Perfect Wreckage

by Cowles, Catherine

  Annabelle’s lips pressed into a thin line. “If you think we will sit by while our family home is taken over by a user who wants nothing more than to bleed our family dry, you are in for a rude awakening.”

  I forced my voice to remain even, not letting the rage that was coursing through me erupt. “You mean the home you’ve been to twice in the past ten years? And the woman who has taken care of Harriet from the moment she received her diagnosis. The one who cooked for her, arranged for the house to be taken care of, took Harriet to doctors’ appointments, and made sure that she never, not once, felt alone. That woman?”

  “She’s a con artist. Just like her mother,” Annabelle retorted.

  I started to speak, but Grant cut me off, his jaw hard. “You don’t know what that woman has put my family through already. She paints a pretty sob story, but she’s a manipulative shark underneath it all. Kenna pulled the wool over my grandmother’s eyes, and she’s doing the same to you. Ask around the island. See what she’s really like. What her mother is like. Then you’ll start to see the truth.”

  “This meeting is over.” Clark rose from his seat, motioning for Annabelle and Grant to do the same. “You’ll be hearing from me.”

  I sank back into my chair as I watched the miserable crew exit my office. They were going to be more than a headache.

  * * *

  “You look a little worse for wear. Late night last night?”

  I tried to force a grin at Ford as I slid onto a stool at The Catch, but it came out as more of a grimace. “I wish. More like the day from hell.” I’d spent the last couple of hours making sure all the paperwork was in place in case the Abbots did something stupid, like try to contest the will. I’d thought of calling Kenna, warning her what might be on the horizon, but she was already dealing with so much. I didn’t want to add more weight to her shoulders until I knew just what we were up against.

  Ford glanced around the bar, making sure no one was paying special attention to our conversation. “Bell’s dad called her. He let her know there might be trouble for Kenna. Did Harriet really leave her The Gables?”

  “Kenna didn’t tell Bell?” I figured Kenna’s first call when she walked out of my office would’ve been to Bell and Caelyn. Those girls were like her other limbs.

  Ford grabbed a pint glass and began filling it with Guinness. “Nope. Bell tore out of here like the hounds of hell were on her heels, so I’m guessing they’re having a meeting of the minds now.”

  That was good. Kenna needed all the support she could get right now. But I hated the idea of her hiding her pain and her fear from the people who loved her the most. Shoving that stuff down only led to bad things down the road.

  Ford handed me the beer. “You want a meal, or are you gonna drink your dinner?”

  I chuckled. “Thanks. I’d better put something in my stomach. How about the Reuben?”

  “Coming right up.” Ford called over to Darlene, one of the waitresses, to put the order in. “So…” Ford met my gaze with an assessing one. “You think the Abbots are going to make trouble?”

  I took a healthy swig of my drink. “After spending a total of thirty minutes with them, I’d say it’s likely.”

  Ford muttered a curse. “It was always crazy to me that the three of them were related to Harriet. They always thought they were so much better than everyone else.”

  “It’s that entitlement thing. They think the world owes them something.”

  “Not just something. They think the world owes them everything.”

  My beer turned sour in my gut. Ford was right. The Abbots weren’t going to settle for the millions of dollars Harriet had left to them. They wouldn’t rest until they had every last penny.

  Ford began pouring two more beers. “Kenna know they’re gonna be gunning for her?”

  “I don’t think she’s put those pieces together yet.” I had the sudden urge to go to her, to do whatever it took to shield her from the storm that was about to rain down on her. Harriet had only wanted to care for the woman who had loved her so well. And now there would be a whole lot of heartache before there was healing.

  “Just let me know how we can help. You know Bell and I will do whatever we can.”

  I knew they would. As much as Kenna refused to see it, she wasn’t alone. People cared for her and had her back. No matter what.

  9

  Kenna

  Pounding sounded on my door. I stayed curled up in my spot on the couch and just stared at the slab of wood. I wanted to be alone. Trying to keep up the façade of having everything together when, really, I was falling apart was exhausting. The banging picked up again. Whoever was knocking was strong enough to make the door shake.

