I shake my head, incredulous that she’d suggest such a thing. “Of course not!” I say dangerously. “But isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? Why are you so worried about what your aunt is doing with her money?”
It’s a question that keeps coming up in my mind. It makes complete sense for Claire to protect her aunt, but she’s not doing that. She’s protecting the money. Also logical, but there’s something that doesn’t sit right about it. “Are you trying to take control of Elena, her money, or both?”
Claire makes a sound that would be worthy of an internet meme for ‘pissed off Karen’ as she crosses her arms. “How dare you? You don’t know anything about me. Like the fact that Mr. Oleana has been showing me how to reconcile the accounts for years.”
“He what?” Elena shrieks.
“It’s what Uncle Thomas wanted,” Claire asserts with smug certainty.
Elena shakes her head vehemently. “Thomas could want in one hand and shit in the other, and see which filled up faster. You were never going to manage the money. It’s a conflict of interest. You get your monthly allowance, same as I do, and leave the money-obsessing to someone qualified to do it.”
Claire stomps her foot like she’s a toddler. “Allowance? Is that what you call the pittance Mr. Oleana gives me? I can’t live on that. Nobody can!”
Luna raises her hand. “I bet most people would be quite grateful to be given an allowance when they didn’t do a thing to earn it besides be born into the right gene pool. Am I right?”
Luna’s asking me, assuming that because my family has money too, I’ll have an opinion on this. I do, but we’re going to have to address her assumptions later because she’s dead wrong. “I haven’t gotten an allowance from my family trust since I was twenty-five and started working. Yes, I have a nest egg. It’s there if I have an emergency, but I don’t depend on it. My parents made sure that we all have a solid work ethic, know the value of a dollar, and that the only one we should spend is the one we earn. Seems like you missed that lesson, Claire.”
“Well, at least I learned not to lie my way through life to get what I want,” she counters harshly.
She’s got a fair point there, so I nod agreeably. “My dad taught me that too. Shame I didn’t learn it very well until recently.” I noticeably take Luna’s hand, unmistakably communicating that we are together. For real and forever this time.
“Wow,” Claire sneers. “You must be really good on your knees.” She looks at Luna with undisguised condescension, and I half-expect Luna to go feral on Claire. Deservedly so, in my opinion, and I’d grab my popcorn and cheer my girl on if it comes to that. Luna stays still, though, being the better woman she is, and not getting the reaction she wants, Claire casts a cold stare my way. “Or you really need someone who thinks your manipulative asshole act is charming.”
“Claire!”
I hold out a hand, stopping Elena from whatever she’s about to say in our defense. “It’s okay. That’s what she thinks. She’s completely wrong, but this gives me a chance to correct her thinking.” I take a step toward Claire, and she defiantly lifts her chin to return my hard look.
“Luna is good on her knees.” Luna squawks behind me, but I quickly continue, “but that’s only a small part of why I love her. She’s strong, beautiful, chaotic, and sees the world in a way I can only dream about. She makes every day better just by being there. And maybe I am a manipulative asshole, but if so, Luna knows exactly who and what I am. She’s probably the only one who does. And I didn’t trick her into loving me, but for some reason, she does—all the good and the bad—so I try to be better every day, for her.”
Claire huffs, her eyes rolling so far back into her head that she can probably check out her own non-existent ass. “You’re not falling for this again, are you?” she asks Elena.
“I have fallen exactly one time in my whole life, and it was for one Mister Thomas Cartwright. I knew something was up with Carter and Luna from the get-go, same as I know you have Mr. Oleana using estate funds to pay for Jacob’s piano lessons and several other bills, thinking I don’t have a clue. I signed off on the damn charges, Claire. Same as I signed off on your allowance and the ‘extra’ one Thomas gave you years ago when you asked him and not me, thinking you could get around me.”
She stares Claire down, letting that sink in. “You think you’re pulling the wool over my eyes with any of that stuff? I know it’s all about the money for you, but giving you money kept you away from Thomas because I knew you’d break his heart eventually, and I would do damn near anything to keep that from happening. All he wanted was a family, and you were the only blood he had left. But you’re a greedy bitch. That money was a small price to pay to keep you at arm’s distance.”
Claire’s mouth hangs open, her eyes wide in shock. “Why, I never!”
“We know,” Bernard says. Quieter, he turns to me and Luna and says, “This has been a long time coming. Looks like I’ll be the one with the tea tonight. Stanley’ll be so mad he missed out.”
Wait . . .
“You came in on squealing tires, running to stop us from talking to Elena. How’d you know we were here?” I already know the answer, but I’m curious to see if she’ll fess up.
“What? I was just coming over to check on Aunt Elena and . . . I saw your car.” There’s an obvious delay as she tries to create a story on the fly.
“Stanley told you, didn’t he?” I deduce.
Claire juts her chin out proudly. “He knows who’ll inherit the estate eventually, and who’ll be taking care of him. Or not.”
“You did not threaten Stanley,” Elena gasps. “That man has given his whole life to the Cartwright family and is basically family himself. How dare you?”
“It’s the truth,” Claire says. “He knows what’s good for him, who’s good for him.”
Luna pipes up to add, “Not you.”
I look at her in surprise, and she blinks rapidly. I’m not sure whether she meant to say that or only think it. But Elena’s look says she’s fully approving, and I suddenly wonder if Alphena might find a mentor in a kind old lady named Elena.
Elena’s heard enough.
“Let’s go talk to that man right now,” she says, brushing off her backside with no shame. “I’m gonna tell him that he doesn’t have to do a thing you say. I don’t want him so much as getting you a glass of water if you’re dying of dehydration. I won’t let you stress that poor man out with this nonsense.”
She starts toward the house, and we all follow like soldiers into war.
CHAPTER
THIRTY
LUNA
“Aunt Elena . . . wait . . . stop . . .” Claire is chasing after Elena, which speaks to how fast Elena is hoofing it across the side yard to the house. It doesn’t help that Claire is wearing heels that keep sinking into the grass, but still, pretty impressive for a woman Elena’s age.
Bernard grumbles, eyeing the holes Claire’s leaving behind, and I have no doubt that he’s cussing her a blue streak in his mind.