Harbour Falls (A Harbour Falls Mystery #1)(42)

How sweet! I thought. Helena was rapidly becoming my second favorite person on the island. Eventually the conversation veered away from my novels. Helena and Trina started to complain about their significant others, and I felt more and more out of place, having nothing to contribute.



“Just think,” Helena said, “give it a few more months with Adam, and you’ll be sitting here bitching about him right along with us.”

Certain I was blushing profusely, since Adam and I were nowhere near that point, I lowered my eyes. Helena must have forgotten that I had signed a lease for only three months. It was way too early to be making assumptions about where my relationship with Adam was heading. Not to mention she didn’t know the other half of why I was even here.

“Uh, I don’t know about that…” I trailed off.

“Well, I beg to differ,” Trina said, jumping into the conversation. “I know my brother, and he is definitely into you.”

“Did he say anything?” Helena asked, taking the words right out of my mouth.

“He doesn’t have to say anything. I can tell.” Trina paused. “Let’s just say he looks happier than he has in a long, long time.”

My heart soared to new heights thinking I could possibly be the reason for Adam’s newfound joy.

Trina patted my hand. “And, Maddy, you are the kind of woman Adam needs. Not someone like that wretched Chelsea,” she huffed, making a face.

Here was my chance to possibly uncover some more info. “You didn’t like her?” I ventured.

“Didn’t like her? Hell, I hated her.” Trina’s eyes darkened. “She was the worst thing that ever happened to my brother.”

Helena glanced away, biting down on her lower lip. After what she’d told me the other day, how she somehow felt she was to blame since she’d introduced Chelsea and Adam, I knew how hard it had to be for her to hear this.

Unaware, Trina said vehemently, “Thank God, the bitch is gone.”

Her tone was so cold and dispassionate as she uttered those words that a heavy silence fell over our table. It didn’t appear Trina was going to be as forthcoming with her reasons for hating Chelsea as Helena had been. The air was tense as none of us seemed to know what to say next.

Breaking the tension at last, Trina said, “Listen, I’m going to the ladies room.” She pushed back her chair. “And then I’m going to make us some cappuccinos, and when I get back we are so changing this subject.”



Helena and I both nodded in hearty agreement. Once Trina closed the restroom door, Helena began to quietly fill me in on why Trina despised Chelsea so very much. I thanked the heavens above that the beautiful Helena Jackson had a penchant for gossip when she began to tell this story:

Trina had never been fond of the flashy Chelsea Hannigan, but she grew to despise her when she started to believe Chelsea viewed Adam as just another prize possession to hold onto. In high school and throughout his early college years, Adam had genuinely cared for Chelsea. His intentions had been nothing but honorable back in those early days. As time wore on, though, he too grew to distrust Chelsea. He heard the rumors, but every time he’d confront her, Chelsea denied any wrongdoing. But, of course, his suspicions were confirmed with the incident at Billy’s.

Trina, like Nate and Helena, was absolutely stunned when Adam didn’t immediately break things off with Chelsea. Hell, she’d been caught red-handed. And adding insult to injury, she’d defended J.T. O’Brien. It was then that Trina came to believe Chelsea had something she was holding over Adam. There was no other plausible explanation for his behavior. Adam had never been one to allow himself to be told what to do, or be controlled in any way by anyone, particularly not Chelsea. It had always been Adam in control, calling all the shots. So it came as an even bigger shock when Adam asked Chelsea to marry him…just two days following the whole J.T.-Chelsea spring break fiasco. And as he’d done with Nate, Adam told Trina to mind her own business when she questioned his bizarre decision to get engaged to an unfaithful girlfriend.

But beyond that Trina had another reason to hate her brother’s fiancée. Apparently Chelsea had once tried to seduce Walker. Shortly following the engagement announcement, Adam had gone back to MIT. But while Adam’s spring break had ended, Trina and Walker’s had just begun, and they soon found themselves back in Harbour Falls.



Two days following their return, Chelsea called Trina—drunk and asking for a ride home from a bar in Cove Beach. It was after three in the morning, so Trina sent Walker to pick her “drunken ass up”—as Helena put it—and bring her back to the Ward house. That would allow Chelsea time to sleep it off, and Trina and Walker could drive her back to her car in the morning.

Trina heard Walker returning with Chelsea, but when it seemed to be taking entirely too long for him to come back to their room, Trina got up to see what was going on. Making her way down the hall, she heard giggling coming from one of the guestrooms. When she flung open the door, she found a half-dressed Chelsea pressing herself up against Walker in front of the bed, trying to kiss him. And even though she knew nothing had happened yet, Trina—not one for subtlety—had marched right up to Chelsea, spun her around, and smacked her hard across the face.

The next day she told Adam everything. Trina became even more convinced that something was horribly awry when Adam still refused to dump Chelsea. In fact, he wouldn’t even consider calling off the engagement.