17. Raina

N o one had seen Ivy Button for well over a week, and she hadn't responded to the texts Raina had sent. She'd used the number that was on Susannah's phone, but it could easily be a disposable phone ringing in a trash can somewhere.

Without her fingerprints or a little more information about her, Adam couldn't do any searches. The name Ivy Button came up with no leads to the woman's identity, and Rose had dug into town archives to discover that Doreen Parrish indeed had a sister who was much older and moved away when their mother died. There was no record of where she'd gone.

Madeline had a friend at the county clerk's office who had done a deeper dive on the notary commissioned on the "contract" that their grandfather had allegedly written, and they absolutely couldn't find that person anywhere in the past fifty years.

Blake had found every record in Wingate Properties related to the ownership of the Inn, but there was nothing that implied it would have changed hands, except for Rex Wingate officially inheriting it when his parents had both passed away.

Records were in their favor, more or less, but they were all afraid that proving that would encourage Ivy to launch her slander campaign, which was blackmail and illegal, but oh, how everyone wanted to avoid that pain.

Hopes were running thin until Raina got a call late one night from Ivy on an unknown number. She agreed to meet again the next morning.

And from dawn until eleven that day, Raina stewed and stressed.

"We got this," Chase assured her, walking across the kitchen to fold Raina—and the baby she held—in his arms. "You even have the coffee and water set up, I saw."

"Wasn't that smart? I put a coffee carafe and water bottles right in the entry, so I can get something in her hand first thing. Then I'll get her into the living room to touch every surface imaginable. But she won't touch the babies." Raina looked down at Charlie and stroked her sweet face. "I don't want them in the same room as this woman."

"Don't you worry. I'll have them upstairs in the nursery with everything I need."

"With the baby monitor on," she reminded him.

He nodded. "The upstairs unit is set to record, so anything she says, we'll have on tape. I'll be listening, and if you need me, I'll be down in a hurry."

She blew out a breath and walked over to Lily, currently asleep in her bouncy seat in the sunlight, a smile permanently plastered on her happy face.

"They're growing fast," she mused. "Milestone after milestone. Did you see her sit herself up?"

"And this one." He rubbed Charlie's head. "She's practically speaking in sentences."

Raina snorted a laugh at the joke, but Charlie rewarded them with her favorite phrase of, "Ba-ba-ba-baaa!" and a giggle.

"Change that B to D, little one." Chase tapped her chest. "Then you'll be talkin' to your Da-da!"

Raina's shoulders dropped at the thought. "When are we going to hear from Hyphenated Helen? Tim the lawyer said she'd be contacting us any day for the site visit."

"She's started," he assured her. "As you know, she and her assistant have already been to Ocean Song and interviewed half my staff at the hotel, including Jules, who told them I would be the world's greatest dad."

"I hope her interviews are enough to approve our official and surprise adoption as daughters of Suze." She made a face. "I have to admit that side of this process is almost as important to me. For some reason, I want to call Suze ‘Mom' now. Isn't that weird? After forty-some years of calling her Suze?"

Smiling, he leaned over and kissed Charlie's head. "Not weird at all. After fifty of being called Chase, all I want to be is Da-da." He rubbed his nose against Charlie's. "With a D, girl."

She blew a bubble and powered out another, "Ba!"

Laughing, Raina turned to check the clock over the oven. "Eleven-oh-five, Ivy. Where is our little scam artist?"

At that very moment, the front doorbell rang and Raina's eyes flashed.

"As my soon-to-be brother-in-law Isaiah would say," Chase teased, "‘Ask and you shall receive.'"

"And as his uber-cautious wife Grace would say, ‘Be careful what you wish for.'"

"You'll be fine," he assured her, easing Charlie out of her arms. "And I can carry one baby in one hand and the baby bouncer in the other. Take a video and show that to Hyphenated Helen."

The bell rang again.

"All right, all right," Raina muttered, helping Chase with the bouncer seat and watching him head up the stairs.

Giving it a minute to be sure he was set up and listening on the upstairs monitor, she took a deep breath, swiped her damp palms on her jeans, and marched to the door to whip it open and make sure Ivy knew who was in charge. And get a coffee cup in her hand, stat.

"Hello—" She nearly choked on the word as she stared at the woman at the door. It was Hyphenated… "Helen." She croaked the woman's name.

"You remember me," she said, giving a tight smile. "Helen Lensky-Fallon and this is Wendy Holmes, my assistant."

"Wendy."

