As much as she loved the contact, she pulled her hand from Austin’s. She didn’t detect the disapproval she usually heard from most people concerning her marriage to a man thirty-eight years her senior, but Austin despised her money and therefore wouldn’t approve of her marrying Peter.
“Not exactly. It was nice that there wasn’t that expectation, but that’s not why I married him.” She cleared her throat. “After my divorce, I spent five lonely years away from my family, working my way through nursing school. Sure, I dated a little, but I couldn’t face the same rejection I experienced with Keith, so I never let myself get too involved with anyone.” She traced the floral pattern on the sofa with her fingernail.
“I met Peter after he’d been diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He’d already gone through chemotherapy and had been in remission for two years, but the cancer returned with a vengeance. He refused to suffer through chemo again, so the doctors gave him medicine to slow the growth of the cancer cells and gave him less than a year to live.”
“His daughter, Fiona, hired me to take care of him because she couldn’t be bothered. She wanted to put her father into a care center where someone else could worry about him. But Peter refused to spend his final days in a care center. He wanted to enjoy some of the wealth he’d amassed and do some traveling before he died. I became his caretaker and travel companion.”
“So why marry him? Couldn’t you just travel with him as his nurse?”
“Fiona was a despicable person. She was absolutely awful to her father. Peter blamed his wife for spoiling her.”
Austin gave a grunt that Debbie couldn’t interpret, so she kept talking. “About a month after I started working for him, he and Fiona had a big fight about something, and Peter decided he didn’t want Fiona to inherit all of his money.” Debbie shook her head as she recalled how horrible Fiona was. “It’s not like she needed it. I mean her husband was plenty wealthy. Anyway, he proposed to me.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. I thought he was joking, and I laughed at him. But then he told me he was serious. I laughed again and told him he’d better stop talking crazy or Fiona would have him declared insane. He said he’d worry about Fiona and asked me to marry him again.”
“So, you said yes?”
Debbie shook her head. “I said no.”
“Why?”
Debbie stared at Austin wide-eyed. “Hellloo, he was almost forty years older than me. What would people think? What would my family think? If I said yes, everyone would assume I did it for the money. I’m not going to lie, the thought of being independently wealthy sounded great, but in the month I’d worked for Peter, I realized having money hadn’t made him happy, or Fiona, for that matter.”
“So why did you finally say yes?”
“It wasn’t until two weeks later, when Peter had an especially difficult day, that I finally agreed to marry him.”
“What happened that day that changed your mind?”
“I called Fiona to let her know her dad wasn’t feeling well and that he wanted to see her.” Debbie snorted. “She very rudely pointed our that she couldn’t just drop everything any time her dad ran a little fever. Apparently, lunch at the tennis club with her friends was more important than her father.” Debbie rolled her eyes. “I think she thought she’d hung up, but I heard her tell her friends, ‘He’s so needy. I can’t wait until he kicks the bucket. I’m half tempted to ask his doctor to switch out his medicines for placebos, so this can all be over quicker.’”
Austin’s eyebrow shot up. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, but as much as she ticked me off, that’s not why I agreed to marry Peter.”
“What made you finally agree?”
“Peter was so scared that day that he was going to die alone. If Fiona had her way, he would have.” Debbie blinked back the tears that surfaced with the memory of the lonely, broken, old man. “I had spent the last five years alone and figured since I couldn’t have kids, I’d probably end up dying alone too.” She shrugged but knew the action looked as stilted as it felt. “I married him, hoping that someday down the road, someone would be there for me, so I wouldn’t have to die alone.”
Austin stared at her with arched brows. “So it really wasn’t about the money.”
Debbie smiled. “There are definite perks to being wealthy.” Her smile faded. “But it doesn’t bring happiness.”
At this point, Debbie wondered if she’d ever find that elusive unicorn.
“No, I don’t imagine it does.”
“That’s why I moved back to Providence. To be near family.” She shook her head again. “And to get away from all the leeches who came crawling out of the woodwork offering to help me manage my fortune.”
Austin shook his head. “So, what happened with Fiona? Did she contest the will?”
“She tried, but it was solid. It’s not like Peter left her out completely; he left her several million dollars.”
Peter whistled.
“She spread all kinds of horrible rumors in the influential circles about how I’d stolen her inheritance. I finally made a deal with her. I told her I’d give her Peter’s entire estate—house, cars, everything—if she’d stop badmouthing me.”
