Chapter 23

Jane

If there was one thing Jane knew how to do, it was call someone's bluff. Damon had been annoyed with her for going behind his back to make clandestine dealings with Monica Warren, but he was sitting on residential properties that he "didn't know what to do with," as if they could whoops! through the cracks and be forgotten until his business cut checks for the annual property taxes. Doesn't he know there is a housing crisis going on?

Honestly, she didn't care how supply and demand really functioned as long as her phone call to him accomplished two things: it got him off her ass about Monica, and she procured new and more accommodating housing for her family.

Damon was more than eager to cut her the deal if it meant he got the old Winchester penthouse for pennies on the dollar. By the following Monday morning, she and Caitlyn were sent a digital portfolio of every available four bedroom home the Monroes could connect them with. Caitlyn shut herself up in her office and spent the whole morning scrolling through listings nobody else could see. Jane was merely relieved that everyone was placated.

Within a week, they were touring a recently renovated single-family home near the marina. Caitlyn's opinion of it was that it was "what she saw herself moving into one day" and that it "reminded her of the house in Des Moines, but with a pool." Rebecca made a barrage of comments about how it was "too much house for them to take care of," and "will we even be able to find each other in this mansion?" Jane was slightly perturbed that she had never not lived in high-rise. It was also farther away from work and traffic could be an issue.

So, here they were, sitting around the table and going over the two final candidates.

"The bigger the house," Jane began, "the farther out it is." She referred to the one by the marina. "On the other hand, if we move into the four-bedroom flat, we're looking at smaller bedrooms than what we have right now." She sighed. "And it's across the street from the Thomas-Cole Building, and I don't know about you two, but I don't want to live across the street from the office. That's too close."

"That's a good point," Caitlyn said. "The house does offer more privacy…"

"But less security. There has been a rash of break-ins over the past year."

Jane kept expecting Rebecca to pipe up with something, but she was busy texting and scrolling on her phone.

"Also," Jane said, "the flat doesn't have that kind of bath you like, Cait."

"But it has a magnificent pool. And shower."

Everyone's phones buzzed when Rebecca sent them something in their group chat. "What about something like this?" she asked. "It's the same commute distance to work but on the other side of town. Gated community, because someone is worried about us all getting abducted…" She glanced at Jane when she said that. "Houses are not too big with five bedrooms, and…" She steepled her fingers over her phone. "Two primary bedroom suites, so Mom and Dad can have their own domains. Mm. Good job, Becca. Really good job, I know."

Jane was already scrolling through the private listing in a gated community called West Haven Estates. Most of the homes were neo-colonial, with shutters, topiaries, and symmetrical wings boasting what looked like separate apartments. The square footage was impressive compared to the actual size of the properties. No pools, but Jane didn't care about that. She would rather have a covered garage for her cars.

"Where did you find this?" Jane asked.

"It was in the listings the Monroes sent over."

"Why are we just now seeing it then?" Caitlyn asked.

"You guys originally brushed it off because you didn't like the unfinished basement." She pointed to Caitlyn. "And you whined that one of the primary suites was on the opposite side of the house from the other bedrooms and it would be like someone wasn't really part of the family." She pointed to Jane.

"Aw." Caitlyn looked up from her phone. Jane immediately avoided looking her wife in the eye. "She cares so much about us feeling like a family."

"I did not have that growing up, all right? My room was down the hall from my sister's, but everyone else was a mile away on the other side of White Fir. My nannies all slept closer to me than my parents did."

"Maybe we should go see this place." Caitlyn picked up her phone again. "Gated community means a hefty HOA, but how bad can it be? Some of these places haven't sold in over ten years. Why in the world are the Monroes holding on to it? This isn't their style at all."

Rebecca had an answer for that too. "This listing is from their subsidiary Claria Real Estate. It's where the Monroes funnel any property they want to sell, including what they pick up and flip. Honestly, the only downside I've found so far is that it's near where the Andrews live."

"Who the bloody hell are the Andrews?" Jane asked.

"If you don't know," Caitlyn replied, "you don't wanna know."

"Lana Andrews has hit on you quite a few times," Rebecca said. "At The Dark Hour. You remind her of her husband Ken. They're swingers."

"Of course they are."