  “Kenna Morgan, you have to the count of ten to open this door before I come in whether you like it or not,” Bell called. I didn’t move. “You know I have a key.”

  I groaned and pushed to my feet, padding over to the door and pulling it open. “Hey, Bell.”

  She pushed right by me. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  My brow furrowed as I shut and locked the door. “Was I supposed to?”

  “Yes. When something crazy turns your world upside down, you are supposed to call your best friends so we can be here for you.”

  I scowled at the floor. Crosby. Always nosing around in things that weren’t his business. “Crosby told you.”

  “No, actually, my dad did. But he thought I already knew.”

  “Your dad?”

  A little of the bluster went out of Bell’s stance. “He gave Harriet a checkup right before she rewrote her will so that if it was ever challenged, they’d have someone’s testimony about her state of mind.”

  I blinked back at Bell, my eyes fluttering rapidly as pieces fell into place, each one uglier than the last. “The Abbots are going to fight this.”

  Bell edged closer to me, started to reach out, but I stepped out of her path. Bell sighed. “Crosby thinks they might.”

  Crossing to the couch, I sank down onto it and pulled my blanket over myself. “Maybe I should just let them have it.” I didn’t have it in me to engage in a battle with the Abbot family. Their cruelty was unparalleled when something threatened whatever it was they wanted.

  “You have got to be kidding me.” Bell’s hands went to her hips. “Where is the fighter I know and love? The woman who has worked harder than anyone I know to build a life she can be proud of? The one who would do anything to protect Harriet’s legacy?”

  It was the last question that had my spine stiffening. The threads of Harriet’s letter spun in my mind. Bring life and love back to its halls. The Abbots certainly wouldn’t do that. They’d only bring bickering and bitterness until they sold The Gables to the highest bidder. But if I fought them…it would be ugly. And that ugliness would bring back so many memories. Ones I’d stuffed away and hoped would never see the light of day.

  “I know you’re right. I just…I’m not sure I can deal with them again.”

  Bell sank down on the opposite end of my couch. “I know they put you through hell before. But you’re not the girl you were at eighteen. And you’re not going to fight them alone.”

  “I know.” I tried to take her words in, to rest in them, to trust them. But I couldn’t seem to do it fully. It was as if they were made of sand, slipping easily through my fingers.

  She eyed me carefully. “How are you holding up?”

  I gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I’m honestly not sure.” Raw pain seemed to infiltrate every part of me, punctuated by brief punches of equally excruciating joy. Harriet had loved me enough to leave me her home, the most precious thing in her possession. But she wasn’t here to enjoy it with me. “I didn’t know feeling loved could hurt this much.”

  Bell grabbed my blanket-covered foot, squeezing it. “I know this might not be a comfort, but the depth of the pain is a measure of how deeply you loved each other. How much you impacted each other’s lives.”

  “It doesn’t make it any eas
ier.”

  “No, it doesn’t. It’s going to take a long time to heal. And you’re going to walk with a limp while you’re doing it. But you will get through this.”

  I met Bell’s eyes—so much wisdom and understanding and empathy swirled in them. She knew. She was a part of the club that no one joined voluntarily. The one that meant you’d lost someone who was a part of your soul. “The world feels fuzzy. Like I’ve been on one of those tilt-a-whirls that Caelyn made us go on at the fair for too long.”

  “It’s shock. It’ll pass. And you’ll start to feel steady on your feet again. I promise.”

  I nodded. The action was a bit wooden, but I knew Bell was right. I’d been through worse and had made it to the other side. And those trials had only made me stronger, tougher. “You’re right. I will.”

  Bell dropped my foot and gave it a smack. “Damn straight. Now…why didn’t you call me when you got out of your meeting with Crosby?”

