when there was a problem.”
“You can. For God’s sake, you can.” He pushed on. “Emma, I don’t give a damn about money. I’ve got plenty of money. It doesn’t need to be an issue-”
“But it is,” she said so softly he could barely hear over the confounding noise in her background. “If you thought I was with you-if you thought that I slept with you-as a way of getting my inheritance, then we’re not just worlds apart. We’re a universe apart. I’m sorry I misunderstood.”
“Emma-” he started to say. But there was no one listening. She’d quietly hung up.
Out of nowhere, the rain had suddenly stopped. Clouds tumbled over each other to reveal patches of azure sky. A bunny peeked out from the woodsy roadside. The afternoon had turned idyllic. Everywhere but inside him.
He’d lost her. He hadn’t been dead positive until now, but this conversation sealed what he’d feared all day. He’d blown it. Apparently irreparably. He’d just found her-the one woman who’d made him believe in love, in himself, in a future. And now she was gone.
Without her, he felt a knife twist in his heart, so sharp, so raw, that his incredibly stupid heart actually felt broken. And that’s exactly how it was going to be, he feared.
Either he miraculously-quickly-found a way to heal this breach with Emma or neither his life nor his heart would ever be the same.
Several days later Emma slipped into a seat at the Debs’ table. The lunch had been scheduled a few days earlier than usual-technically to do a more formal welcome back for Mary Duvall, but Emma had private reasons for wanting this lunch over and out of the way.
After spending the last four days soul- and heart-searching, Emma had discovered all kinds of hidden sides to herself she didn’t know she had. Some were pleasant. Some not. But she’d surfaced from all that internal searching, made several painful major life decisions and was ready to act.
This lunch was hardly on the level of huge life changes, but it was still something that needed to be done. The girls all wandered in right at noon. Mary took the seat next to her. Outside, it was hotter than the devil. Harry was polishing glasses behind the malachite bar. Kids screamed out at the pool, and the golfers were hiking in for lunch.
Emma had chosen to wear ice-blue today, just silk slacks and a sleeveless tunic, but she’d added white topaz for jewelry. It was her version of power dressing for a hot day-and she knew she’d be grilled up the wazoo, so there was no way around being in the hot seat today.
Initially, though, the lunch started easily. Harry served a fresh-fruit salad, opened the wine, brought out the cheese and seafood plates. The group had opted for a munch lunch. Felicity had tucked in next to her, Lily across from her, with Vanessa Thorpe and Abby Talbot taking the far ends. Caroline had joined them, her first outing since she’d gotten out of the hospital.
When everyone settled down, Emma proposed a toast to Mary. “We were all so busy talking last time that we never really had a chance to welcome Mary back home. At first she thought she was only coming to take care of her grandfather, but now it looks like she’s hoping to stay permanently back in Eastwick. Right, Mary?”
Emma had hoped the group would be distracted by Mary-and they were for a few minutes. But they’d barely finished the first course before the group nose-dived on her.
Felicity led the pack. “Come on, Emma, you
The question was exactly what Emma had expected-and why she’d been determined to face this lunch and say what needed to be said. “I’m sorry, everyone, but there was no big, dramatic, scandalous reason for the breakup. I think I realized a long time ago that we cared about each other as friends, which was great but not how two people about to be married should feel.”
“So who broke it off? You or Reed?” Vanessa asked.
“Emma, if you weren’t aware,” Abby poked in, “Reed may be flying under the radar these days, but before that he spread the word it was his fault about the broken engagement. That you didn’t do anything wrong. So did he cheat?”
“No, no. Reed didn’t do anything wrong.”
“That’s not what the gossipers are saying. Everybody thinks something big had to have happened to cause such a sudden breakup. So they figure Reed must have done you wrong in some way.”
Emma firmly put that to bed. “Well, he didn’t. If he’s been claiming responsibility, it’s only because Reed’s always going to do the gentlemanly thing and protect a woman. But this wasn’t about either of us doing something wrong.”
“I think you broke his heart,” Felicity said bluntly.
The accusation stung. It was just so ironic to have to talk about broken hearts when her own was crushed to bits and she couldn’t share that knowledge. “Well, I hope I didn’t. But for anyone who sees Reed, I hope you’ll give him sympathy. The only thing I really regret is that I ever took his ring to begin with, because I know now how completely wrong that relationship was.”
“You look pale,” Lily Cartright said gently.
“Not sleeping?” Abby guessed.
They let her off the hook. Once they all took a really good look at her, in fact, she got an immediate bossy list of orders about getting more sleep, seeing a doctor, arranging for a massage.
“Okay, that’s enough picking on me,” she said wryly. “We’ve got a lot more to talk about this lunch. Caroline’s finally out of the hospital. We should be having a dual celebration for both Mary and Caro.”
“To be honest, I have a huge secret to tell you all,” Caroline said, then glanced around to ensure no outsiders were close enough to hear this part of the conversation. When she tugged her chair closer to the table, the others pulled up closer, too.
“My husband wanted me to tell you this. So did my brother Garrett, which I’m sure Emma already knows.” Caroline took a huge breath. “I’ve been hiding something from everyone. I was being blackmailed.”
“What?” The question echoed through the whole group, everyone expressing shock except for Lily.
“That’s why I was so depressed. The blackmailer was threatening me, and I was afraid if the information got out, it would ruin my marriage, my life. But Garrett convinced me to tell Griff. And when Griff got home, I did.” Tears welled in Caroline’s eyes, but this time not tears of fears or sadness. Tears of relief. “It’s been terrible.”
“Oh, Caroline.” Lily reached for her first. “That’s exactly what happened to us. Jack was a blackmailer’s target, too. Jack took the blackmail letter to the police a few weeks ago.”
“Griff hasn’t done that yet. I haven’t, either.”
“Do it,” Lily urged. “Think about it, Caroline. Don’t you think it’s highly unlikely there could be two blackmailers in Eastwick? So this could well be the same person who was terrorizing us.”
Abby suddenly spoke up. “There’s a connection between the two. There has to be. Between my mother’s mysterious death and the theft of her journals and now two blackmail attempts. Whoever stole those journals is using the information.”
“That’s what it sounds like,” Caroline agreed worriedly. “But, Abby, your mom never published stuff that was so…damaging. She wasn’t into cruelty-”
“She published the truth. She never invented anything. But that’s part of what I think is the issue. She didn’t use everything she knew. There could have been all kinds of things in those journals that no one knew but my mother and, of course, the people involved. And now whoever stole those journals knows that kind of private information, too.”
“But who?” Vanessa asked. “It has to be someone in Eastwick. Someone we know. Someone who’d know enough about us all to know what would hurt different people, you know? A stranger couldn’t read any stuff like that and know it could cause damage.”
“Yikes,” Felicity said. “This is getting scarier and scarier. To think that someone we know and trust is the culprit.”
“Not just a culprit. A blackmailer and a murderer.” Abby drummed her fingernails on the table. “I hate it that you were a victim, too, Caroline. But it makes me feel even more convinced that my mother was murdered. I’m going back to the police. One way or another, we have to find out who’s behind all this.”
The girls buzzed, united as bees bringing fresh honey back to the hive-and Eastwick was