"No straight couple can resist Jane when they're unicorn hunting," Caitlyn said. "It's really bad in Vegas for some reason."

"Bloody hate Vegas…"

Caitlyn agreed to handle a showing appointment at the West Haven Estates house. While she and Rebecca went off to discuss something else, Jane scrolled through the pictures again, attempting to see herself living in an American estate with her hodgepodge of a family.

Five bedrooms plus an office area for me… That meant they had a bedroom leftover to curate as a guest room.

Her mother and sister could never, ever know about this!

Even with Claria Real Estate eager to sell the grand house in West Haven, these things could not be as fast-tracked as Jane might like once she set her sights on getting things moving. First, there was the haggling, which she was accustomed to getting away with in real estate. Caitlyn makes fun of Chinese haggling until I'm the one scoring us the kind of deals she can only dream of. Sure, they had the money to outright buy the house at its asking price and do the renovations desired, but it was the principle of the thing. Caitlyn got middle-class panic when she saw the total, and Jane heard her mother's voice saying, "Are you an idiot?"

Damon could only cut her so much of a deal in return for hooking him up with the price drop on Priscilla Winchester-Payne's penthouse. Claria was one of his businesses, but he wasn't in charge of it. He could only put private pressure on the president of Claria, a woman who looked at Jane with the same kind of, "Oh, this hot mess!" that Willow had for her daughter.

In the end, Jane got the price down. Not only did Caitlyn have some changes she wanted to make to the interior of the house, but Jane did as well. Although everyone in the family joked about who would be "banished" by themselves to the far end of the house, Jane silently accepted that it would be her. But she knew exactly how to make it her own hideaway.

First, as she went over with the contractor who did a walkthrough with her while Caitlyn was at the office, she was claiming the bedroom, the walkthrough closet, and the big bathroom for herself – as well as the nursery next door which would be transformed into her at-home office. She wanted softer hues on the wall but the white could stay in the bedroom. Once she walked through how she liked to organize her clothing in a very particular way, she motioned to the bathroom floor, saying, "This has got to be heated. This country is so drafty I often catch pneumonia going to the bathroom in the morning." The contractor thought she was serious.

"What about this room?" the large man with a hardhat asked as they walked out of the nursery-turned-office and into the room that was supposed to be the office across the hall. Jane took one look at the slit of a window at the top of the wall, declared it "too dark in here to do any work" and instead came up with a fantastic alternative that should please both of her partners.

"Ah, yes. This shall be our recreation room."

"Cool! So, are we thinking home theater, game room, or…"

Jane informed the contractor that this was the one room he had nothing to do with. That honor was going to a separate firm that women like Monica Warren hired. In fact, it was the same one that had helped her renovate the flat next door to Le Salon after she finally took the plunge and bought it with funds from Adams & Wong.

"I want a rack here. I think a false wall to cover it should suffice. I do have a snoopy minor living with me now," she explained to a different representative the next day. The woman in a crisp black suit and with her dark hair tied up into a smooth bun screamed submissive wench to someone like Jane, but she kept her cool and held back from flirting. This was professional business, after all, and she had a feeling that the rock on the rep's finger and the tight choker around her throat wasn't mere fashion. She belongs to someone. They might get annoyed. Caitlyn would have to chastise her for it, there would be a mini-argument before they let it go…

Yeah. Not worth it.

"Do you think this ceiling can support a swing?"

Jane knew this was overkill, but she didn't care. They had the room, so why not? Better to have their intimate dungeon on this side of the house than a… what? A library? A game room? What even was a game room?

It would be simple and understated at first. Their cozy couple's room where Jane didn't even have to be present to let Caitlyn and Rebecca in if they wanted to play for an hour. They could host parties with friends in this part of the house. Am I… turning into my mother? Hosting parties? In her house?

Granted, the kind of people Jane was thinking of inviting would make Willow faint to meet, but this was Jane's big American house, wasn't it? I'd like to see them try this in White Fir.

Caitlyn had the primary contractor to herself on other days, but neither she nor Rebecca knew about the brand-new dungeon with fun equipment going in on the other side of the house. Construction started on Jane's side while they organized a proper moving day sometime in February, assuming everything went to schedule.

