Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
C alculated chaos was my specialty. My mother called me impulsive, but she didn’t know that everything that I did, I did for a reason. I thought it all out before acting, watching the events play out in my head so that things would unfold in exactly the way I’d intended them to. It was chaos, but planned—orchestrated to yield the most beautiful results.
Except for tonight. I didn’t think about the consequences. I didn’t think about anything other than ruining it all.
I’d figured security probably throw me out of the wedding, but I did not realize they’d ban me from the property entirely. Which meant, since the Alderton-Du Ponte Country Club was affiliated with Massey Suites, I was also banned from the hotel. Effective immediately. Security didn’t even let me go back to my room and collect my things, not even my wallet. Instead, security escorted me to the valet, where they called a taxi.
I wasn’t allowed to take my car; it wasn’t in my name, after all.
My parents did not accompany me to the valet, nor did any of the Astors. The only person who stood with me in the breezy summer night was the bulky security guard while we waited for the car. I had no idea where Sumner was.
Flipping the desserts table at the wedding reception was not properly calculated. It was impulsive. It was reckless.
Reckless, but worth it.
For a moment, I’d sat in the backseat of the taxi, silent. I hadn’t known what to do. If it isn’t the consequences of my own actions .
Really, I only had one place to go.
Nancy’s house was warm when I unlocked the front door and stepped inside, in the way a house would be with no air conditioning. The garbage must’ve been full, because the second I stepped into the entryway, it was all I could smell. For a brief, horrifying moment, I had a delusional thought that Nancy’s body was still in her bedroom, left alone—but no. No. I had to swallow back the bile and continue further into the house. As soon as I stepped into the kitchen, the overflowing trash was in plain sight, as were the dishes that were left in the sink. Her weekly pill container was still on the counter, with Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday untouched.
It was like Nancy’s house had been put on pause, waiting for her to return. But she wouldn’t. Only the ghost of her traces would remain.
I was a different kind of ghost in this house—a squatter. I wasn’t legally allowed to be in here—that right belonged to whoever Nancy left the estate to in her will—but seeing as how the air was stinking and stale, whoever had been given the house hadn’t come by to check in on it. So, for now, I’d be its caregiver until its new owner returned.
“You should’ve at least made Yvette or Ms. Jennings clean when they were over,” I said to the empty air. “If you weren’t going to send them packing, you should’ve at least put them to work.”
The house answered with silence.
Despite the exhaustion that dug into my bones, for the first time in my life, I washed the dishes. I took out the garbage. The outside sky was dark, prolonging the world’s longest day even further, but I was lively as I went through the house and emptied every trash can Nancy owned. Once that task was complete, I went to work wiping down the surfaces, dusting the knickknack filled bookshelf, keeping busy in a space that, now with the trash gone, smelled too much like her.
I didn’t go into her bedroom. I left that door closed.
I hunted through the house for Nancy’s vacuum cleaner, which had been stashed in a random closet in the garage. The thing was ancient, and screeched like a wild animal, but sucked up the dirt that was scattered around her floors with a satisfying proficiency. In fact, watching the room go from disorderly and slumped to clean with pillows fluffed was satisfying.
I even scrubbed her bathroom floors, the tub, the toilet. When I couldn’t find anything else left to clean, I finally fell still. I’d discarded my suit jacket somewhere in my manic cleaning session; my suit trousers were wrinkled, my dress shirt smelling like bleach, my hands feeling grimy despite all the disinfectants I’d been using. Sweat clung to my temples and frizzed the hair near it, and when I looked in the mirror, I found my makeup smudged and barely hanging on.
Outside, the birds chirped as they woke up.
I fell onto Nancy’s couch and slept like the dead.
I woke up to the sound of a car door slamming shut.
For the longest moment, I held still, uncertain why I would’ve heard it on the eighth floor of the hotel. When I shifted, I remembered that I wasn’t on my memory foam mattress at the hotel but cramped on a sofa where the ancient springs practically dug into my back. I grimaced as I shifted, every muscle in my body aching, especially my arms. It felt like I’d pulled a muscle.
Probably from flipping the table yesterday .
It all came back in a flash. The funeral, the wedding, Sumner, the cupcakes. I stared at the ceiling, half wondering if it’d all been a dream.
Nancy’s front door began shaking as someone tried opening it, and I could hear the jingle of keys. I shot to my feet and toward the door, uncertain who I’d find on the other side, but hauling the door open.
And then I sighed.
“I figured you’d be here,” Ms. Jennings said as she pulled her key out of the lock. She looked bright and chipper, makeup perfectly done. “The only place you could go, really, isn’t it? A good choice. Between you and me, I doubt your parents even knew where Nancy lived, so you’ll be safe enough here for a while. ”
I stared at her, wondering if it was the fact that I was still half-asleep or her actually being friendlier than normal. “What are you doing here?”
She seemed to guess my train of thought, because Ms. Jennings smirked. “You were a rockstar last night, you know. Turning over that table. Oh, it was delightful to see. Did you catch a good glimpse of Yvette’s face? Priceless .”
