Page 88 of One Southern Summer

“Just a small donation. It really wasn’t much. I—”

“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Cole said. He looked like he wanted to vomit.

Avery gasped. “What? Where did you get that kind of money? And why did you bribe him?” She glared at Cole. “And why did you accept it?”

Her voice got louder with every question. Hayes burst into tears.

“I’ll take him.” Harper stood and extracted Hayes from the chair, swept him into her arms then gently settled him on her lap with a pacifier she retrieved from the table. He leaned against Harper’s shoulder and drew a deep withering breath as the pacifier wiggled in his mouth.

“Now, honey, this was all for your own good.” Nana shot Cole a nervous glance. “Tell her.”

“Oh, please. That’s what people say when they’ve done something thoughtless and cruel.” Avery tipped her chin up and narrowed her gaze at him. “How could you?”

“I have no excuse,” he said quietly. “It was wrong and I never should’ve agreed to the deal.”

“Turncoat,” Nana growled.

Avery’s chest compressed. She couldn’t breathe. Her legs itched to run, but she had to stay and hear the truth. Every last ugly bitter detail.

“And the napkin?” Avery shifted her attention to Harper. “Whose brilliant idea was it to tell the production team about that?”

Again, no one spoke. And all eyes dropped to the table. “You people are a bunch of cowards.”

“Greer told me about the napkin.” Mama slowly raised her hand and met Avery’s gaze. “I took it to a friend who works for the local news station. She was planning to do a story, but someone beat me to it.”

Mama pinned Nana with a meaningful look.

“Mama.” Avery didn’t have any other words. Her own mother was in on this twisted scheme?

“Look at your life, Avery. You’ve gone from the pit of despair to having everything you’ve ever wanted in less than six months. Nobody’s life turns around that fast.” Mama’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “This is the happiest I’ve seen you in years, so I absolutely will not apologize for trying to do what was in your best interests. Especially when you weren’t going to do it for yourself.”

“Since we’re having our come-to-Jesus talk, I asked a woman who volunteers at Westwood Manor to drive me to the house y’all are building. I had sneaked a picture of that napkin and showed it to the nice boys with the movie cameras.”

Cole cut Nana a glare, but he didn’t say anything.

The only sound was Hayes sucking on his pacifier and Addison singing off-key through the screen door to the porch.

“Hold up.” Avery shook her head, determined to track that rabbit trail as well. “Who helped you?”

Nana grimaced. “That’s not important.”

“Tell me.”

Nana avoided eye contact and smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle from her coral-colored slacks. “Genevieve.”

Avery barked out a laugh. “Why am I not surprised? Is that what you all think? That I’m not capable of making good choices, so you made what you thought were the best ones for me? That is wrong on so many levels.”

“Or it’s exactly true and you don’t want to admit that we were right,” Nana quipped.

Honestly, that woman didn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.

“This is unbelievable.” She stood, knocking her chair to the floor. “My own family conspired against me.”

“I don’t blame you for being upset. Please know that we had only the best intentions,” Cole said.

“Oh, is that right?” Avery didn’t even bother to keep the snark from her voice. “Well pardon me for not being more grateful.”

He winced and looked away.

---