Chapter 9

A faint buzzing sound draws me from sleep, and I roll over, rubbing my eyes and praying it will stop.

It doesn’t.

Or rather, it does, and then it immediately starts up again.

I groan and reach for my phone, blinking sleep from my eyes as I stare at the screen, trying to decipher the words on it.

Ana

My best friend. I’ve been meaning to call her and update her on things, but the days have gotten away from me. I swipe my thumb across the screen and touch the button to put it on speaker, dropping the phone onto my stomach as I roll onto my back.

“Hello?” I rub sleep from my eyes.

“Ah-ha! She lives!” The deep voice she’s using is something between a swamp creature and Darth Vader. Returning to her normal voice, she adds, “And here I was, preparing to send a search party.”

I chuckle. “I know. I’m sorry. I planned to call you, but things have been so weird.”

“Uh-oh. Weird how? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine, I just…” I debate telling her about the letters, but with the sudden strange desire to protect Vera, I change my mind. Thankfully, that isn’t the only weird thing to happen lately. “Actually, since I arrived, I found out I’m not the only one the house was left to.”

“What do you mean?” Her mouth sounds full when she asks, and I can tell she’s eating breakfast—probably a cinnamon roll, which is her current obsession.

“Vera left it to me and Cole.”

“Cole?” There’s a pause, then she gasps. “Wait. Cole your, like, ex-stepbrother?”

“No. Or, well, yes, but we aren’t stepsiblings. He just lived here because his mom worked for Vera and lived at Bitter House, too.”

“I thought you two didn’t get along.”

I sit up in bed, stretching and running a hand through my messy hair. “Bingo. We don’t. Which has made this all a bit more interesting, to say the least.”

She sucks in a breath. “I don’t get it. Your grandmother left her house to both of you? Why would she do that? Do you think she’s just trying to mess with you?”

“I really don’t know. I wouldn’t put anything past Vera, but this feels especially cruel.”

She clicks her tongue, thinking. “So, what? Can you just sell the house? Or buy him out? What’s the plan?”

“I don’t have the money to buy him out, even if I wanted to. The good news is he doesn’t either, so I don’t have to worry about that, but I don’t know if I want to sell. I mean, I have no idea if I’d ever really move back here, but it’s a huge house.” I mimic Vera’s deep, matronly voice. “A manor.” She snorts at my impression. “Seriously, it’s not like I could ever afford anything like this now.”

“You could if you sell,” she points out.

“And split the profits,” I remind her.

“Oh. Right.” She sighs. “Well, what does he think about it? Do you know what he wants to do?”

“We’re kind of dancing around the subject right now, waiting for everything to get settled with the court. We talked about using the house like a vacation spot we could split.”

“I’m assuming you’d want to check in with each other though, so you don’t, like, walk in on him doing it with someone on the kitchen table.” It’s impossible, but I can practically hear her wincing. “And you should probably hire a cleaner for the same reason. Give them specific instructions to bleach everything.” She chuckles, but I barely hear it, as a hard knot has formed in my stomach at the thought of Cole and another woman in this house. She’s right—if we split it, there’s a chance that will be part of it. Eventually, he’ll get married, have kids, and so will I.

But before that, there will likely be dates and romantic getaways I might interrupt. We’d have to come up with some sort of system.

I flash back to the many girls he had over when we were in high school, and I push away the memories. It doesn’t matter to me what Cole does, as long as he doesn’t bother me or destroy the house.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I say eventually, realizing she’s still waiting for a response. “Anyway, for now, it looks like I’m going to have to stay here. At least for a little while longer than I’d originally planned to. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Jenna about it, but my goal is to ask about working from here as much as possible until things are settled.”

“How long do you think that will take?”

I rub my lips together, wishing I had a clearer answer. “I’m not sure how long the court stuff will take, but we’re working on getting the house fixed up and dealing with family drama on top of everything else, so it’s all kind of a disaster.”

“Family drama? What do you mean? From Vera?”

“No, just my aunt. Basically, everyone is upset over what they were given in the will, and they’re coming after me over it as if I had anything to do with what Vera chose to do.”

“Yikes. No offense, girl, but your grandma seems like she was trying to start drama with her last act.”

“Honestly, I can’t see Vera caring enough to do that, but maybe. It’s all just a mess.” I huff, running a hand over my face. Until this moment, I’m not sure I realized how stressed this situation has me.

“Do you need me to come up there? I can get a few days off work.”

“Thanks, but I’m okay for now.” I don’t want anyone outside of this messed-up world to see it from the inside, no matter how much I trust Ana. “I think Jenna would lose her mind if we were both out of the office. But I may still take you up on the offer to help move things out of here once I decide what I want to take.”

“Yeah, of course. Name the time and place, and I’m there. And don’t worry about Jenna, okay? She’d handle it. I could bring my laptop with me and work from there. You’re already working remotely and things are going fine, aren’t they?”

“In theory.” Meaning, I have several unread emails waiting for me and haven’t opened my latest spreadsheet since I arrived.

“We could totally make it work, then. We’d just work during the day and pack at night. Teamwork.” She giggles.

“Maybe. I’ll let you know, okay?”

She huffs. “Yeah, for sure. Just promise me you’ll let me know if I can help you, whether it’s from there or from here. You don’t have to do this all on your own. I got you, girl. You know that, right?”

“I do know,” I promise her. “And thank you. Give Teddy and Olivia kisses from me.”

“Will do. They miss you, B. We all do.”

“I miss you guys, too. I promise I’ll be home as soon as I can.” I only hope I can keep that promise.

