Zep stepped up to the pool, staring down into it as though there were some answers there. “Sera can’t use the money Irene left her, and she can’t sell the place until it’s ready. It’s all written into the will. If she doesn’t follow the rules, she loses the whole thing. She’s in a bind.”
There might be something he could do about that. Sera had been moving slowly because she was trying to do as much of the work herself as she could. It would go much faster if she hired crews.
Or found a couple who owed a man who loved her.
“She’s not going to need anything because I’m going to talk to my mother,” Cal promised. “I have to go back to my place in New Orleans. There’s something I need to get. But I’ll fix this. I promise.”
“What do you have that could possibly fix this?” Angie asked.
“You’re not the only one who has secrets, sister.” Cal pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Come on, Zep. I’ll drop you back at home.”
He watched as Cal and Zep walked away and then got on the phone. It was time to do some work.* * ****
Celeste looked up at the clock and realized it was long past her bedtime. Not that she would sleep. The house was far too quiet.
Where was her daughter? Had she called her fiancé? Had Austin come to get her?
She’d been hasty. If what she’d said was true, Angie might have truly feared that Ralph could be bad for the child.
But why hadn’t Angie told her? Did her own daughter think she was such a terrible mother that she didn’t even deserve to know her grandchild?
Luc. It was not what she would have named him. Beaumonts had a set of names that were acceptable. They didn’t have Cajun names.
It was cute. What would Wesley have wanted? Wesley probably would have given in to whatever Seraphina demanded. Foolish girl.
But not a damn gold digger. No. She couldn’t even comfort herself with that. Sera hadn’t used her leverage to try to force Wes to marry her.
What had happened between them? What had gone so wrong that Wes had needed to put half a world between him and Sera Guidry?
It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except making sure that Luc Beaumont had everything he deserved, and it certainly wasn’t growing up in a family whose only asset was a bar.
She heard the security alarm go off and then someone put in the code to silence it. She stood because it was late and she wasn’t expecting anyone. Had Angie come to plead her case? Had she realized how hard the world could be?
If she had, then they would talk like adults. She’d had time to think about it and calling off the wedding would simply cause a scandal, and that wasn’t good for anyone. She would pay for the wedding and it could proceed. They had a lot to work out, but Angie was her daughter. She couldn’t simply cancel her daughter’s wedding at this point.
Perhaps Harry would still come to the wedding and she would have a chance to talk to him again.
“Hello, Mom.” Cal walked into the room, tossing his jacket over the back of the couch. “I thought you would likely be up plotting.”
Well, of course Cal was upset with her, too. He’d made it plain on the phone earlier that he’d thought she’d lost her mind.
“If you’ve come to talk sense into me, you’ve wasted your time.” She turned back to staring at the fireplace. It wasn’t lit, but there was still some comfort in it.
Every Christmas they would light a fire—even when it was warm outside—and they would open their gifts. Then after Ralph and her mother-in-law had gone to bed, she would sneak down and give her babies some candy since Beaumonts didn’t eat candy.
“I didn’t come to talk sense into you. I can’t do that. But I think he can.” He moved around until he was standing in front of her, holding out a piece of paper.
Celeste stared at it. “What is that?”
“Wes’s last letter to me. I got it about three weeks after he died.”
Emotion threatened to well and she realized there was something so much worse than rage.
Grief. Never-ending, soul-splitting grief.
“He wrote to you?” He hadn’t written to her. He’d been silent those months before his death.
Cal seemed to understand she wasn’t going to take the letter from him. He took a step back and sank into the chair opposite her. Those chairs were supposed to be for the man and lady of the house. Instead, for years her mother-in-law had been the one to sit beside Ralph.
Would she have done that to Seraphina if Wes had insisted on marrying her? She rather thought Sera would have had a problem with that.