Chapter 32
Hayes
String lights glowed overhead as donors, press, and honored guests milled around the Learning Cottage.
Hallie beamed as everyone raved about the sweet potato biscuits stuffed with Virginia ham.
She had paired them with little shot glasses of soup, making it the perfect small bite.
Savannah had, seemingly, memorized my grandfather’s ledger and recounted the history of each batch of moonshine as she poured just enough for them to have a taste.
Behind the safety of the fence, Blanche and Dorothy were snuggled up in the pasture, blissfully unbothered by the prying eyes and “aww”s as people watched them with curiosity.
Maisey was delighted by the attention and soaked it up with each gentle pat and offered snack.
It was an all-hands-on-deck affair. Mason had parked himself beside Zach and was trying to coax him into talking without much luck. Levi had cleaned up and was stationed within arm’s reach of Savannah as he demonstrated how farriers care for horses, with Elvis as his trusty sidekick.
Watching it all from the edge of the tent was my wife.
I snuck up behind her and wrapped my arms around her. “You did it.”
She squeaked in surprise, then laughed and leaned back into me. “We did it. All of us.”
“I’m proud of you,” I said as I pressed a kiss to her temple and rocked us back and forth. A faint memory floated through my mind as I caught a whiff of her perfume. It was the fragrance she had worn on our wedding day. “Granddad would have loved this.”
I would have done anything for him to be here to see it, but I knew he was watching over us along with my grandma and parents.
“He would have loved you being around here,” I said. “Bringing life back to the estate. Making it more than an equine facility. Keeping the gates open.”
“Catherine,” a regal-looking woman said as she approached with outstretched arms. “Or should I say, Mrs. Wilder.”
“Lori,” Catherine said as she straightened and stepped out of my arms and greeted the woman with a polite hug.
“Thank you so much for coming this evening.” Catherine turned to bring me into the conversation.
“Hayes, this is Lori Rodgers. She’s the head of the Miss Virginia organization. Lori, this is my husband, Hayes.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Wilder,” she said with a brusque handshake.
“Likewise. Catherine speaks very highly of her time with your organization.”
Catherine looked around at the turnout. “I hope I represented the organization and the state well,” she said. “It’s a shame I was just shy of completing this during my year of service, but it’s better late than never.”
Lori laughed politely. “We were lucky to have someone with your passion and dedication. To me, it’s the outcome that matters. I have a hunch that this is you just getting started.”
“I hope so,” Catherine said with near giddiness. “I think this is going to become something incredible.”
“Hayes, you’re a lucky man,” Lori said as she patted my arm.
I laid my hand on the small of Catherine’s back. “Yes, ma’am. I am.”
“Mrs. Wilder, I’m here with the Harrisonburg Gazette,” a plucky young woman said as she slipped into our group as Lori bowed out gracefully. “Do you have a moment to answer a few questions about the Learning Cottage?”
Catherine beamed. “Absolutely.”
The moment I stepped away from Catherine and headed toward Mason and Zach, I stopped in my tracks.
Lewis was here.
That wasn’t exactly a surprise. Lewis showed up wherever there was food and booze. The surprise was that he was talking to Robert Allen.
To my knowledge, the court ruling stood. Lewis’s attorneys had appealed the decision, but nothing had come of that yet.
“Mr. Allen,” I said as I neared the two of them with confident strides. “I’m glad you could join us this evening. Have you had a chance to look around?”
He offered a sympathetic smile as he used his handkerchief to dab the sweat from his forehead and neck. “I wish I had the time to. It seems your wife has really done something incredible here.”
“She has. I’m incredibly proud of her. I know Granddad would be proud of her as well.”
“Well?” Lewis snapped.
I glanced between them. “Is there something I’m missing?”
Mr. Allen wrung his hands. “Perhaps we should go somewhere a little more private.”
Catherine caught my eye from across the tent and shot me a quizzical look as she continued to answer the reporter’s questions.
“No, we can do it right here,” Lewis said with the gumption of a petulant child. “You’re a fucking liar.”
“Lewis,” I warned at the same time Mr. Allen dabbed his forehead and said, “Mr. Halstead…”
“Fine,” Lewis harrumphed as he raised his hands. “We can go somewhere more private. But it’s not like it’ll stay private for long.”
Mr. Allen offered an apologetic shrug.
“My office,” I said.
I wasn’t taking a passive approach to this meeting the way I had when the will was read. When the three of us reached the estate house, I went right in and sat behind my desk, in my chair, and let the two of them duke it out over the extra seats.
