Waiting On You (Blue Heron #3)(107)

“Why don’t we get down to business?” he interrupted, sitting between his sister and Ellen. Joe gave him a nod and folded his hands. “Didi, I’ll get right to it. Joe would like a divorce.”

Her sycophantic smile froze, and her head jerked back a fraction. “That’s...that’s...” She shot a nervous glance at Frank and Grace, who stared back impassively. “Very funny, Lucas.”

“It’s not a joke.”

“Of course it is! I wouldn’t divorce my sick husband!”

“I want to divorce you, however,” Joe said.

Didi’s face was white, and for a second, Lucas almost felt bad for her...right up until he remembered that she’d stuck Joe in that dark, windowless room where he used to sleep.

“Didi,” Ellen said, her hand on her stomach, “New York State law says that a couple has to be separated for six months before they get a divorce.”

“He’ll be dead in six months,” Didi said. “Probably long before.”

Grace Forbes closed her eyes briefly, the only indication of her disapproval.

“We know a judge who’ll push it through, so long as you don’t contest it,” Ellen continued.

The Forbes name was far-reaching, after all.

“I will contest it!” Didi snapped. “What would people think if I divorced Joe a month before he died? Is this some ploy to cut me out of your will, Joe? Not that I need your pathetic life insurance—”

“My money’s in a trust for Bryce until he gets married,” Joe said calmly. “Lucas is in charge of it until then.”

“I doubt very much he’ll ever get married. He’s not the type. And a trust fund? For twenty thousand dollars? Why bother?”

And so Joe told her how Apple had bought his new app for $1.5 million.

Didi’s face bloomed with red. “I’ll fight this,” she hissed.

“The will is iron-clad,” Ellen said calmly, pushing her blond hair behind her ears. “And remember that prenup? You don’t get any proceeds from Joe’s intellectual property. No judge in the world would have a problem with that.”

In other words, the prenup that had forced Joe to stay with Didi was now biting her in the ass. It had a certain karmic justice to it.

“Didi,” Lucas said, “Joe’s going to file the papers one way or another, even if he dies before a divorce can go through. If you fight it, I’m guessing that everyone will wonder why that nice Joe Campbell wanted to get away from you so badly.”

“But—”

“But if you grant him an uncontested divorce,” Lucas said, “he’ll keep it quiet, and no one will have to know. Not even Bryce.”

“So? I think Bryce should know that his father is behaving like an ass!”

“Didi,” Grace said in her gentle voice, “I understand how shocking this is. And honestly, I think it’s awfully bighearted of you to even consider it—”

“I’m not considering it!”

“—granting the father of your son his last wish. Even if it seems hard to comprehend, since you’ve been such a loving wife all these years.”

The sarcasm was lost on Didi.

“But if this is Joe’s last wish, it seems so...uncouth to disregard it.”

Didi’s eyes flickered. Colleen had been right. Reputation was everything to Didi.

This was, of course, why Grace and Frank were here. That, and to say goodbye to Joe.

“And of course, we’d still think of you as part of the family,” Grace went on, giving Lucas a wry glance. “We’d hope you’d still come visit for New Year’s and such.”

Didi’s expression turned speculative.

She’d always loved that New Year’s Eve party, after all. She glanced at Joe, and Lucas could practically see her doing the math. Bryce would have his own money, enough for his own place. He wouldn’t live in his mother’s basement anymore, not with more than a cool million in the bank.

But if she got invited to the famous Forbes New Year’s Eve party, she could find some rich guy. After all, there was no accounting for some people’s taste.

“It’s stressful, I’m sure,” Frank said. “Once all the paperwork is filed and the dust has settled, you should plan on spending some time at the lake house for a little rest.”

That sealed the deal. The Forbes lake house was more like a compound, acres and acres of waterfront property in Wisconsin, several wooden boats and a live-in housekeeper. Triumph shone in Didi’s pale eyes. “That’s so generous of you, Frank,” she said. “I’d love that. But only if it’s what Joe wants.”

* * *

LATER, WHEN THE details had been agreed on and Didi had left, and after Steph took the girls back to Lucas’s apartment, where they’d be spending the night, and Ellen and her parents had headed back to Chicago, Lucas wheeled Joe down to the dock, Bryce alongside him.

“Push me in,” Joe said merrily. “Save me the trouble.”

“Dad, don’t even joke about that. You look great. What are we doing down here?”

“I thought we’d take a sail,” Lucas said. “If you don’t mind going out on the water again, Bryce.”

“No, not a bit. I love boats.”