When she was given the all-clear, she sent in the other contractors, most of whom worked in the evening when the by-day contractors went home after remodeling the kitchen and Caitlyn's new bathroom. (The woman wanted her favorite bathtub, and she would get it. Jane ensured that.) And when everything was done on her side at the end of January, Jane went shopping for a new bedroom furniture set to match her newer, brighter room, since she was tired of Rebecca always whinging about the dark palette of her current room.

She would miss that flat. While this move was good for the whole family, Jane could be sentimental. The flat was where she and Caitlyn first lived upon returning to America. It was where they built a new home with Rebecca and – as Jane could not be remiss to forget – it was where she and Rebecca first made love. Ah, look at me, getting all teary-eyed about it.

While construction moved to the other side of the house, Jane in turn began moving in her new furniture, clothes she didn't wear as often, and crisp linens that made her new room feel homey while the old one lost some of the pieces she was intent on keeping. The only person to come see the new bedroom, closet, office, and bathroom was Cecelia, whom Jane drove over one day after school so she could see how everything was coming along.

"Can I see my room?" was all Cecelia asked as they stood in front of the large windows overlooking the backyard.

"It's not done yet," Jane told her. "You wanted it painted, remember?"

"I also wanted my own bathroom."

"You do have your own bathroom."

"But it's across the hall."

Jane groaned. "Sometimes, we must make sacrifices. Your auntie Rebecca made a sacrifice to let you have your own room when you moved here, and now it's your turn." Out of the five proper bedrooms, two didn't have en suites. There was no question that Caitlyn was taking the other primary suite while Rebecca got the room next door that also had its own plumbing. Never thought I'd see her cry over having her own room back. Jane hadn't quite realized how badly Rebecca had needed her personal space again. Was I that bad of a bedmate for the past five months? To be fair, Jane was happy to have her own room again. Even if it would be quite lonely all by herself on that side of the house. Instead of taking ten seconds of quick walking across the flat to get to her, it would now take at least a minute cross the house. I'm in the mother-in-law suite, aren't I?

"At least I got to pick which room I wanted…"

"There you go," Jane said. "Looking on the bright side. Just think of the lovely housewarming we will have when this place is finished and we are all moved in. Do you want to invite some friends from school?"

Cecelia was quiet as she tested Jane's newly installed bed. Can I invite Benny?"

"Is that the bloke you are dating now?"

"Yeah… we've only gone out a couple of times, but…"

So there is a good chance they'll be broken up by the time the party rolls around. Jane would keep a good attitude about it, though. Ever since Cecelia stopped hiding what she was up to in her personal life, Jane had the wonderful opportunity to know every boy Cecelia had been out with since what's-his-face, the guy she never heard about again since marching in on him and Cecelia. I probably scared him off for good.

But it hadn't deterred her niece from going out with a few other boys since then. Even during Christmas, when everyone was dragged to Des Moines for a big American holiday with the Adamses, Cecelia was flirting with one of Caitlyn's nephews who thought she was the hottest thing since a Midwestern summer. Jane tried not to think about it.

Guess if she does something stupid, I'll be the first to know. So far, Cecelia had been reasonable in her requests to go out with whatever boy tickled her fancy now.

"Sure. Ol' Benny can come if you want. Maybe it's time I met one of your boys, huh?"

Cecelia rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

That was enough for Jane, who considered her guardianship work done for the day.

Although Cecelia celebrated her sixteenth birthday, there were no immediate plans for her to learn how to drive. Someone in the family still picked her up from Winchester Academy every day, unless she was getting a ride home from a friend or heading somewhere already prearranged with Jane. This system worked well enough since Jane either left the office early to work at home or someone like Rebecca was usually available to cruise the SUV through the long line of parents picking up their kids from the Winchester Academy grounds.

On one bright late winter's day, it was Jane's turn, and the line had never been longer.

"This should be bloody illegal," she vented when Cecelia opened the passenger side door and tossed her bookbag into the backseat. Jane was mindful that a long line of cars remained behind her. Not only did she have to deal with their honking, but the number of high school students and faculty attempting to pull out of the big school parking lot while parents and nannies eked by was… atrocious. "Why today of all days?"

Cecelia shrugged, already face deep in her phone.

