That, and he told me you made his high-school girlfriend cry so hard she hydroplaned her car into a guardrail and died.
“I might have mentioned it to him,” I said carefully. “But I had no idea how upset he would get.”
“Did he talk to you about the trust?”
I did not care for Celia Preston, but I did admire her ability to be direct. I didn’t want to tell her the truth, but I didn’t see a way out. “He did,” I admitted.
She sighed and sat back a little. “He’s never understood my perspective—he takes moral offense to it. But that is limited thinking on his part. What James doesn’t understand is that having a family requires an enormous sense of duty. One must put one’s family before oneself. You have to protect it. Your family is all you’ve got in life, Audrey.”
She gave me a quick look. “Oh—sorry dear, I forgot that all your family’s dead.”
“No, you didn’t,” I said.
She gave me a terse smile. “You’re right. I didn’t.”
I wanted to roll my eyes at her but I didn’t dare. We sat there in silence for a minute, watching the priest discuss the ceremony with Evie and Todd. James stood behind his brother, his arms crossed tight against his chest, glaring at his mother.
“James doesn’t approve of Evie,” Celia continued. “But what he sees as a lack of a personality and good judgment, I see as an opportunity.”
“How’s that?” I asked.
“She has the proper family and the proper pedigree—her parents met at Tabor Academy. She has a trust fund. She registered at Shreve, Crump & Low, and I didn’t even have to tell her to. She’s an appropriate addition to the Preston family.”
Everything that Evie had, I didn’t. Celia was telling me in no uncertain terms that I was an inappropriate candidate for the Preston family. And she didn’t know the half of it. She’d thought Danielle—of the full-boat biology scholarship to Brown and the poor but respectable family—was bad. Next to me, Danielle was like the Patron Saint of Louis Vuitton.
“I know everything there is to know about Evie,” Celia said.
I looked at her doubtfully, and she raised an eyebrow at me. Her filler had absorbed enough so that it actually lifted a little. “Oh, but I do—I know that she tried to sleep with James.”
I must have looked shocked, because Celia looked triumphant and patted my knee. “Todd tells me everything, dear. Unlike James.”
“So—why do you want them to get married?” I asked bluntly.
“Because she’s easy to control, of course.” She smiled at me. “Evie loves money more than anything. She and Todd have signed an airtight prenuptial agreement. If Evie cheats, Evie gets nothing. If Evie tries to divorce Todd, Evie gets nothing. If Evie wears a blouse I don’t like, Evie gets nothing. Just kidding about that last one. But close enough.” She watched her son holding Evie’s hand, still talking to the priest.
“I think Evie loves him,” I said. I was surprised to hear myself defending her, but still.
“You’re a funny one, Audrey,” she said. “But I agree: Evie does love Todd, at least right now. Right now she’s a bride, and they’re the center of attention, and they’re having wild sex. She’ll get bored eventually. In a normal situation, that could be a problem. But I’m here. And I can take care of her.”
“Don’t you think Todd’s capable of taking care of her? And himself?” I probably shouldn’t have been so blunt, but I was following her lead.
She shook her head. “Not Todd,” she said. “Todd’s too nice. He needs to be with someone that I can take care of for him. I haven’t told her yet that I know about the incident with James, but I can dangle it over her head if and when I need to.”
“But if Todd already knows, who are you going to tell?”
“Everyone else,” she said and smiled. “Their children. Her cousins. Her mother. Her friends. And I’ll tell them all that James refused her and said she was a bony, disgusting whore.”
“Well, hopefully you won’t ever have to do that,” I said, mildly appalled.
“We’ll see,” Celia said and shrugged. She sounded as if wasting that information might be a disappointment.
“Mrs. Preston, I appreciate you being forthcoming with me… but why are you telling me all this?”
“Because I don’t want you to take this personally,” she said. “I can tell that James has feelings for you.” I started to protest but she held up her hand to stop me. “You might not see it, but I’m his mother, and I know him best. Even if he wishes that weren’t true.