Happiness was rarely guaranteed for her. It came when she least expected it, and she savored it like other people savored fine wines.
She sat cross-legged on a blanket, spread out in front of a small pond between the Chandlers’ mansion and what had once been her home.
Tani looked down at the infant in her lap. The little girl’s mouth was pursed into a rosebud, her lashes resting on her cheeks as she snoozed. The hair on her head was dark, her skin a lovely toasty brown. It was too soon to tell who she would take after, Nicholas or Livvy, but at five months old, Samantha Maria Chandler had already established her loud and demanding personality. Livvy and Nicholas both claimed it came from the other person.
Tani smoothed her hand over the baby’s head. Her hip would protest when she had to get up, but, yes. She was happy. It was frightening, how content she felt.
Which was why she wasn’t surprised when a dark shadow fell over her and the baby. Darkness often lurked at the edges of happiness.
She tucked Sammy closer to her. “You aren’t supposed to be here.”
Brendan squatted next to her, his attention on the baby. He was dressed in a suit, though he had no job to go to.
At least, not at Chandler’s. He’d left town after selling his half—originally her half—of the company. After Nicholas had bought his father out, with Jackson’s and Eve’s and Rhiannon’s financial assistance, he and John had restructured the stock to ensure Livvy, Jackson, Eve, Gabe, and Kareem held equity. Nicholas and John maintained controlling interest, but the Oka-Kanes were represented in the company again. They had asked Tani if she wished to have a voice in business decisions, but she’d demurred.
The company had never been her interest. It only reminded her of her father and her husband, and the ache of those losses were still as fresh as they’d been years ago. She was happy helping Maile run her knitting business. She’d started painting again. She was busy enough.
“Did you hear me?” she asked when Brendan showed no signs of budging. “No one wants you here.”
“I’m not here to cause trouble,” Brendan said, and Tani had to stroke Sammy’s head again to calm her worry.
“I don’t believe you.”
His eye twitched. She had grown up with those eyes. At one point, she’d even thought she’d loved them. “You know I’m not a monster, Tani.”
“I know you’re capable of monstrous things.”
“You know exactly why I did some of those things.” There was a scar on his lip that hadn’t been there before. Part of her wanted to ask him where he’d been and what he’d been doing for the past year, but it was a very small part.
She adjusted the blanket around her sleeping granddaughter. She had her cell phone, and could easily go back to the house, but she didn’t feel fear. Only pity and resentment. “I am aware of why you think you did them.”
“I loved you,” Brendan said in a low voice. “I loved you for so long.”
Tani looked out at the pond. Over a dozen years ago, not far from where she sat, Nicholas and Livvy had carved their initials into the bark of a tree. She’d melted when she’d seen it back then and had stopped coming to this spot, leaving it to young love. “I thought I loved you, but then I met Robert, and I knew I didn’t feel even an inkling for you that I felt for him.”
He inhaled. She’d been kinder when she’d broken up with him decades ago.
No one had known when they’d started seeing each other. Brendan had been so annoyed at his father’s desire to join the two families, he hadn’t wanted to give John the satisfaction, and she’d played along.
A small blessing. Because the second Robert had served her a cup of coffee and their fingers brushed, Tani had known who she was meant to be with.
“Regardless of how I felt, though, your love doesn’t excuse how you treated Maria. It doesn’t excuse how you treated your own children. Or your father.” Tani thought of how exhausted and heartsick she’d been in the days after Robert’s death and the fire that had taken the store. Never had she felt such despair and loneliness. “And... and it doesn’t excuse how you treated me and my children.” She hadn’t wanted the store anymore, that was true, but she could have held out for more money. She could have made sure Paul was taken care of. Brendan had preyed on her when she was at her weakest. After growing up with her, he’d known exactly what buttons to press. “That wasn’t love. Love is...” She struggled to put it into words. “When you cause pain to someone you love, it should hurt you a million times more. You never cared you were hurting me.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I’m starting to see I may have made some mistakes.”
“Well. That’s good. But it’s a bit late.” She smiled sadly at his stunned look. “Did you think you could come here and everything would be okay? That you could take your place in the family? You can’t.”
His nod was slow. “You look nice.”
She pleated the skirt of the lavender silk dress she wore, carefully arranged so it wouldn’t get dirty. An unusually bright color for her, but Maile had liked it. “Thank you.”
“There’s a wedding at the house today, isn’t there?”
“Yes.” She’d taken Sammy out so Livvy could get dressed. She’d have to be back soon, or everyone would start to worry.
“I would have heard if it was Eve’s.”
Ah. That somewhat explained his presence here. She dipped her head. “You probably would have.” Perhaps it was cruel not to tell him for sure, but he wasn’t her priority. “Eve definitely doesn’t want to see you.” Tani wanted this very clear. She didn’t want that poor girl to be bothered by this man. Eve had flourished over the past year, free from his presence.
