Chapter Twenty-seven
Maggie sat across from Cord at the kitchen table, hands wrapped around her coffee mug, watching her son wrestle with his thoughts. He looked exhausted, his broad shoulders slumped, his face lined with frustration.
“I just don’t know if I jumped to conclusions,” Cord finally admitted, rubbing a hand over his face. “Maybe I was too hard on Phoebe. Maybe I let my temper get the best of me.”
Maggie took a slow sip of coffee, carefully measuring her response.
She wanted desperately to tell him what she thought—that Phoebe was an opportunist through and through.
That she was playing him. But Cord needed to figure this out on his own.
He wasn’t the type to be told things. He had to see them for himself.
“If you’re feeling this unsettled,” Maggie said, “maybe it means something. Maybe it’s your gut trying to tell you what your head doesn’t want to admit.”
Cord exhaled sharply. “Or maybe I’m overthinking everything. Her parents won’t even speak to me now. They believe I humiliated her.”
Maggie tapped her fingers against the mug. “Do you want my help, or am I overstepping?”
Cord met her eyes. “No. I want your help.”
Maggie nodded and reached for her phone. “Then let’s clear the air.”
Maggie and Cord walked up the stone steps of the Barker house, the air between them heavy with tension. Maggie glanced at her son, who looked uncertain, his brow furrowed in deep thought. She gave him a reassuring pat on the arm before knocking on the door.
Rhonda Barker answered, her lips pressed into a thin line, her posture stiff. “Maggie. Cord.”
Maggie offered a polite smile. “Rhonda, thank you for agreeing to see us. I hate how we left things with Phoebe. I thought it might be good for us to talk. To figure this out properly.”
Rhonda hesitated, then nodded and stepped aside, allowing them in. The house smelled faintly of cinnamon—an attempt, Maggie thought, to make things feel warm and inviting. But there was a tension in the air that no amount of homey scents could mask.
Phoebe sat curled up on the couch, eyes red and puffy. She sniffled as Cord took a seat across from her.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, voice barely above a whisper. “I know I made mistakes, but I love you, Cord. I never meant to hurt you.”
Cord hesitated. He looked at his hands, exhaled, then finally met Phoebe’s gaze.
“I need to know the truth,” he said, his voice quieter than he intended. He glanced at his mother, then back at Phoebe. “About everything.”
Phoebe’s expression wavered between hopeful and wary. “Just say it, Cord. Whatever’s on your mind.”
Cord swallowed.
Did she really want him to say it?
Maybe she thought if she kept playing the wounded, heartbroken fiancée, he’d fold.
He didn’t.
“This marriage,” he said, his voice firmer now, “it wasn’t about the land dispute, was it?”
Phoebe gasped, shaking her head. “Cord! How can you even think that?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I want to believe you. But I can’t shake the feeling that I’m being played here. That I was part of a bigger plan to hold on to this property.”
Maggie noticed Bert taking a step forward, ready to defend his daughter’s reputation, but Rhonda placed a firm hand on his arm, holding him back.
Tears welled up in Phoebe’s eyes, and she covered her face with her hands. But Maggie noticed something—Phoebe’s fingers were slightly splayed, allowing her to peek through them, watching everyone’s reactions.
Interesting.
“I love you,” Phoebe sobbed, peeking again through her fingers. “Yes, my family is desperate to keep our land. But I never used you. I wanted to marry you because I love you. I still do.”
The room fell into a thick silence, broken only by Bert clearing his throat.
“You know,” he said, “when Rhonda and I first got together, it wasn’t an easy road for us either. Lots of drama, lots of difficulties. But we stuck it out, and we got through it.”
Maggie tilted her head. “Drama?”
Bert hesitated. “Yeah, well, you know how it is when people first get together. Things can get … messy.”
Something in his tone sent a flicker of recognition through Maggie’s mind.
“Bert, I believe you were already dating Rhonda when I first met you,” Maggie said. “But wasn’t she engaged to Billy Sawyer around that time, before he suddenly left town?”
Rhonda went ghostly pale.
She gripped the armrest of her chair as though the room had tilted.
Maggie noticed immediately. “Is everything all right, Rhonda? You look as if you might faint.”