Her mind went absolutely blank. How was this possible? What was she going to do? She could not let Helen meet Ivy. No, it couldn't happen.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Raina said, stepping closer and pulling the door behind her, praying Ivy didn't pull up now. "This is not a good time."

"There is no good time," Helen quipped. "In fact, the worse it is, the better for me to see the flaws the soft underbelly of your home, Ms. Wingate. Can I call you Raina?"

She blinked at her. "I'm expecting someone."

"We won't be in your way. Just think of us as disappearing elves in the background, listening and learning. I see your future husband's car—" She gestured to his convertible coupe. "Please tell me he doesn't take the babies in that thing."

"Oh, no. Never. In my sedan, which is so safe. So very safe." She swallowed as a car slowed down at the end of the long driveway, then exhaled when it didn't turn. "But can we reschedule, please? This meeting I have is, um, work. And it's very important."

"I thought you'd stopped working," Helen said, tilting her head with a question in eyes a few shades browner than her auburn hair. "Am I wrong that you are a stay-at-home mother?"

"Not that it matters," the other woman—Wanda? Wilma? Something…Holmes. Like Sherlock. "We approve adoptions for working mothers and fathers all the time. More than SAHMs, I assure you."

Raina winced at the acronym, never a fan. "I simply have to say no," she finally said. "I have a personal meeting with someone—"

"You just said it was work," Helen volleyed back. "Are you lying, Ms. Wingate?"

She let out a sigh. "It's a little of both, but I can't give you my full attention—"

"I don't want your attention, full or otherwise," she said, flipping her hand in a silent order to be let inside. "I want to speak with Mr. Madison, watch him interact with the babies, tour your house for everything from safety issues to the temperature. The soft underbelly, Ms. Wingate." Another hand flip. "Now or not at all."

Oh, dear. That car was slowing down and pulling in. She'd have to get rid of Ivy if she couldn't get rid of Hyphenated Helen.

On a sigh, she opened the door a little further and let them in.

"Thank you," Helen said, sounding a tad exasperated with the effort. As she stepped inside, she let out a hoot of happiness. "How lovely that you have water and coffee for us. Wendy? Would you like some?"

And both cups were swooped up with the wrong fingers leaving the wrong prints.

"Do you have milk?" Wendy asked. "I can't do heavy cream."

"Yes, I do…" In my breasts , she added mentally, glancing as the car rolled in. "But I—"

"If you'd just get that for me, I'd appreciate it," Wendy said with a smile that somehow seemed disingenuous on the forty-something blonde.

"Go ahead." Helen gave her a nudge. "We'll tell your company you'll be right here."

Flattened by this human bulldozer, Raina walked back to the kitchen, grabbed a carton of milk, and paused at the bottom of the stairs, considering a quick run to the top to give Chase a heads-up.

But that would take too long and the one thing Raina didn't want was Ivy and Helen to talk.

She sailed back toward the front door where Ivy and Helen were doing just that.

"Here you go," she called, trying to end the conversation before it started. Ivy did not need any more ammunition and Helen really did not need to know this woman even existed. "And, Ivy, how nice to see you again," Raina added. "Please help yourself to water or coffee while I take these ladies where they need to go."

She fried Helen with a look that said who was boss in this house and ushered the two women down the hall.

"Start upstairs. The nursery is the first door on your left and Chase is there with both babies." She practically pushed them up, then spun around and hurried back to Ivy, who stood in the center of the living room, arms crossed, no cup, glass, or bottle in her hands.

"Please, Ivy. A water or coffee?"

She shook her head, gripping her crossed arms tighter as if…as if she knew Raina wanted her fingerprints. Had she even touched the doorknob, or had Helen let her in?

"I'm done messing around," she spat out. "Give me the keys and the deed now, today, right here, or every person on Amelia Island will know your father took a mentally incapacitated woman by force, made her pregnant, paid her off to go away, and promised her a home, and then refused to deliver."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. That is not what happened and you know it. He couldn't hurt a fly and their liaison was entirely consensual. She never told him she was pregnant—"

"She told his father," Ivy interjected.

"And he's dead," Raina countered.

"Yes, just like my poor aunt, who didn't have the brainpower to hold off a man determined to have his way with her. Your father ruined her life."

"He did not," she shot back. "He gave her a place to live and work—"

"Out of guilt for what he did to her!" Ivy finished. "And now your whole family is trying to shake me down and get rid of me because you think you're so powerful you own this island. Well, I know the truth about all of you."

