what he felt entitled to, he broke into my house and destroyed it, and now you want me to do what?” I snap at the woman who has finally pushed me to the end of my patience. “I suggest you get him a lawyer.”
“I don’t have the money for that, and neither does he, but you do. You can ask your rich boyfriend.” I throw my hands in the air in frustration.
“You didn’t hear a word I said.” I want to tell her that if she had shown any interest in her son when he was growing up, maybe he would have turned out better, but that wouldn’t do any good. She won’t accept any accountability. The fact that she’s calling and asking me to help is the most she’s ever done for him.
“I’m sorry, Brynne. I’m sorry he broke into your house and disturbed your mom’s resting place. She was a lovely woman, but he’s my son, and I don’t want him to get locked up. I promise to talk to him. He’ll apologize and pay—”
“Listen, it’s out of my hands. It’s up to the courts now. I have to go, and please don’t call me anymore.”
I end the call and block her number, but I don’t feel good about it. All I wanted was to get the house back in my family, but some of that excitement has dimmed from the drama Oliver has caused. Maybe I was na?ve, but I never could have predicted that buying a house could cause so much conflict with someone that I no longer consider family.
I shove those thoughts away.
What I said to Vanna was right. It’s out of my hands and up to the justice system. However they decide to deal with Oliver, I’ll accept it. My only condition will be that he never contacts or comes near me again.
While Colin is gone, I decide to set the table. I dim the lights and light candles. By the time he returns, there’s soft music playing in the background, and I’ve poured wine.