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“You suck,” I huffed.
“If you’d let this go,” she said, “I wouldn’t have taken pictures of you and Elrik at the beach. I wouldn’t have needed money to give myself a new start.”
“No more plans for a coffee shop?” Elrik asked.
“I want to leave town.”
“But you’re taking care of Bob,” I said.
“And you’re practically running Sterling Life and Indemnity,” Elrik added.
“Bob’s shoving me out as if I haven’t spent all this time not only ferrying him around from one engagement to another but keeping that business afloat. I was the one who talked Grannie Rose into backing away from a lawsuit after she fell. I sold more policies over the past year than he did in the two prior years combined.”
“What else have you done?” I asked, feeling incredibly defeated. I hadn’t been close to Ginny while growing up; she was older than me. But I thought we respected each other, if nothing else. Now I felt like I’d cared for a stranger.
“Remember a few weeks ago when people started complaining that your ice cream tasted like pickles and black pepper?” she said with a sneer.
I sputtered. “You sabotaged my ice cream?”
“If you hadn’t dumped it out, you would’ve earned those one-star reviews,” she said.
All I could do was shake my head and back away as Detective Carter strode forward.
“Will you come with me peacefully, or do I need to put you in cuffs?” he asked. His nod took in me and Elrik, and I knew he’d take it from here. Ginny would be arrested and charged. Grannie Rose’s name would be cleared. And we’d all try to move on from this betrayal.
She shot me a glare before nodding to him. “Don’t cuff me.”
Detective Carter led Ginny away. She kept shouting about how she was still going to ruin me, how she was going to show the pictures to Grannie, how she was going to tack copies on the bulletin board in town hall.
She’d soon realize that this was over, that she no longer held any power over me or Grannie Rose.
Elrik held out his arms, and I leaped into them. He held me while I struggled to gain control of my turbulent emotions.
“I’ll tell Grannie,” I whispered against his neck. “I won’t show her the picture Ginny sent, but I’ll tell her about it and let her know there are others. If she rejects me, then that’s how it goes.”
“I don’t think she will.” He stared down at me with so much love in his eyes that no matter what, I knew everything was going to be alright. “No one respects a blackmailer, but everyone adores you.”
“I have enough saved to weather any storm Ginny might send my way.”
“Wehave the strength to weather whatever storm someone chooses to sendourway.”
For the first time since I opened the envelope, I felt complete joy in my heart. “You’re right. I’m not alone any longer. I have you in my life and in my heart.”
“Always.”
And then he kissed me.
34
EPILOGUE
MELLY
“Ineed help.” A woman with dark hair in a blunt cut with bangs and streaked with auburn said from the entrance to Monsters, PI. “My B&B is haunted,” she said in a rush over to the front desk where I was filling in for the day.
Bailey had needed time off, and I’d volunteered. It was the least I could do. Carla did so well with our PR disaster at Creature Cones that I’d promoted her to a managerial position and hired someone new to take her place at the counter. She’d confessed about her financial situation and told me the raise was welcome.
I pushed again for her to hang some of her art in the shop, and she reluctantly agreed. To her surprise, it was selling—at a very high price.