I was in no mood to entertain her. “You’re not taking a thing from this house,” I warned her. “You’re not coming inside.”
Ms. Jennings t held her hands up, rolling her eyes. “You act as if the deed is in your name. But don’t worry, darling, wouldn’t dream of it.”
My patience was thinning. “Then why are you here?”
Ms. Jennings pointed her thumb over her shoulder, drawing my attention to her shiny red car as it sat parked beside mine. I didn’t know how I hadn’t noticed earlier, but someone sat in the passenger’s seat, their face partly obscured by the visor as it hung down to shield the sun. I hated how my insides jumped, heart skipping a beat at the potential of who she could’ve carted out here. Please , the word rang in my head as the door popped open. Please .
Standing from the car, gaze shielded with black shades, lips turned up in a pleased smirk, stood Aaron Astor.
My pulse returned to normal almost immediately. “He’s dedicated,” I muttered under my breath. “I’ll give him that.”
“Are those the same clothes you wore last night?” Aaron asked as he approached, sliding off his sunglasses. He peered at me closer, expression twisting. “Oh, it is. Did you not brush your hair either?”
I moved to shut the door between the three of us, already eager to finish this conversation.
“Hang on!” Aaron rushed forward, as if he were going to attempt to stop the door from closing if I hadn’t paused. Ms. Jennings swung her keys around a finger, as if warning she’d just open it back up. “I just wanted to talk to you for a moment. Five minutes. Ms. Jennings, do you think you could keep the car cool for me?”
She flashed him a smile before leaving us alone on the porch. I absolutely did not want to have a single word exchanged with him, and I resented myself and my curiosity for winning out. I retreated back into the house, but Aaron followed after me, letting the screen door slam shut. “Oh, this is a—cluttered little place, isn’t it?”
I stepped into the kitchen, shaking my head. “If you’re here to convince me one last time why marrying you would be in my best interest, save it.” I pulled a coffee mug down from the cabinet, hunting for her Keurig coffee cups. “My answer is no.”
“You think I want to marry you after the spectacle last night?” Even though his words weren’t kind, his voice was very shocked, which lightened the mood. “All of my friends saw how impulsive you are. They’d never let you in our circles now.”
Despite everything, I smirked down into my empty coffee mug.
“Besides, I doubt after last night your parents are too thrilled with you, either. What’s the point in marrying into your family if they’re going to disown you? ”
My smirk vanished. He was quite possibly the bluntest person I’d ever met, apart from Nancy. “I’m glad we’re on the same page, then.” I placed my mug underneath the spout and pressed the start button, turning around to lean against the counter. Aaron had helped himself to a seat at Nancy’s small kitchen table, his hands folded professionally on its surface. “What do you want?”
Aaron looked very ordinary sitting in Nancy’s kitchen. He wore designer, as always, but nothing about him seemed special in a space that used to hold the world’s most special woman. He could’ve blended in with the wallpaper and I wouldn’t have noticed. “You might’ve created quite the spectacle, but you also missed one.”
“Did I, now?”
“Let me paint the scene,” Aaron said, ignoring me. “You’re off out in the hallway, listening to Sumner plead his case, but in the ballroom? Chaos. It was quite funny, in a way. in the beginning, anyway, before my parents took their anger out on me.”
I ignored him as best as I could as I hunted around for wherever Nancy kept her Keurig cups. It would’ve been monumentally disappointing if she’d run out of them.
“My mother, in a fit of anger, says—are you paying attention, Margot? Stay with me, this is the fun part. My mom, in front of everyone, goes off on how your mother and I conspired to manipulate you into marrying me for business.”
“Which you did.”
“Yes, but it was a little amusing to see your parents stutter an excuse.” Aaron propped his chin on his hand. “Your mother is a good liar. I almost believed her when she said no.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, but the visual pervaded anyway.
“My mother was only interested in the business deal because she thought I liked you,” Aaron went on. “So, upon this unsavory discovery, she called it off. Loudly. This time, people did hear. It was all very embarrassing.”
Everything Aaron said made it clear what my parents would say over the phone when I did call them. The phone weighed heavily in my pocket, and I didn’t want to pull it out. I wanted to stay in this bubble of Nancy’s sanctuary for as long as I could. “Let’s hope they did catch that for Annalise’s video,” I said at last, turning back to hunt for coffee grounds. “You deserve to be embarrassed in front of all your friends.”
“I suppose.” To his credit, he seemed a bit sheepish, back to the nervous self I’d first met. “Have you spoken to Sumner?”
The next drawer I opened had the Keurig cups—thankfully. “I’m not talking to you about him.”
“I get it, I’d be pissed at him too. I’m just saying?—”
“You two did a good job.” I pressed the start button and turned around, giving Aaron the full view of my glare. “Acting like you hated each other. You had me perfectly fooled.”