"The truth?" Raina scoffed. "About us? That we love each other unconditionally, have given blood, sweat, and tears to our local businesses, and care about everyone we know?"

"That you were married to one man, living with another, and have no idea who the father of your children really is!"

Raina gasped so hard she choked. "Excuse—"

"That one sister is involved with the Cassano mafia gang, another one blackmailed a Belgian billionaire for the money to start her business, and the youngest is such a flake she ran away from the altar in her wedding gown."

Raina's jaw nearly hit the ground. "How do…what have you…"

"People talk, Raina. And they just love to talk about Wingates. Don't get me started on how your twin sister let her son get into an accident when the ink was still drying on his driver's license, and another one hit on your dad's doctor while the old man was dying in the hospital."

Raina just stared at her, waiting for whatever this monster dug up on Grace.

"And the one who owns the bookstore left her baby daughter alone when the place went up in flames."

That. Another lie. Another utter abuse of the facts.

Ivy snorted, probably at the look on Raina's face. "So, believe me when I say they will gobble up this latest dirt about your father, a ra—"

"Stop it!" Raina screamed. "Don't say that word. It isn't true! Not one word of what you said is true."

"Isn't it?"

"Not…not that way. Just get out. Get out of my house. You are not welcome here. You can't do any damage with your lies, so bring 'em on, sweetheart. We will find out who you really are and we will destroy you in the process."

"Oh, sure, just another Wingate casualty." She rolled her eyes and walked toward the entryway, while Raina braced herself for her closing comment.

But she didn't say a word. She merely lifted the bottom of her sweater, wrapped the material over the doorknob, and let herself out without touching a thing. She turned her face when she walked out, no doubt avoiding being caught on the Ring camera.

Raina stood stone still, fighting the tears that welled up from deep inside.

Only then did she remember the baby monitor had just relayed the entire conversation to Hyphenated Helen and Sherlock Holmes.

For what seemed like an hour but was probably thirty endless seconds, Raina couldn't move. She waited for…something. Chase to come bounding down or Helen to announce the deal was off or one of the babies to wail at the unfairness of life.

But the house was utterly silent, which was weird.

Finally, she walked to the baby monitor—the one they'd so carefully set up to capture every word and broadcast to Chase in the nursery—and touched the switch to turn it off. Too little, too late, she thought as she stuck her nail on the soft button.

She held it down too long, it crackled, and all of a sudden, she heard hushed voices.

Chase…then Helen.

They were still up there? Maybe he'd brilliantly turned off the monitor when he heard Helen coming upstairs. But he didn't know Ivy had arrived. Still, he was smart and resourceful and—

"I know what I heard, Mr. Madison." Helen's disapproval came through loud and clear.

So he was not a miracle worker. They'd heard.

"You heard someone twisting facts, spewing gossip, and outright lying," Chase said.

"Why would that woman say those things about the Wingates?"

Raina turned to hustle upstairs for damage control.

"Let me tell you ladies something about the Wingates." Chase's voice was low and steady, the way it was when he wanted to make his point perfectly clear. Raina froze to listen.

"I don't think you can say much more than what that woman just told us," Helen replied. "I think I've heard enough to—"

"You've heard the vitriol of a greedy con artist who has an agenda and no moral compass."

Helen sniffed, her opinion about who had a broken moral compass pretty clear to Raina even without seeing her face.

"The Wingate family is unlike any I've ever known," Chase said, his voice clear through the small speaker. "And I say that as a man with cousins all over Sicily and two of the finest parents and grandparents that ever lived. I say that as a man who not only knows what makes a good family, but has longed to be a part of one for…well, forever."

Raina dropped on the edge of the sofa, needing to hear this.

"The only reason I met Raina was that she was a mama bear on a search for a missing cub—who happened to be her nephew, who'd been turned away from his own family because he's gay."

One of the women grunted in sympathy.

"She moved heaven and Earth for that young man, determined for him to know that if he had a drop of Wingate blood in him, he was family. Today, he's helping to run Wingate Properties, mentored by Raina, and loved by all."

"I understand that you—"

"No, no, you don't understand," Chase interjected. "There are seven sisters and they all live within a stone's throw of their parents. They are supportive, they are united, and they love through thick and thin and everything in between."

"But she called Rex a—"

"Rex Wingate is the definition of a kind man, with a heart so big it defies logic. He's fathered seven amazing women, raised four of them alone until he married Susannah, and just celebrated their fortieth anniversary. Men who do what she just said don't fit that mold, Helen."

