I chew my lip. “He does. The cancer came back a few months ago, although Grams didn’t tell me until recently how serious it was. I paid a few of her medical bills from our joint account before I moved out, stuff that wasn't covered by Medicare.” I give a sarcastic snort. “God, please don't tell me that gives him a right to half of her too.”
Maeve bristles at my dark humor. “Fuck, I hate that guy. I really do.”
I blot my face with the mass of tissues. “I know.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Do you? Because I tried to hide it before. Even when you started wearing...” She gestures toward my dress.
I sniff. “What's wrong with what I'm wearing?”
She touches the tip of her tongue to the corner of her blood-red lips. “It's just a lot of beige, hon.” Beige with tiny flowers that match the darker beige of my pumps. Her attention darts to my bleached hair and then down to my ballet pink nail polish. “The hair, the nails.” The way her head tilts and her eyes narrow makes me feel like an abandoned, flea-ridden kitten. “The pearls.”
Indignant, I raise my chin a full inch. “I'll have you know this shade of nail polish was a favorite of the Queen of England. It's very sophisticated. And pearls never go out of style.”
“The queen died years ago… at the age of ninety-six. You're twenty-five.” Maeve folds her arms. “You wouldn't have been caught dead in that before you met him.”
She has a point. Over the years I’d dated Tony and thetwo we were married, I'd changed almost every aspect of myself to meet his standards, including my wardrobe. It was never enough. “I appreciate your help. I really do. But the last thing I'm worried about at the moment is my outfit.”
“Right.” She drums her fingers on her biceps. “He's just taken so much from you. I can’t remember the last time I saw you smile. And your art. How long has it been since you painted anything? The gall of that man. When I think about the woman you were when you met him?—”
She’s right about the smile and the art, but that’s not the whole story. “I was a kid with a death wish. Tony took me under his wing and forced me to get serious about my life. If it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't have my teaching degree.”
“You would have done fine without him. You were an accomplished artist by then—one big break from being as big as your mom.”
“It’s true I had a bright future as an artist before my parents died. But Tony made me see how impractical a career in the arts is. Besides, I could barely pick up a paintbrush from grief after I lost them. A teaching degree just made more sense.”
“And if it wasn’t for him, you’d still be using it,” she snaps. I shrink at the harsh truth and her face softens. “I’m just appalled on your behalf.”
“I know.” I blink back another onslaught of tears. “Just tell me what can be done about the house.”
She reclines in her leather chair, elbows on the armrests and hands steepled over her lap. A dark queen on her throne. “There are a few legal avenues I can try, but honestly, your best bet would be to convincehim to back off. Can you confront him? Maybe guilt him into letting the house go?”
“I don't think it would end well.” I hug myself against an inner quake that leaves me clammy.
“You think he'll hit you again.”
“Tony doesn’t like to be confronted. He almost broke my jaw while we were married. I hate to think what he’d do now that we’re getting divorced. I won’t rule out trying, but I’d be lying if I said he doesn’t scare me.”
“Fucking asshole.” Maeve heaves a deep sigh. “Any way to manipulate him? Got any dirt on the bastard?”
“Nothing I can prove.” She shoots me a knowing glance. Maeve has long suspected Tony is involved with organized crime, but if he is, he never admitted as much to me, even when things were good.
She sighs. “Then I think there's only one way to guarantee Tony doesn't get Harcourt Manor.”
“How?”
“Magic.” I swear I see her eyes twinkle behind her glasses.
What?“Magic?” The word comes out strangled. Is she joking?
“Come on, Eloise. You must have suspected over the years. That time we went camping and it rained on everyone else's tent but ours. Our grades on that calculus exam neither of us studied for. The tea I gave you that helped you lose five pounds the night before your wedding.”
I inhale sharply. All those things were weird but... “What exactly are you implying? Thatyoumade those things happen?”
She gathers her raven black hair into a twist, holds it inplace with one hand as her other forms an L with her thumb and forefinger and circles the knot three times. When she removes her hands and turns so I can see, it’s secured in a perfect updo without the benefit of a single hairpin.
My heart jackhammers in my chest as I try to deny what is right in front of me, while knowing in my heart that itisthe truth. Knowing in the back of my mind that I suspected… maybe not magic, butsomething. Knowing, like everything else today, that this is really happening. “Why didn't you tell me?”
“Why didn't you ask?” Maeve smooths her hand along the edge of the desk. “Goddess knows, it wouldn’t have been the craziest question you’ve ever asked me.”
