Best Laid Plans(30)

She picked up a cabernet with a French name she couldn’t pronounce and took it upstairs to the library. Immediately, she heard bells that told her someone had come through the gate. They had the code, which meant it was one of two people on a Sunday afternoon—Joseph Contreras, who couldn’t be back this quickly, or Jolene.

Adeline opened the wine and poured herself a glass, waiting. She heard a car speed down the drive, then a door slam. A minute later, the front bell rang, followed by pounding. Adeline looked at the security camera. It was, indeed, Jolene.

Though Adeline hadn’t changed the gate code, she had changed the locks last year and kept “forgetting” to give Harper’s daughter a key. Served her right for being a stuck-up little daddy’s girl.

Adeline sipped the wine. It was pretty good, she supposed, but there were far cheaper bottles of wine that tasted the same to her.

The bell kept ringing and Adeline pressed the panic button hidden in one of the bookshelves. She was so tired of coddling the whiny, spoiled child. Jolene needed to grow up.

Adeline took her time walking to the front door.

“Jolene, what’s with all the pounding? You scared me.”

Jolene burst in. She wore no makeup, her face splotchy from crying. “What did you do to my father?”

“Come, sit down, Jolene. I know you’re upset, which is why I wanted to give you time before we talked about funeral arrangements.”

Keep it calm, motherly, Adeline told herself as she started back down the hall. It would set Jolene off.

“No! You will have nothing to do with Daddy’s funeral. I want you out of this house. Out of my life! I know you did something. Daddy changed, something was bothering him. And I know it was you.”

Jolene was right about Harper being preoccupied. That bothered Adeline, but she’d checked all her ventures, and nothing had been compromised. The thing about the land—he hadn’t asked again. “Jolene, dear—”

“Don’t talk to me like you care!” Jolene followed Adeline to the library, neglecting to shut the front door. “This is my house, my home. You can’t be here.”

Jolene stared at the wine bottle. “That—that—that was my mom and Daddy’s anniversary wine. You—” Jolene grabbed the bottle. Wine sloshed out of the top. “How dare you! He’s dead and you’re drinking his wine?”

“Jolene,” Adeline said, “can I get you some water? Tea?”

“Get out of my house!”

“This is my house, Jolene. And you know it. Harper left the house to me.”

Jolene’s face scrunched up in pain. She’d of course known about the changes in Harper’s will. She’d been upset about the house because this was where she’d grown up, but then she married Dr. Scott Hayden, who had plenty of money and had apparently promised to build her a dream house, so she finally shut up about the changes to Harper’s will.

Jolene Ann Worthington Hayden, the prima donna princess who’d been given everything she’d ever wanted her entire life. She was the epitome of everything Adeline despised. She had a father who doted on her. A husband who worshipped her. If Jolene hadn’t been around, maybe Adeline and Harper would have had a better relationship. But Jolene was always interfering. Always that disapproving daughter, even when she said she was fine with the marriage. Harper had actually asked Jolene if it was okay to remarry! His wife had been dead for fifteen years and he’d asked his grown daughter if it was okay?

“You manipulated him.”

“There’s nothing you can do about it. Harper always had the best lawyers. There will be no loophole you can wiggle through. If you’d been nicer to me, more supportive of my career and my marriage to your father, maybe I would have sold you this place.”

“It’s always been about money with you. You think I don’t know? That you married my daddy so you could use his money to run for office?”

Adeline was so angry that her eyes watered. She tamped down on the anger but let the tears come. “You never understood that I loved him. That I gave him pleasure. Happiness. He’d given up everything to raise you, and when he finally decided to do something for himself, to start dating again, to marry me, you couldn’t handle it. Your father wanted me to run for office. He encouraged me. And I had a very successful career in real estate. I brought plenty of money into this marriage.”

“Don’t you dare rewrite history now that Daddy can’t defend himself.”

Snot ran out of Jolene’s nose and she brushed it away with the back of her hand, like a child.

“I think you’d better leave,” Adeline said. “Before we both say things we regret.”

“I’m planning Daddy’s funeral. You can come, only because it’ll be expected. But I’m talking to Pastor Melton, and I’m planning the celebration of Daddy’s life, and you’ll stay the hell out of my way.” Jolene turned to leave.

From the corner of her eye, Adeline saw the lights coming down the drive. Of course the sheriff’s department would be fast; she was a federal official.

“No,” Adeline said. “I spent more time with Harper than you did in the eight years that we’ve been married. I will not allow you to take this away from me. Away from your father. You could never see beyond your selfish needs that your father was sick and tired of catering to you.”