Chapter 11

Spring has sprung, and the aroma of lavender is in the air. Ever since that night, they shared a bit of themselves, leaving barely any room for sleeping, while Leigh Anne and Theo have been inseparable in Sonoma. Her shoulder healed nicely, but Theo still has her working the front door. She no longer worked at the motel, and Morgan was gone. And with her gone, Leigh Anne feels more comfortable welcoming Lindsey into friendship. Leigh Anne was tired of moving around and being an old cat lady. She yearned for relationships, love, and completeness. So, when she wasn’t with Theo, she and Lindsey went for coffee, shopping, dinners, and the periodic mani-pedi dates. Leigh Anne missed having a girlfriend. Well, one that didn’t only respond with a meow.

Theo had been in Denver for a few weeks. His father was not well, and his mother wasn’t coping well with his diagnosis. So, he went home to get his father into a comfortable and capable facility to care for him more adequately. Leigh Anne had been getting strange phone calls and messages from her mother and ex-mother-in-law. Almost demanding that she return to Connecticut and return to the family, or there would be consequences.

The nerve of those harpies. Now that they have rescinded the order for fertility reparations, they demand that she come home? For what? She has blocked the calls and refused the letters. Yet, they still came through their lawyer.

While Theo was away, he trusted Leigh Anne to manage the inventory, deliveries, and financial bookkeeping. At 5:30 p.m., the crowd picked up, but she had promised him no heavy lifting. She sat in his chair, going through the numbers as her phone constantly pinged—always an unknown number. Not having the patience any longer, she answered with a snarky, “Hello...”

“Hey, babe, expecting someone else?” It was Theo.

Leigh Anne bit her tongue. Feeling silly in her snapped response. But curious, she replied, “Why are you calling me from an unknown number?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, babe. It’s a landline that automatically blocks the receiver from knowing the number. I can’t seem to shut it off.”

Leigh Anne exhaled and pinched the bridge of her nose. Feeling bad because she snapped, she finally told Theo what had been happening.

“Wait, what? They’ve been calling you from unknown phone numbers and sending you registered letters. Asking for what?” Theo was getting agitated. He was ready to head back to Santa Monica that night.

“I don’t know, Theo. Something about taking care of my responsibilities? I didn’t suffer enough at their hands. They were so quick to throw me away all those years ago, so quick to betray me. Now, they think I owe them something?”

“What are you going to do?” Leigh Anne heard the concern in his voice. “Are you going to go home?”

“No. No, Theo. They can’t hurt me anymore. I owe them nothing, and they can’t get blood from a stone.”

One Month Before

Ethan paced so repetitively that the friction his feet were manifesting against the carpet could be used as kindling. His mother called a family meeting by invitation only.

“Why did we not invite Carlie? She’s a member of this family, the last time I checked.” Ethan remarked as he lit another cigarette. “Unless you’re finally allowing me to get a divorce...”

With a scoff from his mother and a guffaw from Leigh Anne’s mother, he flopped down on his leather, riveted couch in defeat.

“Of course not, my dear. What would ever give you that impression?” His mother added insult to injury. “Carlie may be in a bad place right now. But I don’t think that behavior warrants the breaking of the family. Wouldn’t you agree, Moira?”

“Of course, I agree. That would be a foolish idea. How would that look? Is the most attractive, highly educated, and successful young man in New Haven getting a divorce? Ludicrous!”

“Hmm... then what would you have considered what I did to your flesh and blood, Moira?”

“A-A smart business and personal decision. A moving up in the world maneuver, if you ask me.” Moira was a deplorable, despicable, poor excuse for a mother. She never did anything for her child unless there was some personal benefit for herself and her slimeball husband. “No, no—Carolyn did you a favor. She is more of a woman than that rat of a daughter of mine ever was. I mean, she couldn’t even take care of her appendix without my or my husband’s attention.” She rolled her eyes as she slammed down another fireball.

Ethan rested his face in the palms of his hands. This isn’t the first time he’s heard Moira make these kinds of ugly statements about his ex-wife, and he’s sure they won’t be the last.

“If she disgusted you so much, why did you keep her? We all know the truth. Don’t you think she would have had a better life if you had given her to a family that loved her?”

That triggered something in Moira that couldn’t be contained, yet she sighed, holding in her rage.