Rhonda waved her off. “I’m fine, fine.”
Bert immediately jumped in. “This whole land dispute has taken a huge toll on Rhonda. It’s been stressful for all of us.”
Rhonda forced a tight smile, nodding rapidly. “Yes. Yes, it’s just been … overwhelming.”
Maggie’s eyes narrowed slightly.
That reaction was not normal.
Before she could press further, Evan Barker stormed into the room, stopping short when he saw Maggie and Cord.
His eyes darted between them, suspicion flickering across his face. “What’s going on here?”
Maggie turned to him, offering a warm, disarming smile. “Evan, you know how it is. Family matters. Just trying to sort things out.”
Evan gave a noncommittal grunt, clearly not buying her act.
Maggie leaned in slightly. “You look tired, dear. Long night?”
Evan blinked at her, thrown off by her sudden interest in him. “I was home last night,” he said stiffly.
Maggie’s expression remained pleasant. “Oh? The whole night?”
Evan’s jaw tightened. “Yeah. Why?”
Phoebe furrowed her brow. “No, you weren’t. You went out for a walk earlier, remember?”
Evan whipped his head toward her, his face twisting with anger. “Phoebe.”
Her eyes widened. “I—I just meant, you did go out, I saw you …”
“What I do is my business, nobody else’s,” he seethed.
Evan looked like he was about to explode. His hands clenched into fists at his sides, and for a moment, Maggie thought he might actually lunge at his sister.
Bert quickly stepped in, placing a firm hand on Evan’s shoulder. “Now, now, let’s not make a big deal out of this.” He turned to Maggie, his voice calm, placating. “Evan was upset over something stupid—we lost our internet service for a few minutes, and he was right in the middle of—”
“I was doing something important! It wasn’t stupid!”
“You’re right, son, of course,” Bert quickly replied, hoping to calm him down. He turned back to Maggie with a benevolent smile. “He just needed to blow off steam. He was only gone for ten, fifteen minutes at most.”
Maggie nodded. “So in that time, did you happen to see Audrey?”
Evan’s face darkened. “Audrey? No, why?”
“She was out walking around the same time last night and thought she might have seen you skulking around in the dark?”
“Skulking? Did she say I was skulking? I don’t skulk! How am I supposed to respond to that?”
“I just want to know if you saw her, that’s all.”
“No,” he snapped. “Stop interrogating me.”
Maggie held up her hands, giving him a small, understanding nod. “All right. No need to get all worked up.”
Evan huffed, crossing his arms, but didn’t say anything else.
But Maggie wasn’t fooled.
She’d gotten exactly what she needed.
Cord drove in silence for a long stretch, the truck rumbling along the quiet roads back toward the Holbrook house. Maggie sat beside him, staring out the window, her mind racing with the day’s revelations.
Evan’s reaction had been disturbing. The anger, the defiance. The way he’d practically snapped when she questioned him. She had no doubt in her mind now—he was hiding something.
Finally, Cord broke the silence. “So … what do you think?”
Maggie pulled herself from her thoughts and turned to her son. “I think you handled that about as well as anyone could. You were honest. Direct. That’s what the situation needed.”
Cord exhaled through his nose, gripping the wheel a little tighter. “I still don’t know what to think about Phoebe.”
Maggie nodded. “That’s fair. She’s saying all the right things. But do you believe her?”
Cord hesitated. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “She seemed … desperate. And I get it, her family’s under a lot of stress. But something still feels off.”
Maggie studied him. “Trust is funny like that. Once it cracks, it’s hard to put back together.”
Cord tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “I just keep thinking—if there was nothing to hide, why did she react like that? Why did her parents get so weird when you brought up Billy Sawyer?”
Maggie turned her gaze back to the road ahead. “I think there are a lot of things that family doesn’t want us looking into.”
Cord swallowed hard. “You think they had something to do with Chips?”
Maggie took a long, measured breath. “I don’t know. But I do think they’re hiding something. And I think you were right to question everything.”
Cord nodded, his jaw tightening. “I’m not ready to marry her. Not yet.”
Maggie gave him a small, approving nod.
Good.
At least her hot-headed son was starting to see things clearly.