Page 97 of Spilling the Tea

“It’s a fair assessment to me, and until you can wrap your head around what’s true and what’s not, I suggest you separate yourself from me and my family.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just what I said. Ravena is trying to place a wedge in the relationship you’ve developed with my family. It’s the kind of relationship that, even as my fiancée, she never had. I don’t know what’s happened to her over the years, but now she’s vindictive and manipulating. Maybe she was that way all along, but because I was away in the military, I didn’t see it. Nevertheless, it sounds like you’ve chosen your side and I’d prefer not discussing the issue any longer.”

“Chance, I—”

“No, Zoey. I don’t want to hear anything else about it.”

He was glad she didn’t say anything during the remainder of the ride. When they got to the cabin, he walked her to the door, made sure she was safe inside, and left. He didn’t kiss her goodbye, or mention their plans for tomorrow. As far as he was concerned, they didn’t have plans for tomorrow or any days after that.

***

When Chance left, Zoey immediately felt a deep sense of loss. He was right to be upset and protective of his great-­grandmother, but like she told him, she had a gut feeling there was something about her necklace that Ms. Felicia was deliberately keeping from her.

After dressing for bed, Zoey picked up Arabella’s diary from the nightstand.

Needing answers and hoping Arabella’s diary gave them to her, she skipped the pages to when Arabella was seventeen. That would have been five years after Deedra’s death. As Zoey settled in bed, she read the entry written on Arabella’s seventeenth birthday.

Pa came to celebrate my birthday with me today. I knew he would since he’s never missed doing so. I could tell there was something on his mind, but I wanted him to tellme what it was when he was ready. Today, he seemed to be in a much happier mood. I want so much happiness for my pa. A part of him always seemed sad, and I know why.

He doesn’t know that I read Ma’s diary. I remember as a little girl, she would often write in it. I knew where she kept it, and the last time I went home, I took it back to Virginia with me and began reading it. It was a shocker to discover my parents never loved each other. However, over the years, they developed a true friendship.

That’s probably why it was no surprise when Pa finally got around to telling me what he wanted me to know. A woman he was once engaged to marry, Victoria Madaris, had moved back to Houston to help care for her ailing father. He said he hadn’t seen her in years since she had lived in Ohio. Pa wanted me to know he’d begun seeing her again.

Since I’ve never been able to keep anything from Pa, including my crush on Jonathan, I told him about Ma’s diary and that I understood and would be happy if he and Victoria Madaris rekindled their love. She never married, and he’d been a widower for five years, so there should not be a big deal about it.

He told me there would be a big deal with Gramma Penny, who despised the Madarises. Currently, he and Victoria saw each other in private so as not to upset his ma. It was Victoria’s idea that they do things that way, not his. As far as he was concerned, they were adults, and after all this time, he didn’t care who knew. I told him to do whatever made him happy since Gramma Penny would never change. She had grown into a bitter old woman and should not dictate his happiness. We hugged, and I told Pa if being with Victoria Madaris made him happy, then I was happy for the both of them.

Zoey wiped tears from her eyes. Like her mother Deedra, Arabella possessed a heart full of love. Waylon and Victoria hadn’t been involved in an affair and only began seeing each otherafterDeedra’s death. Five years after, in fact. Ravena had lied. Chance was right. There had been no reason to consider that Ravena had been telling the truth.

Zoey rubbed her hand down her face knowing she had screwed up big-time. Not only had she lost Chance but probably the entire Madaris family.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Felicia Laverne awakened to a new day. After getting dressed she would see if Diamond needed help with Amethyst’s birthday party tomorrow.

She was about to grab her robe off the chair when her cell phone rang. Each of her grands and great-grands had their own special ringtone. “Good morning, Chancellor.”

“Mama Laverne, you need to stop meeting with Zoey.”

She raised a brow. “Why?”

“We went dancing last night and Ravena waited for her in the bathroom and told her lies. Lies that upset Zoey so much, she asked me to take her home to think about whether there was any merit to what Ravena had said.”

Felicia Laverne didn’t say anything for a minute, then she asked, “And just what were these lies?”

“She told Zoey that her great-grandfather Waylon and my great-grandaunt Victoria were involved in an affair while he was married to Deedra, and you covered for them. Not only that, but he gave Aunt Victoria that necklace while still married to Deedra.”

Felicia Laverne felt a slight kick in her gut. “None of that is true.”

“That’s what I told Zoey, but she said she needed to think about it. There’s nothing to think about, and she should know that.”

“And why should she know that, Chancellor?”

“She knows you.”

Felicia Laverne shook her head. “She isgettingto know me. Put that Madaris pride aside a moment and think about it. Zoey had an aunt she trusted for twenty years, and in the end, she found out how that aunt had deceived her. Trusting someone and taking things at face value won’t be easy for Zoey. I understand that, and considering all she’s been through, I’d think you, a man who loves her, would do that, too.”

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