  I glanced out the side windows of my guest cottage, the ones that looked out over the waves that crashed onto the shore. “I just needed to sort out my head on my own.” I loved Bell and Caelyn, knew they’d be here for me whenever they could, but they were also building their own lives and families. I didn’t want to be a burden to them. I needed to stand on my own two feet. To prove to myself that I could. But I didn’t know how to explain that to Bell without hurting her feelings.

  “I get needing time to figure out what you’re feeling, but don’t shut us out. Caelyn and I are your family. We always will be. You can lean on us.”

  Emotions, thick and swirling, gathered at the back of my throat. I knew that Bell believed that in her heart. But soon, she and Ford would be getting married, having babies. I wouldn’t be her priority anymore, and that’s how it should be. “I love you too, Bell.”

  Her eyes narrowed on me. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

  I smiled. She knew me too well. “Fine. I guess I’ll just have to suffer through having you around.”

  Bell picked up one of the throw pillows and smacked me with it. “You should be honored that I’d deign to grace you with my presence.”

  I held up both hands. “Apologies, Your Majesty.”

  “That’s better.” She studied me for a moment. “Has Henry been by to check on you?”

  I winced. He’d called after hearing of Harriet’s passing, wondering why I hadn’t let him know what had happened. He sent flowers, wanted to come and see me. “I told him I needed some space. That we should stop seeing each other, at least for right now.”

  Bell stilled. “You’re pushing everyone away.”

  “I’m not. But I’m not like you and Caelyn. You are fine sharing your emotions with the world. That’ll never be me.” My pain would always be a private thing. Visions of my mother drunk, crying and yelling outside The Gables about how Harriet had stolen her child flashed in my mind. I would never be that.

  Bell squeezed my blanket-covered ankle. “You’re allowed to process however you need to. Just don’t hide from the people who love you.”

  “I won’t. I promise.” I did my best to force a smile. “But if you’re going to stick around, then the least you can do is feed me.”

  Bell grinned. “Firehouse Pizza?” I opened my mouth to argue, but she held up a hand. “I know it’s not your junk food day, but come on, today has thrown you for a loop. I think you’ve earned some pineapple and pepperoni.”

  “You’ve got a point.” I’d just add an extra two miles to my run tomorrow to make up for it. “Fine, go fetch me some pizza, woman.”

  Bell laughed and pushed to her feet. “I’m picking up Caelyn, too. Want anything for dessert?”

  “No, I’m good.” I watched her cross to the door, but just before she reached it, I spoke. “Bell?” She turned, her eyes searching my face. I didn’t look away. I let her see everything I was feeling in that moment. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime, sister.”

  I stayed curled up on the couch, losing myself in watching the waves crash onto the rocky beach. They were ever-changing but incredibly constant at the same time. I wanted to be like those swells, continuing to come back to shore no matter what life threw at me.

  A knock sounded. I pushed to my feet. “That was quick,” I said, pulling open the front door. My heart spasmed in my chest, halting altogether for the briefest of moments before stuttering and tripping back to life. “Grant.”

  “Hey, Kenna.”

  Two words. That was all it took for my carefully bottled emotions to come crashing out, for the memories, the most painful ones, to sink in their claws.

  A vicious twinge in my belly woke me from a dead sleep. My eyes blinked open, focusing on the glow-in-the-dark stars Caelyn had dotted all over our dorm room ceiling. My stomach contracted again, and I froze.

  Something was wrong. So very wrong. That feeling wasn’t something I was supposed to be experiencing. I pushed up in bed, and as I moved, I felt a sticky wetness between my thighs.

  I fumbled for the light on my nightstand, grasping for the switch several times before I got it. Bell mumbled something in the background, but I couldn’t make out the words past the roaring in my ears. I flipped back the covers and screamed.

  Blood. There was so much blood. Bell and Caelyn were by my side in an instant.

  “Oh, God, Kenna.” Caelyn grasped my hand. “What’s happening?”

  “I-I don’t know. It hurts.” But I did know. Deep in my soul, I knew that I was losing my girl. My little bean.

