Lie to Me (Pearl Island Trilogy #4)(64)
“I don’t understand. What does John have to gain from forcing his daughter to get married?”
“Harold was going to pass on the partnership deal with John, until he met Diane and fell for her. When she agreed to marry him, with a lot of pressure from John, Harold said he’d help John turn LeRoche Shipping around, but only because he’s going to be part of the family. So John told Diane if she doesn’t go through with the wedding he’ll cut her off cold.”
“Wow, that’s a bit medieval, don’t you think?”
“Welcome to my family.”
She said it in a way that made him wonder how much he really knew about the LeRoche family. “How much trouble is LeRoche Shipping in that John would force his daughter to marry a man she doesn’t love?”
“Enough.”
Luc tried to imagine a business like LeRoche Shipping being in dire straits, and couldn’t. It was like imagining Donald Trump going bankrupt. Trump might have a business venture fold here or there, but his whole empire wouldn’t crumble. Would it?
“The sad thing is,” Chloe said, “Diane and I really were having a pretty good mother–daughter moment the night I told her about the necklace. Diane has always been fascinated by the legend of Pearl Island and Marguerite’s ghost. After all, when she was growing up, our family owned Pearl Island. I’ve tried to tell her since that I was wrong about the necklace having anything to do with Marguerite, but she won’t listen.” Chloe covered her eyes. “And now, it’s even worse.”
“Why?”
“This morning at breakfast, she brought it up with John and DeeDee sitting right there. She insists that the necklace really is a gift from Marguerite. That since I found it, it’s Marguerite’s way of restoring what the LeRoche family lost when we lost Pearl Island.”
“That makes no sense,” he said, entering the highway. “Unless, of course, there’s been some major improvement in John’s luck with business since you found the necklace.”
“There hasn’t been and I pointed that out,” she said, clearly incredulous. “Diane believes that’s because the necklace is locked up in a museum, so I don’t actually have possession of it. She thinks, if I can get clear ownership of the necklace, the family will be saved and she won’t have to marry Harold. Now that John knows about the necklace, he’s pressuring me, too.”
“Let me get this straight.” He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “John LeRoche, one of the most powerful men in the South, wants the Texas Historical Commission to give my grandmother’s necklace to you because he thinks it’s a good luck charm that will restore his fortune. Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?”
“I won’t go along with it, Luc,” she told him, conviction ringing in her voice. “I won’t.”
“But you won’t help me either, will you?”
“If I help you, my mother will never forgive me,” she said as if pleading for him to understand. “I stopped caring about John years ago, but I do still hold out hope that my mother and I can have a reasonably good relationship. If I help you get the necklace for your grandmother, that’s over. Forever. Can’t you see that?”
“So, you’ll let them pursue this crazy scheme even if it means taking the necklace away from my grandmother?”
“I’ll do everything I can to talk them out of it. I mean, it’s crazy. I know you said the mirror has some kind of power, but it doesn’t have that kind of power. Does it?”
That little note of hope on the end had him doubting her. If she thought the mirror had the power to restore Marguerite’s good luck to her family, would she help them take it away from him?
“No,” he told her flatly. “It doesn’t have that kind of power.”
“Luc, please believe me, I’ll do what I can to convince them of that. But you can’t ask me to choose between you and my mother.”
No, he realized, he couldn’t ask that of her any more than he could ask himself to choose between her and his grandmother. “At least now I know what I’m up against.”
“Can we please not let this ruin today?” she asked. “We agreed to set the necklace aside, and I’d like to do that. Just shove it into a corner, and focus on us.”
“I can try,” he said grudgingly.
Silence filled the car as he sped down the highway.
“Do you know,” she said after nearly a mile, “I’ve never been to a cochon de lait?”
“Seriously?” He glanced at her.
“No lie.” She held up a hand. “I’ve lived in Louisiana most of my life, and I’ve never been to a real, live Cajun pig roast.”
“With a lot of real, live Cajuns,” he said, trying to picture her reaction to his family. “Well, if nothing else, this should be interesting.”
Chapter 17
“Oh my God, you didn’t tell me I needed to bring a dish,” Chloe said when she saw the huge crowd gathered behind the old farm house. A line of men moved past her and Luc, carrying ice chests from the cars, trucks, and SUVs parked out front to the people working at the largest of several picnic tables. Children and dogs chased and played on a lawn that sloped past a large barn to the shore of the bayou. Beyond the tall cypress trees dripping Spanish moss, blue sky reflected off the still water.