Page 102 of Spilling the Tea

She saw the shocked look on all her sons’ faces. “Yes. The only people who knew were me, Milton, and Waylon’s daughter, Arabella. They got married in Virginia, so Arabella could be present.”

“I never saw Aunt Victoria wearing a wedding ring,” her son Lucas said.

“She had one, but since their marriage was a secret, she didn’t wear it in public. Waylon had a lovely gold necklace with a diamond designed for her and presented it to her as a wedding gift, to symbolize their union. She wore that necklace every day. It’s the necklace Zoey is wearing.”

Everyone stared at Zoey. Most had seen her wearing the necklace, but none had known its history.

“Keeping their marriage a secret worked well for them,” Felicia Laverne continued. “Victoria moved into the cabin Waylon had built for her years before. Although Waylon spent moretime at the cabin than he did at home, his mother never suspected a thing. They also spent a lot of time away in Virginia visiting Arabella. They decided to announce their marriage to Ms. Penny on their second anniversary.”

“Wait a minute,” Jonathan said, as if he’d just remembered something vital. “The night Aunt Victoria was robbed, her killer took that necklace. The police captured him after he’d pawned it.”

“Yes. Milton returned the necklace to Waylon, who gave it to Arabella.”

“I knew that necklace was familiar when I saw you wearing it at the family reunion,” Jonathan said to Zoey.

“My grandmother Arabella wrote in her diary how honored she felt to wear it because she knew how much her father had loved Victoria,” Zoey said sadly.

“Legally, Victoria Madaris was Victoria Satterfield when she died,” Clayton said. “That meant Waylon Satterfield should have handled everything as her next of kin.”

“True,” Felicia Laverne agreed. “However, Waylon took Victoria’s death extremely hard. They had been married a month shy of two years. He and Milton knew revealing their secret marriage would cause unnecessary gossip. That was the last thing Milton, as her brother, and Waylon, as her husband, wanted. They also knew it would not have been what Victoria would have wanted. So, Waylon asked Milton to handle the arrangements. However, an agreement was made between the best friends that when Waylon died, he would be buried with Victoria.”

The room became silent as what she said sank in. Of course, it was Milton Jr. who asked, “Are you saying Waylon Satterfield is buried with Aunt Victoria in that tomb?”

Felicia Laverne nodded. “Yes, that’s what I’m saying. He’d also told Arabella what he wanted, and when he died, the burial arrangements were made in accordance with his wishes.”

“I recall going to his funeral and saw his casket lowered to the ground,” her son Lee said.

“That night, your father, along with a couple of his trusted ranch hands, dug it back up, recovered the grave, and placed Waylon’s coffin where Milton had promised it would be. Right beside his wife’s. Inside the tomb is a beautiful bronze plaque Arabella had made, with the words,Waylon and Victoria Satterfield. Together forever.”

“How touching,” Sam, Blade’s wife, said. “I’m glad that after all they went through, they spent at least two years happily married.”

“Is that why the tomb was sealed shut?”

“Yes,” Felicia Laverne answered her son Nolan. “Milton knew the secret would one day be revealed if it wasn’t. He sealed it shut before he died.”

Felicia Laverne paused, then said, “There is something else all of you need to know. Penny Satterfield had been carrying around hate for our family for so long, she hadn’t realized what travesty it had caused Waylon. When Victoria died, that’s when he told his mother that he and Victoria had been married for almost two years, noting why they had kept it from her. She saw how hard he was taking his wife’s death. I understand his revelation made her feel bad because Waylon had been a good son who had taken care of her after Mr. Kurt’s death. She felt worse when she learned the name of the young man who’d been arrested for killing Victoria.”

“Why?” Jonathan asked. “If I recall, he wasn’t from around these parts, but someone passing through. He committed suicide just days after being arrested.”

“Did Penny Satterfield know the man?” Jake then asked.

“Yes,” Felicia replied. “Although the name meant nothing to Waylon, Penny recognized it as the son Charlotte had from her second husband.”

“What?!” Several voices said simultaneously before pandemonium broke out among her sons.

“Are you saying Aunt Victoria’s death was not a random robbery but was intentional?” Jonathan asked in a steely voice.

“Yes, but we didn’t discover this until months later,” Felicia Laverne said. “Although Kurt Satterfield had forbidden Penny to have contact with Charlotte, she did so anyway behind his back. That’s how she knew Charlotte’s oldest son, the one she’d claimed was Milton’s, had gotten killed in a card game at twenty-one. Her second son, I understand, was always in and out of trouble with the law and had been in jail a few times. Charlotte had corrupted his mind against the Madaris family. Doing what he thought would please his mother, he traveled to Houston, stalked Victoria, and took her life when he had the opportunity to do so.”

Pandemonium broke out again, her sons all speaking at once.

“Why wasn’t Charlotte arrested?”

“Why weren’t we told of this?”

Felicia Laverne waited for her sons to rein in their anger before answering. “No one made the connection since the man had a different last name. Ms. Penny only confessed all this to Waylon on her deathbed almost a year later. And there was something else she confessed to Waylon at that time.”

“What?” Jake asked when his other brothers seemed too upset to do so.

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