Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Spencer
Vivien clenches my arm. “No.”
The woman who steps out of the black SUV is like an older version of Vivien.
Same blond hair, except it’s cut into a sleek shoulder-length bob, and the same blue eyes, but her eyes aren’t warm like Vivien’s.
They’re assessing. She’s impeccably dressed in a black and white pant suit, not a single detail out of place.
Even from ten feet away, the resemblance is stunning.
“Vivien.” She looks her up and down. “I’ve been looking all over town for you. You’re difficult to reach.”
Vivien shifts next to me. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see my daughters. Why else would I be here?”
“Don’t feed me your bullshit. What are you actually doing here?”
Her mom steps closer. “Taking care of you, like always. I want our attorney to look over the details of my mother’s will.”
Vivien huffs. “She wasn’t your mother.”
She waves a hand. “Stepmother.”
“There’s no need—”
“Of course there’s a need.” Her voice is as sharp as a blade. “Who are you?” She checks me over, not in an interested way, in an assessing way. Like I’m a bug under a microscope.
“Spencer Montgomery. Ms. Hart’s attorney.”
Her eyes move between Vivien and me. Then she shakes her head. “This is exactly the problem and why I am here to protect you.”
“I don’t need your protection.”
She lifts a hand toward us, palm up. “You’re sleeping with your attorney; clearly, you do.”
“If you have concerns about the will,” I say evenly, “the appropriate course would be to schedule a formal review.”
Her mother turns to me again, studying me more carefully this time. “And you’re confident everything is being handled properly?”
“I’m confident that any questions can be addressed through the proper channels.”
A small smile touches her lips. “Contested wills can get complicated. I’m sure you’re aware.”
Is that a not-so-veiled threat? Damn, she is a cold bitch. How is Vivien related to her? “I am.”
“Then you understand why I’d want independent verification.”
“I understand procedure,” I reply. “And this isn’t it.”
She nods once, as if we’ve come to some unspoken agreement. “Very well. We’ll set something up. I’m not trying to take anything from you,“ she says to Vivien. “I’m trying to make sure you’re not being taken advantage of.”
Vivien lets out a short, humorless laugh. “By whom?”
“You’ve been placed in a situation you’re not equipped to evaluate objectively.”
“I’m doing just fine.”
“Are you?” Her mother crosses her arms over her chest. Her gaze flicks briefly to me again. “You ran away from a lucrative career that anyone else would die for. You shut yourself away and had a mental breakdown. You can’t honestly believe this man is in your best interest.”
Silence stretches tight between them.
Every instinct I have says step in. Shut this down. Redirect.
I can be her attorney and protect her inheritance, but this battle, her relationship with her mother, is not my battle to fight.
So, I put my hand on the small of her back, so she knows I’m here, beside her. Willing to step in if she needs it.
“I’m a grown woman,” Vivien continues. “I get to decide what I do with my life. For the record, not everyone wants to be famous, just in your mind because it’s what you want, and seeing a therapist is not a mental breakdown.”
“You’re throwing everything away.“ She lifts a hand. “For a theater in the middle of nowhere. A trashy theater, at that. Do you really think this is what your life is supposed to be?”
“Yes. Actually, I do.”
Her mother immediately switches gears. “I’ll stay with you tonight. We can talk about everything over in the morning.”
Vivien shakes her head. “No. You’re not staying with me. And we can talk on Monday morning; I have work tomorrow.”
Her mother’s brows lift slightly. “Vivien—”
“I said no.” Her voice is loud, echoing in the silence of the street.
Her mom waits a few long seconds. “Fine. I’ll be at the inn.” She gets in the car, closes the door, and a second later the engine turns over.
The headlights flare, then sweep past us as she pulls away from the curb and disappears down the street.
“Do you have any other family members that might show up in the middle of the night?” I ask Vivien.
A surprised laugh tumbles out of her. She turns toward me, and the laughter turns into tears.
I immediately pull her into my arms, wrapping myself around her shaking limbs.
Vivien tosses and turns most of the night. I hold her every time she reaches for me. I wish there was more I could do.