Jane's grunt was the only thing to comfort her as she leaned forward on her steering wheel and inched down the driveway. Getting to where students loaded and unloaded was the first trial. Getting out? A second hell.

A text message appeared on her phone, currently mounted on the dash so Jane could see the latest traffic developments. "Fancy seeing you here."

Jane peeked into her sideview mirror. While most of the cars in line were some variation of "black SUV with tinted windows," she would know Damon's silver Mercedes anywhere.

She activated the voice command on her phone and said, "Are you picking up your spawn today? Don't you have a nanny for that?"

"I got off work early today," he texted back. "Alice is at the doctor with my mother and the nanny has the day off."

"Good for you. Being an active, involved father and all."

He mentioned something about sensing her sarcasm dripping from her fangs. Cecelia looked at her aunt as if she were nuts for talking to herself.

The elementary school was the last building on the drive out of the Winchester grounds. Jane glanced at the line of kids waiting patiently on the front lawn while several teachers supervised their behavior.

Apparently not well enough, though.

"Whoa." Cecelia lost all interest in her phone as she pressed her face against the window. "Those kids are fighting."

Jane glanced over. Even through the rolled-up windows, she heard the heightened voices of two girls calling each other names before she saw the flash of two skirts racing by the car.

She recognized the blond girl in a pink dress before she saw the dark brunette in blue.

"Jesus!" Jane didn't know what propelled her to throw open her door and hop out of the SUV. It wasn't like she was either kid's parent. "Stay here!" she told Cecelia before rounding the front of her car and rushing to the scene of the scuffle, where Clarise Monroe landed a smack on Abigail Warren, two teachers taking their sweet time to rush up before Jane got to them.

They were not alone.

"I didn't start it!" Clarise's Mary-Janes kicked in the air as her father lurched her up, disentangling the second-grader from the blond first-grader. "It was her! She started it!"

Jane had never heard a kid scream so loudly and with such intensity. While Damon threw his daughter over his shoulder, Jane dropped beside Abigail, who was soon surrounded by the two teachers who had approached with too little, too late.

"It wasn't me!" Tears streamed down Abigail's round face as she pushed herself up, a sight for pitiful eyes with grass stains on her pink skirt and white socks. "She called me a… a…"

The only person strong enough to shove Jane and the teachers aside was the woman who had come rushing out of the back of a red sedan as soon as she saw the commotion. "What is going on?" Monica, with a mother bear's ferocity, yanked her daughter off the ground and pulled Abigail into her arms. "Control your daughter, Damon!"

"My daughter?" With Clarise's legs still kicking up in the air as she pounded futilely against her father's back, Damon turned her away from the scene. It only made Clarise's misplaced rage more evident as anger tore across her face, her thick black hair matted against her forehead. "According to my daughter, it's your daughter who relentlessly picks on her!"

"I do not!" Abigail insisted through more whimpering sobs. "She hit me!"

Despite her petite stature, Monica hoisted her daughter against her chest and turned her away from the culprits. "We will be speaking about this!" she barked at the useless teachers who had done nothing to stop the fight. "When my husband hears about this, I guarantee that your endowment from the Warren Estate will be at risk!"

"Your endowment! It's because of us they had a garden for the first graders this year!"

Jane stayed back while Damon burned two eye-sized holes into the back of Monica's head. "So…" She crossed her arms with a lack of anything else to do. "I'm guessing that's a no on setting aside your rivalry to make some more money together."

Damon didn't calm down until he was rest assured that Clarise wasn't hurt. When he put her down, she clung to his side, burying her face in his coat while he rubbed her head.

"I don't know what's going on," he said. "All I know is that as long as my kid is throwing punches at hers, we can kiss any goodwill goodbye."

Poor things. This was outside of Jane's realm of influence, but she couldn't help but feel she had something to do with this. Maybe that was silly. Maybe she gassed herself up too much with that thought. But it's true… Were the girls fighting because they knew of their parents' business rivalry? Had Jane made it worse?

As if he saw it on her face, Damon said, "Looks like I'm stuck here for a few more minutes. You should go." His expression softened. "That's the principal coming over here. You need to get your niece home."

Jane agreed, but she had a feeling this was not the last fight she'd hear about.