“Okay, I’ll let you go back to the current soap opera you’re living in.” The sound of water running comes across her line, and I assume she’s rinsing the plate she was just eating off of. “Call me, though, okay? Check in so I know you’re still alive.”

“I will.”

“Love you, lady.”

“Love you.”

I press the button to end the call and place my phone back on the nightstand before crossing the room to get ready for the day. Once I’ve showered and changed, I make my way downstairs, passing Cole’s closed door.

At the bottom of the stairs, a sound catches my attention.

Someone is knocking on the door.

I hesitate at the door, peeking out the window next to it and recognize the face immediately, a groan escaping my lips.

I pull the door open, staring into the face of the realtor from yesterday. “How do you keep getting through the gate?” I demand.

“I have the code.” He flashes me a smile.

“How?” Did Cole lie? He told me he let him in before, not that he’d had a code.

“Someone gave it to me.” Another of those charming smiles that has probably gotten him inside a lot of doors. Not this one. I move my body to block more of the doorway.

“Who would’ve done that? Cole?”

“Not a chance.” The voice comes from behind me, and I glance over my shoulder to find Cole standing in the hallway, hair messy from sleep. He stalks toward me, eyes trained on the man. “Can we help you? We made it clear yesterday you weren’t needed.”

The man straightens his stance, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I was hoping you’d reconsider. Let me tell you, I’ve run some comps…” He whistles. “You two are sitting on a goldmine here.”

“Not interested.” Cole locks his jaw, gripping the door. “You should go.”

Something about the way the man twists his lips catches my eyes, and my heart stops. There’s something familiar about him I didn’t notice before. His lips crack into a wry, lifeless smile, and my chest constricts.

He looks just like his mother.

Noticing, Cole looks down at me.

“Zach.” I mutter the word, breathless. I haven’t seen my cousin since he was a child, but there’s no doubt in my mind that’s who this is, all grown up and trying his hardest to get our grandmother’s house from me. No doubt his mother is in on this.

His eyes flash to me, a hint of bitterness in them, but he plasters on the smile again. “Okay. Yeah, you caught me. Good to see you again, cousin.”

Cole turns his attention back to the door. “You lied to me yesterday.”

Zach shakes his head. “I didn’t lie, I just didn’t tell you my name.”

“You told me someone called you. You told me Bridget called you.”

The smile warps from his face. “Right. Okay, technically that was a lie, but I knew if you realized who I was, you’d kick me out before you heard what I had to say.”

“Look at that, B, he’s a fortune teller.” Cole moves to shut the door, but Zach catches it.

“Hear me out. Please. I just want to talk. My mom is devastated about not getting Bitter House. This place is all she has left of her mother.” His blue eyes find mine. “Surely you, of all people, understand that.”

My breathing catches because of course I understand that. Am I wrong for keeping the house away from Aunt Jenn? Does she really deserve it more than I do? Even if she does, it’s not like the decision is solely mine.

Though…the idea of her sharing the house with Cole is pretty amusing.

“Don’t do that.” Cole steps in front of me. “Don’t guilt-trip her. She was given the house because it’s what Vera wanted. I’m sure the millions she left you will buy you something equally as nice.”

“I can speak for myself.” I nudge Cole out of the way. “He’s right, though. This was Vera’s choice. I have to believe she wanted me to have the house for a reason.”

“She knew you wouldn’t sell it,” Cole says. “And they would. This house meant everything to her.”

Zach swallows, and I watch anger overtake his features—wrinkling, dimpling, darkening. “Vera was an old bitch who hated everyone around her. Who cares what mattered to her? She loved this house more than she loved her family.”

I flinch at the harsh tone of his voice. “Look, you should go. Like I told your mom yesterday…feel free to take this up with the lawyers. I’m not selling the house. And you can tell your brother the same thing before he tries to sneak over here.”

“My brother is in Shenzhen with my dad. There’s no reason we can’t handle this ourselves. Name your price.”

Cole nods toward the driveway, starting to close the door. “You should go.”

Zach curses under his breath, stepping back with a frustrated wave in our direction, as if he’s batting us away. “Call me when you change your mind.”

“We won’t,” Cole says. He shuts the door and crosses the room quickly on his way through the living room.

I double-check the lock before following him. When I find him in the kitchen, he’s staring into space as if he’s seen a ghost.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need to tell you something. I don’t know if it means anything, but…you should know.”

“Tell me what?”

“Vera and Zach were fighting before she died.” He blurts the words out as if they were lava on his tongue.

“Fighting?”

“Arguing about something, yeah. I remember Mom talking about it, about Vera being upset. I never thought anything about it because it didn’t seem like a big deal, and it happened like three or so months before she died, but now with them trying to force their way into the house…” He pauses, running a hand through his hair. “What if there’s a reason they want this house so badly? What if they’re the ones writing the letters? Trying to scare us away?”

“Call your mom.” I can hardly muster the words.

“What?” Cole stares at me.

“I want to hear it from her. Better yet, ask her to come here. She has to know more than she’s told us, and it’s time we got to the bottom of it.”

“You want her to come here?”

“Yeah. We need to ask her about the man Vera was fighting with the night you overheard them, and I want to know about Zach.” I don’t say the rest, but the truth is, I want to know the truth about everything. Why Vera kicked me out, why there was a rift in the family in the first place, why Vera would’ve left the house to the two of us, and I need to see Edna’s face, to search for hints she might be lying when she gives us the answers.

“Okay. Sure. I’ll see if she’s busy.”