When I wake up, it’s midmorning, the sun is shining through the cracks in my drapes, and the bed is empty next to me.
Out in the kitchen, Vivien is drinking coffee at the island with Audrey, who also looks like she barely slept.
“I can’t believe you made her sleep at the inn.” Audrey picks up her mug, blowing gently on the top. Her hair is in a messy bun, and her face is bare and clean, her eyes rimmed with red. She looks even younger than normal.
“There was no way in hell I would let her stay with us,” Vivien says. She spots me and hops off her stool. She’s swimming in one of my sweaters.
I wrap her in my arms, kissing the top of her head.
She pulls back. “Coffee?”
“Yes.”
She walks over to the pot and pours me a cup, adding in a drop of cream just like I like it.
“Are you doing okay?” I ask Audrey.
She shrugs. “I’m fine. Mother’s been calling me nonstop. She showed up at the farmhouse last night, but I pretended no one was home.”
Vivien hands me the mug, then leans into me, her shoulder pressing against my arm.
“She’s not going to drop this,” Audrey adds. “She’s already decided how this ends. She always does.”
My grip tightens around my coffee. I wish I could tell them it’s all going to be okay, but I can’t guarantee their relationship with their mother will be okay.
However, I do have an inkling that Vivien’s inheritance is untouchable.
Beverly wrote a letter. It’s currently locked in my safe in case of this exact situation.
Beverly was worried about Vivien’s mother.
My instructions are to read it if the will is being contested.
I don’t know what’s in the letter, exactly, but I can’t pull it out unless I have to, and it has to be read in front of Vivien and whoever is challenging her right to the inheritance.
I can’t even talk about it yet to anyone.
“Maybe we can move to Malta, where your dad is,” Audrey says. “It’s an island. Hard to get to. Maybe she won’t bother.”
Vivien shakes her head. “No. I’m done running and hiding.
And she’s not going to win this. I spent most of my life doing whatever she wanted me to do, trying to make her happy.
But it was never enough. Then I ran away and avoided her, and none of it mattered.
None of it made me happy. I’m not doing that anymore. ”
Audrey sits back in her seat. “What are you saying?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve been thinking. Beverly wouldn’t have set all of this up if she thought I couldn’t handle it.
I think she was trying to teach me how to stop being afraid of my own life.
To take risks. Go for the impossible tasks.
Stop letting my life and everyone else control me and take command myself.
I thought I needed to hide to protect myself, but maybe I just need to control the narrative. ”
I wrap an arm around her shoulders and brush a kiss over the top of her head.
It’s strange how our paths have mirrored.
I’ve been living like my life only had meaning if I was doing things for everyone else.
Like working constantly and making people happy was the single path forward.
But now I think there might be more routes, and more directions I can choose.
One where instead of focusing on what everyone else wants from me, I can focus on what I have in front of me.
“So, what are you going to do?” Audrey asks.
Vivien doesn’t hesitate this time. “What are we going to do. We have each other. She has nothing.”
“She has balls of steel. I’m terrified.”
Vivien reaches over, putting her hand over Audrey’s. “We’re going to call her.”
“Are you high?”
“We aren’t running away. Not anymore. We’re going to face her, together. United. On our terms. We lay everything out, and we give her one chance to back off.”
Audrey makes a face. “You mean before she hires an army of lawyers and sets the whole town on fire?”
Vivien’s shoulders drop, like the decision itself lifted a weight off her. “Something like that. We’ll call her together and tell her to meet us at the diner for lunch tomorrow.”
“Why not today?”
“I have work at the theater. Hopefully, she’ll stay away.”
I set my mug down. “You ladies just let me know if there is anything I can do to help.”
Vivien smiles at me. “Nope. You’re staying out of this as my legal representative. If she doesn’t back off, you’ll have your work cut out for you.”
“Fair enough. But if you won’t take my help, have you considered that we live in a place where the residents would be more than happy to, ah, assist with . . . I don’t know, making her life a little more inconvenient while she’s here?”
Vivien laughs.
“What are you talking about?” Audrey asks.
Vivien and I share a look and then speak at the same time. “Peggy.”