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Billie and Presley exchanged a glance, and it was Presley who spelled out the question. “Olivia knows about that?”
“Yes. Both Ari and she do. Jesep told them in a family meeting. He decided he wanted his kids to earn their own fortunes the way he did through hard work and no trust fund.” She clamped her teeth over her bottom lip a moment. “The will has put another wedge between Ari, Olivia, and me.”
“Another?” Presley questioned. “What other wedges are there?”
“The obvious one of me being the stepmother and Jesep encouraged them to keep me at an emotional distance. He’snever wanted them to think of me as a mother, that if they did that, it would somehow replace his first wife.”
Billie heard the hurt there. Maybe the resignation, too. What she wasn’t hearing was any reason for Victoria to stay married to Jesep.
“When was this meeting to tell Ari and Olivia about the new will?” Billie asked.
“Last month,” Victoria muttered, and Billie could tell from the woman’s tone and expression that she thought maybe the new will had played into what’d happened to her.
“So, both Ari and Olivia have a reason to want you out of the way,” Presley concluded.
Victoria sighed. Nodded.
“And Jesep?” Presley went on. “Does he have a motive?”
“No.” That response came quickly, but then she sighed. “Not that I know of anyway. Our life together has been far from perfect, but we’ve been married for twenty-eight years. He’s never asked me for a divorce, and as far as I know, he hasn’t cheated.”
Not exactly resounding confirmations of a marriage that’d lasted so long. Definitely no mention of love.
“You were young when you married Jesep,” Billie commented.
Victoria nodded. “Twenty-four. Jesep was forty-one.”
“And you met when you became Olivia’s bone marrow donor,” Presley added, obviously his attempt to get the woman talking. So far, Victoria wasn’t painting a full picture of her life as a Wessington.
“No, I’d met Jesep before that,” Victoria corrected. “He and my father were friends and had done business together.” Another pause. “Look, I don’t expect you to understand this, but my father admired and respected Jesep, and I wanted to do something my father would approve of.”
“Uh, by marrying Jesep?” Presley asked.
“I did. I had failed my parents in so many ways. I thought I could do something to make him, well, not look at me as if he was sorry I was his daughter.”
“You failed your parents by having me,” Presley murmured. Billie didn’t hear any hurt, but she knew it was there. Abandonment and rejection could cause plenty of childhood scars.
“I, uh, acted out a lot,” Victoria said. “The pregnancy was just one of the things that disappointed them. And you weren’t to blame,” she quickly pointed out.
Presley made a sound as if he couldn’t quite buy that, and he doled out some more questions. “Tell me about my bio-father. Is he connected to any of this?”
Victoria was shaking her head before he even finished speaking, but she didn’t get a chance to add a verbal answer because of the loud voices in the hall. Or rather one loud voice anyway.
Ari.
“I will see Victoria now,” Ari snarled.
“Let him in,” Victoria insisted. “I don’t want an altercation.”
Billie couldn’t rule out the possibility of their being one. Angel wasn’t the sort to take crap from anyone, and Ari sounded as if he was on the verge of picking a fight.
Presley went to the door, opened it, and nodded to Angel, who stepped aside so Ari could rush in. But he wasn’t alone. Olivia was right on her brother’s heels.
Ari didn’t seem surprised to see Presley or her in his stepmother’s room. In fact, Billie got the distinct impression that he’d not only known they were there, but it was the reason he’d been so adamant about seeing Victoria.
“What the hell is going on here?” Ari demanded, directing that at Victoria. “Why are you talking to them?”
“They saved my life,” Victoria said, which, of course, wasn’t an answer that placated a clearly riled Ari.
