Page 56 of Beneath the Flames
“Mind getting us another round of drinks, Stinks?”
Brie got up from the lounger as Lea’s infectious laughter filled the air.
“Oh, I like how that rhymes—drinks, stinks…” she giggled.
Mary looked at her tiresomely. “Amazing how the simplest things amuse you.”
Lea shrugged. “I just look at life differently.”
Mary huffed. “You got that right.”
“So, what’s been going on with you?” Brie asked Mary after she returned with a new round of drinks and settled back down.
The moment Brie heard Mary’s troubled sigh, it suddenly made sense why she’d been so surly all afternoon. Something was seriously wrong.
“What’s happened?” Brie prodded.
Mary just shook her head and took another sip of her drink.
“Spit it out or I’ll make a joke, and you know I’ve got thousands of them,” Lea threatened.
Rolling her eyes, Mary looked up at the sky. “Greg’s lawyers met with me last week.”
Brie sat up in alarm. “What the hell did they want from you?”
Mary’s face twisted in pain, and it looked as if she was about to retch. “Apparently, Greg had a God complex, because the fucker never made a will. Due to his error in judgment, I’m stuck getting a portion of his inheritance.” She shook her head violently. “But I don’twant any of it—not one penny.”
“How is that even possible?” Brie asked. “You were never married, and I heard California doesn’t recognize common-law marriages.”
Mary frowned when she repeated what the lawyers told her. “They droned on about joint checking accounts, credit cards, plus some property I had no clue about. Since we lived together acting as ‘mutual companions’—whatever the fuck that means—it somehow qualifies as a stable, marriage-like relationship in the eyes of the California courts.” Mary snorted in disgust. “The fucking irony is that Greg insisted on making everything joint because he wanted control over my income and every fucking penny I spent.”
“Talk about irony,” Lea muttered.
“I don’t want his fucking blood money!” Mary howled in rage.
A couple walking along the shore stopped to stare at her. One of Rytsar’s men quickly walked up to the couple and hurried them along.
Brie was puzzled. “I don’t get it. Holloway was an intelligent person. Knowing how he felt about you, why wouldn’t he have protected his assets when he knew California law? It makes no sense to me.”
Lea shook her head, equally perplexed.
“Oh, my God!” Mary suddenly cried, her face draining of all color. “Greg never considered it an issue because he expected to outlive me.”
What Mary said next caused goosebumps to rise on Brie’s skin.
“That bastard planned to kill me all along!”
Lying back in her chair, Mary stared up at the sky, her face pale and full of shock.
Brie lay there in stunned silence, the reality of what Holloway planned to do hovering over her like a suffocating cloud.
The silence was finally broken when Mary whimpered to herself, “Why can’t I ever be free of him…?”
Good Thoughts
With Master Nosh’s interview set to be filmed in a week, Brie decided to call Tono and share the happy news with him. He had always been a big supporter of her work, and she knew he would enjoy hearing about the new developments regarding her documentary.
Tono immediately picked up when she dialed his number. “I thought you might be calling.”
