I met Eunice’s eyes across the table, and Eddie groaned, angrily typing up a text on his phone as he walked into the foyer.?
“I’m sorry, Eunice,” I whispered, “but I can’t marry a man who would not only steal my business but burn it down to the ground for a quick buck. O’Malley’s was my home. And the betrayal? The cheating? What kind of life was I about to have married to your son?”
Tears began to trickle down her cheeks, and I could see the heartbreak in her eyes—both for me and for her family. But I knew she was mostly heartbroken for her best friend, my momma, and the love of her life, my Uncle Cole.?
And, if I had to guess, she was heartbroken that another Wilder man had swept in and ruined everything for another O’Malley like me.?
Chapter forty-one
LEE
Idropped Magnolia and Pickle off at Sutton’s apartment, staying for a while to order a few things on Amazon that I hoped would make her stay more comfortable.?
Losing everything meant losingeverything, and while I couldn’t snap my fingers and fix Maggie’s life the way I wanted to, I had to do something.?
She’d turned down my parents’ offer to let her stay at their house on Jones Street while she figured out her next move. I couldn’t blame her, but when we were leaving and she was saying goodbye to my parents, it almost felt like she was saying goodbye forever.?
“I think we’re good now, Lee. You should probably go,” Sutton said hours after I knew I had worn out my welcome. I’d missed my flight and checked out of the hotel, but I still couldn’t bring myself to leave her side.
“I’ll just say goodbye, then,” I said, giving Sutton a half-assed smile. She was still fuming over what I’d said earlier, and rightfully so. I was an asshole—an asshole who thought, for sure, he was doing the right thing.
I knocked quietly on the spare bedroom in Sutton’s apartment and opened the door slowly. Curled up in a ball, with Pickle sitting up protectively behind her, Magnolia was in a puddle of her own tears.?
“I’m going to head out,” I coughed, running my fingers through my hair.?
She didn’t look up; she didn’t even move. She just sighed and said, “I never want to see you again for the rest of my life, Leland Wilder. You or anyone else in your family.”?
Chapter forty-two
MAGNOLIA
Alittle over a month had passed since the fire, and while there was still no sign of Kasey or Dane, a few new clues had surfaced.?
Turns out, the fire was started behind the bar, and alcohol was used as an accelerant. Though Kasey was smart enough to turn off the security cameras over the doorways, the business behind mine had theirs facing the alley and caught the two of them scurrying out the back.?
Given the size of the building, it was hard to pinpoint the exact time the fire started, but either way, the fact that they hadn’t shown their faces in Savannah in a month was telling.?
Before his bank accounts were frozen and his credit cards were put on high alert, Dane had emptied out all of his accounts.?
And all of the money in the Wilder Family Trust.?
Some days, Sutton would walk with me to the charred remains of what used to be my home. She’d sit with me on the sidewalk as I held vigil to the ashes, mourning all the history that was erased the second the flames ate away the foundation.?
On this particular day, she’d packed us a picnic lunch, and we sat on two camping chairs, passing a thermos filled with champagne back and forth.?
It was, after all, my wedding day.?
“You know, I figured Dane was a villain, but in the like, talk down to you in public and make you wear a ton of Lilly Pulitzer type of way. Not in the full-blown soap opera drama, literally ruin your entire life type of way,” Sutton said, pulling greasy, paper-wrapped pieces of fried chicken from the picnic basket.?
“I wish it didn’t cost me the bar,” I said sadly, watching her pull side dishes out of her bag. “But, at the end of the day, I suppose I dodged a bullet. He wouldhave done it after the wedding, and what if I had been inside when it happened? Maybe that was the plan all along. Murder. Not just mayhem.”
I studied Sutton for a moment as she nodded along, only half-listening. She rummaged through her oversized bag, pulling out a stack of plates.
“Why do you have so much food? I know I’ve been stress eating, and you’ve been stress frying, but this is absurd. Even for us.”?
She laughed, looking over her shoulder. “Don’t hate me, okay?”?
I turned around as Jordan, Doyle, and Charlie crossed the street, each carrying their own camping chair and picnic basket. Jordan even had arms full of flowers and a folded-up table on his shoulder.?