  “We need to get her to the hospital, right now.” Bell moved through our dorm room, gathering shoes and a purse.

  “Maybe we should call an ambulance.”

  “No!” My hand jerked in Caelyn’s. “No, I just want to go. I don’t want to wait.”

  Caelyn brushed back the hair that was damp and sticking to my forehead. “Okay, we’ll get you there. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  But everything hadn’t been okay. There’d been more blood and pain, and finally, emergency surgery where my heart stopped on the operating table. My little girl was gone, and I’d been left in wreckage, broken pieces that would never fit together perfectly again.

  I blinked rapidly, Grant’s face coming back into focus again. He was different, his jaw sharper, more angular. And yet he looked the same, that familiar swoop of blond hair falling into his eyes. “What are you doing here?” Ice coated my tone, a frigidity born of loss and pain and betrayal.

  I saw a flicker of surprise in Grant’s expression. I wasn’t the same girl he’d left behind, no longer naïve and blindly hopeful. Life had hardened me, and I was glad for the shell it had given me now.

  He smiled. That was mostly the same too, though it was a bit slicker, more practiced. “I can’t stop by my family home? I wanted to see the estate, remember my grandmother.”

  “It would’ve been nice if you remembered her while she was still alive.”

  A hardness slipped into Grant’s eyes. “I wasn’t sure I would be welcome.”

  The assessment was fair enough. He’d been back once since he left for Boston that summer so long ago. He and his parents had come to visit a few weeks after Harriet had been diagnosed with heart disease. I’d stayed with Caelyn and the kids for the few days they were on the island. I went to work, and that was it, not wanting to risk running into any member of the immediate Abbot clan.

  “And whose fault would that be?”

  Grant’s expression softened, but everything about it was false, practiced. “I was a kid. You can’t exactly blame me for not being ready to be a dad.”

  I hadn’t blamed Grant for being scared. Hell, I’d been terrified. But I could blame him for everything that followed. Legal paperwork demanding a paternity test. A cease and desist letter accusing me of slander. But the worst were the words I’d overheard when Harriet had called Grant and his parents from my hospital room in Seattle. She’d thought I’d been asleep and hadn’t wanted to leave me. But even over the beeping o
f machines, I could hear Grant’s response clear as day on the other end of the line. “Serves her right for lying about me.”

  The words rang over and over in my head. Serves her right. How could anyone be that cruel? To wish that kind of pain on another human being. Tearing. That was the only word that could describe it. There had been a bone-deep tearing sensation in my womb, where my baby had been ripped away. Worse, there had been a soul-deep tearing sensation in my chest, where my heart was, where it would never be the same again. But I wore those scars proudly. They were warrior marks, evidence of the battle I’d fought for my daughter. I might have lost, but I’d never stopped fighting.

  “Get out.”

  “Excuse me?”

  The flustered expression on Grant’s face almost made me laugh. Only he would have the amount of arrogance required to think he could rip someone’s world apart and believe he would still be welcome when he returned. I kept my voice even. “You heard me. Get out. You’re on private property, and you need to leave.”

  Grant’s lip quivered, and I knew he was fighting a sneer, that same twist of lips that always appeared when someone didn’t do as he wanted. “This is our family home. It’s belonged to the Abbot bloodline for almost as long as this island has existed. If you think this last-minute will is going to stand up in court, you are sorely mistaken.”

  I met Grant’s gaze but didn’t say a word. He wouldn’t get an outburst out of me. He didn’t deserve even one single flicker of emotion.

  Heat rose to Grant’s cheeks at my dismissal. “I was trying to be kind about this. My parents want to generously offer you one hundred grand if you sign over The Gables.”

  I gave a snort of amusement. I couldn’t help it. The Gables would sell for at least five million, more if a petition for rezoning went through. I said nothing, just kept meeting Grant’s gaze.

  A muscle in his cheek fluttered. “Here’s my card. Call me when you’ve reconsidered. One hundred thousand dollars is a hell of a lot more than nothing. And it could go a long way for someone like you.”