“Well?” I pressed. “Let’s get on with it. Tonight is a big night for my wife, and I’d like to be present for it.”
Like I had conjured her, Catherine appeared in the doorway, cheeks flushed like she had run all the way down to the house in her high heels. “Gentlemen,” she said as she smoothed down her pale blue dress.
I shot her a look that said, “What the hell are you doing here?”
She ignored it.
“Ms…. Catherine,” Mr. Allen said warily. “I suppose this conversation will be easier with all of us present.”
“Get on with it,” Lewis snapped.
Mr. Allen tugged at his tie like it was strangling him. “Mr. Wilder, is it true that you and Ms. Foster were not engaged to be married at the time the last will and testament of Walter Wilder was read?”
I raised an eyebrow. “It sounds like I should have my attorneys present.”
Mr. Allen looked at Lewis. “I can’t force him to answer.”
“Fine!” Lewis shouted. “I’ll ask the questions.” He pointed a finger at Catherine. “You paid her to marry you so you could steal the estate from me!”
“That’s not a question,” Catherine said as she inspected her nails.
“I didn’t steal the estate from you,” I said, matching Catherine’s level of calm. “Granddad named me the beneficiary of it in the will.”
“The old man was out of his mind!” Lewis yelled.
“Perhaps he was, considering he left you to run his nonprofit,” I countered. “But the will says what the will says. And the will says that he was of sound mind.”
Lewis turned an unnatural shade of purple. “You paid her off!” Lewis shouted. “Five grand a month as long as she stayed married to you just so you could have the estate!”
Catherine’s eyes met mine in a silent question. How does Lewis know that?
“I don’t know what’s got you so worked up,” I said, trying to brush it off. “I’m married. Same as you. Or has your Vegas wife called it quits?” I picked up one of Granddad’s heavy pens. “Mr. Allen even signed our marriage license as the witness. Used his own pen and everything.”
“Lewis,” Catherine said, mustering up all the compassion she could. Her kindness was never fake. For the moment, though, it was performative. “Have you thought about talking to someone? A therapist, maybe? Loss is hard. I think you’re grieving.”
I bit my tongue to keep from smiling or laughing in amusement. Catherine may have been a terrible actress, but she was just as cunning as the Wilder women who had come before her.
“I didn’t give two shits about the old man!” Lewis hissed, spewing spittle through gritted teeth. “He certainly didn’t give two shits about me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said calmly.
“He did care. He wanted the best for you and gave you an opportunity to achieve that through running the nonprofit. You’re angry you didn’t get a handout after your mother and stepfather tried and failed, time and time again, to get our granddad to write bigger and bigger checks. ”
“I’m a Wilder!” he roared. “I deserve more!”
I rose from the desk, planted my hands on the top, and leaned over until I was in his face. “Then act like it.”
“I don’t have to do shit,” Lewis seethed, jutting forward until we were nose to nose. “I just have to prove you bought a wife to get the estate. Then it’ll be mine.”
“Good luck doing that,” I said casually. I couldn’t let him think he was getting under my skin.
His smile was malevolent. He produced his phone and tapped the screen. Catherine’s voice came through his phone as the conversation she and I had about me paying her debts began to play.
Her face turned ghostly white.
“You bugged the house?” I hissed as my knuckles turned white around the arm of the chair.
Lewis cackled. “Or maybe you want to hear a recap of the time you blackmailed the governor? That was fun to listen to. I’m sure your fancy partners and all your political connections would love to know who was behind that.” He looked at Catherine. “Who knew dear old Dad was running the state?”
She was stone-faced, but I knew the comment stung. I was ready to strangle him.
Lewis clapped his hands together. “What was that you told the governor? Right. Virginia’s a single-party consent state.
It’s a big house. Since you took a page out of my playbook and got married to keep a piece of dirt, I decided to take a page out of your playbook.
There were plenty of places to record you saying all kinds of incriminating things, and you can’t do a damn thing about it, except make sure all your shit is out of my house by the time the estate is transferred to me. ”
I was trying to keep it together. I really was. But I was out of moves. I had planned for everything.
Everything except losing.
“Well, there y’all are!” Hallie said as she waltzed in. “I’ve been looking all over the estate for you three.” She laid a motherly hand on Lewis’s shoulder. “I just put your laundry away and put fresh sheets on your bed.”
Laundry? Fresh sheets? What the fuck? Hallie was just up at the grand opening…