“It wasn’t an act so much,” he said with a shake of his head. “I was pissed he got so buddy-buddy with you—he was just supposed to find out information, not become your new BFF—and he was pissed that I wouldn’t call the whole thing off after finding out you didn’t want to marry me. I’d say the tension was quite real.”
I eyed the annoyance on his face, and from what I could tell, it was genuine. “He told you that I didn’t want to marry you?”
“Yep. Which, honestly, I thought was a good thing—I was able to switch tactics. I had been coming here fully intending to make you swoon, but knowing your feelings made it easier.”
I wondered when Sumner would’ve told him—the night he found out the truth? The night my dad came into my hotel room? Or had Sumner told him later, after, when I’d confessed my true feelings? “Why would you send your best friend to do your dirty work?”
“He wasn’t just my friend,” Aaron said, “but my secretary. I worked for Astro Agencies, and he worked under me. I didn’t send him as a friend, but as an employee. And if you think about it, how is it any different from someone scoping out companies before investing? Sending a proxy to gauge the situation isn’t unheard of.”
Looking back at everything, it was almost irritating how well the pieces all fit together, and how many I missed. Sumner coming “highly recommended” from his previous secretary role in California—it never even occurred to me that the company could’ve been Astro Agencies. I wanted to kick myself in hindsight. “You aren’t wrong, I suppose.”
“I knew you’d get it.” His own confident smile faded a little after a beat, and he hesitated before speaking again. “Sumner… he’s a good guy. Better than me .”
“I know.” I arched an eyebrow. The Keurig behind me kicked to life, groaning as it began brewing my coffee. “You’re advocating for him now?”
“He may have screwed up my chance to be a Massey Suites heir, but he did call dibs first.”
Again with the dibs. This time, though, I frowned for a different reason. “He said you called dibs.”
“The Christmas party. The one I said I saw you at. I didn’t spot you first; Sumner did.” He said the words like he thought they’d shock me. They might’ve, but I kept it hidden, maintaining my poker face. “I attended with my mother, and he came with me as my secretary. He said you were beautiful. We were introduced to your mother before we had to leave, and she may have mentioned that you were the sole heir to the family fortune, and—well, that piqued my interest.”
“You’re a crappy friend,” I said without hesitation.
“I never said I was a good one.”
For a moment, we sat there in his ugly honesty, and I had the strangest urge to laugh. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation, to find amusement in such a situation. Aaron was a bad friend, but couldn’t have been the worst if he was here, admitting defeat and talking on his friend’s behalf. He had nothing to gain from this. He could’ve cut his losses and returned to California, leaving a broken mess in his wake, but he tried his hand at picking up a few of the pieces.
Aaron Astor absolutely sucked, but perhaps he had one redeeming quality.
My coffee finished brewing, the scent beautiful in the air, and Aaron’s eyes flicked to it. For a moment, I thought he was about to ask for a cup for himself, but he ended up pushing from the table. “You should call him,” he said, tapping his knuckles before rising to his full height. “He’s at the hotel in Bayview.”
“Bayview?”
“Your parents kicked him out of his complimentary suite , and my family took our lodging elsewhere until we fly out tomorrow.” Aaron flapped his hand in the air. “It was all very dramatic.”
I gripped the mug tightly, the heat from the ceramic burning my palms, but I didn’t let go. “Yesterday really was a disaster, wasn’t it?”
He smiled. “But a fun one.”
“Despite everything, you’re smiling ?”
“Life’s short. I’ll just move onto the next pretty girl who’s set to inherit a fortune.”
I opened my mouth to say some unkind things, but Aaron held his hands up to keep me from scolding him, heading toward the front door. This time, I was the one trailing after him, still yet to take a sip of my coffee. “It was nice to meet you,” he said as he stepped out onto her porch. “More fun than I anticipated.”
I didn’t say anything in response, but stepped up to the door and peered at him through the screen. A strange feeling stirred in my chest, one that ultimately had me speaking. “I would’ve married you,” I called after him, clutching my cup tighter. Aaron slowed until he halted, but he didn’t turn around. “If it’d been you who came out first. If you were the one who bothered to put in the barest bit of effort instead of sending Sumner.”
It was true, I knew. Without Sumner, I’d never have known the feeling of what if . At the very least, I never would’ve been brave enough to pursue it. Happiness is better , Sumner had said to me, and it’d never been something I’d thought before. Without him, I never would’ve known how important it was to choose happiness.
Aaron turned around. He had his hand in the pocket of his chinos, looking like the picture of nonchalance, even now. Nothing fazed him, it seemed. Not even this. “I wouldn’t have done it,” he replied simply. “I would never have come myself.”
You were never worth it enough to come myself . That’s what the word said, their hidden meaning too obvious to miss. I looked down at my bare feet as a rueful smile twisted my lips, not watching as he retreated to Ms. Jennings’s vehicle. This would be the last time I ever saw him, surely. There’d be no more Aaron Astor hanging over my head, no more worrying about marrying a man I’d never love. That chapter, that fear, was closed and put to rest.
Not a single regret. With that peaceful thought in mind, I shut the door and flipped the lock.