The other woman was quiet, hopefully shut up by Chase's speech.

"These babies," he continued after a beat, making Raina close her eyes and imagine the scene upstairs, with the twins sleeping, maybe one in his arms. "These two are the luckiest girls in the world. And not because I hope to be the best father imaginable. But because they are Wingates, part of a legacy like I've never seen before. Good women, with open hearts and minds and the willingness to do whatever it takes to help each other."

One of the women sighed, and Raina hoped it was Helen and that it was a sigh of resignation.

"I would bet my life—and in fact, I have, as I will be giving it to Raina soon—that Rex is one hundred percent innocent of these false allegations. And every other incident she mentioned? They happened, not like that, but they did happen. Madeline was ‘involved' with the mafia because she put her life on the line to protect this town. Sadie was betrayed by the Belgian billionaire and bounced back with the support of her family. Chloe is a runaway bride because she's too smart to marry the wrong guy and her sisters helped her see that."

"I'm sure there are explanations—"

"There are, Helen. Good explanations. Grace didn't leave Nikki alone in the bookstore—she was with the man who is now her stepfather, and…who did I miss? Oh, Tori. Well, yeah, she did kind of run into Dr. Hottypants while Rex was recovering from his stroke." He chuckled. "That turned out okay, though."

Raina picked up a sofa cushion and smashed her face into it, not sure if they could hear her reaction, which was a squeal of pure love for this man.

"You forgot one allegation," Helen said. "And it has to do with the father of these children, and who Raina lived with while she was pregnant and not yet divorced."

For a long beat, there was just silence, and she squeezed her eyes shut to imagine Chase's handsome face, solid and strong as he considered his response.

"There is no question who is the biological father, who has relinquished his rights. And there is no question who is the emotional father. That would be me. I had the honor of becoming first Raina's tenant—living downstairs in the guest suite when I was in town—and then her friend. The only person who thinks I'm the biological father is in heaven now, and that is my nonna. Raina went against all her instincts and agreed to let my dear grandmother go to the next world happy."

"That was…sweet."

"It was far more than that," he shot back. "It was a selfless act of love, not the first or last that I've seen from Raina. It was also the day I knew I loved her and would wait forever for the honor of marrying her and spending the rest of my life loving, protecting, supporting, and enjoying Raina and these little girls. So, if the rumors say they are mine, then the rumors are right. They will be mine, God willing. And you, Helen. You have to be willing, too, I suppose."

Raina let out a sigh and sat up when, after a moment or two, she heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

Very slowly, she stood, ready to face the music. She came around the corner just as they reached the bottom of the stairs, with Helen in the lead.

"What else can I show you for a tour?" Raina asked.

"I've seen—and heard—enough." She gave a tight smile, handing Raina her coffee cup. "And I have a lot to think about."

Raina stepped back to let her pass, smiling at Wendy as she also handed back her coffee cup.

"I'll walk them to the door," Chase said, giving Raina's cheek a little knuckle-brush as he passed.

She didn't listen to any more of their conversation, but walked up the stairs slowly, turning into the nursery. Both babies were awake, cooing and moving and growing into two more amazing Wingate women.

Except if Chase adopted them and they got married—

"Well, not exactly what we expected, huh?" Chase said with a soft laugh as he came into the room.

"I heard what you said," she whispered, turning to him. "About my family and…well, thank you."

"Meant every word." He stepped closer to her, studying her face.

"You know, I haven't decided about my name. Of course, the girls will be Madison, but…"

"Raina Madison doesn't sound right?" he guessed.

"It's just…a huge change. And, if I'm being honest, I'm worried that it will hurt my dad's feelings. The Wingate name means so much to him."

"We could try again, have a boy and name him Wingate Madison," he said, only half-joking, she could tell.

"I think that ship has sailed," she replied, reaching up to close her hands around his neck and lower him for a kiss. "And your name is beautiful, too. Marrying you is an honor for me, and I'm not sure I want two different last names."

"You know what they say…a rose by any other name."

"That's my sister."

He laughed and she melted into his arms, not caring about names or problems or anything. Right then, she just wanted to hold the most wonderful man in the world and she simply couldn't wait to marry him.

"Tori said you could be Chase Wingate."

He laughed at that, then they kissed while the babies made a few noises, only breaking their contact when Charlie called out, "Da da da!"

And she thought Chase was going to dance with joy.