“Perhaps, dear ex-son-in-law, but why should she have the benefit of a happy ending when I never got mine?”

Ethan’s eyes darted up and bulged out of his head. The nerve of this snake, thinking it was Leigh Anne’s fault for being carried, then being birthed by this atrocity.

“Have you looked around you, Moira? Were all the benefits you have been given because of the man you married? He even accepted you after you had Leigh Anne, put a roof over your heads, fed you both, took you on lavish vacations, and clothed both of you. And even though he’s not her biological father, he gave her his last name.” Ethan spoke calmly but with venom that chilled her blood. “Yeah, you didn’t think I knew that? We all knew... except for her.”

“Now, now, you two. You’re both ruining the reason I called this family meeting.” Ethan’s mother, Nancy, redirected the spectacle to the main stage—her plan to keep up appearances.

“What do you want now, Mother? Haven’t you and this clown...” he shifted his eyes to the now wasted Moira Livingston, “done enough to Leigh Anne?” He took another cigarette and lit it, letting the burning paper sizzle and singe as he inhaled the nicotine and tar, savoring the burn of menthol as he exhaled. “She’s finally happy. I’m not participating in any more of your schemes that would ruin that.”

Enough damage had been done. He had finally reversed the financial fraud that made her pay him back for their failed IVF treatments and miscarriages. He would not be the cause of any more pain and misery in her life.

“Oh, but this is a wonderful idea. If anything, I think it would bring joy and celebration.”

“What, Mother? What is it?”

“Oh, just tell him, Nancy. Stop stalling...” Moira’s eyes were barely open, and she couldn’t hold her head up, let alone sit up straight. Fucking lush!

“Well, fine. Enough of the suspense. You should get Leigh Anne to come home and finally fulfill her responsibilities! Be the doting wife, the perfect housewife, and model mother figure for our little Reggie.”

“Regus already has a mother. I already have a wife. You know, the one you forced me to have an affair with, knock up, and then marry! Why? Why on earth would I want to divorce Carlie to manipulate Leigh Anne to come back to me and raise another woman’s child after she had lost three of our own?”

That was it! Ethan shoved the chair out from under him and slammed his fist as hard as he could on his fifteen-hundred-dollar mahogany desk, making a lasting impression. He even made the women jump, sobering up poor Moira.

“Absolutely fucking not, Mother...” She was crazy. What was her angle? “You’re crazier than I give you credit for.”

“Son, first off, watch your mouth. Second, she owes us! That sniveling little wretch has embarrassed us for the last time—all those miscarriages, the fluctuation in her weight, the talk of surrogacy and adoption!” Nancy’s eyes were bloodshot from all the stress and indignation.

“You come into my home and tell me my ex-wife owes us! Owes us what exactly? All the shit, all the abuse you—we—put her through? That is why she had all those miscarriages! And the weight fluctuation was because of her condition! You’re archaic, ignorant, and dreadful people. I swear, if you weren’t my mother, I’d... I’d—”

“You’d what, son?” Nancy was egging him on. “I never said divorce, Carlie. I know people who can fake divorce papers. We’d send her away, give her a stipend. She’d be comfortable for the rest of her life. Then, you’d bring Leigh Anne home, marry her, and raise Reggie together.” She smiled with the demon perched on her shoulder.

“No, fuck this! I was stupid to even agree to this family meeting. Do my father and Roman know about this?”

“Of course they do. Who knows the contacts to get the fake divorce papers?”

“And what if Leigh Anne doesn’t come willingly?”

“Oh, my dear. I’m sure you can convince her. Carlie has turned out to be reckless and an embarrassment to the Klein family name.” Nancy sifted through the briefcase she had brought, producing a manila folder filled with phony photographs, documents, and information about Theodore Rivers Collins, age twenty-nine, born in Denver, Colorado. “We did our homework, too, and we can make anything up to twist the narrative. Once she learns the truth about this man, she’d be more than eager to return to her real family.”

Ethan was disgusted and fed up with his mother’s antics. “You both hate Leigh Anne, always have! Hell, you made me hate her. She finally found people who genuinely cared for her. Why do you want to destroy the life she has made for herself?”

Shrugging her shoulders with cold indifference, Moira stumbled to her feet and tearfully confessed, “Because we can.”