In that moment, Ginny didn’t know enough to acknowledge the truth of her friend’s words. She would soon enough.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ginny stepped aside to avoid being run over by Larissa and her suitcase.
“What do you mean you’re outta here?”
“I’ll explain it one more time,” her stepmother called over her shoulder. “An investor called and asked if the business was for sale. I told him, yes, of course. That he should get in touch with you to make an offer. But he was only interested in my share.”
Larissa ran back up the stairs, emerging a moment later with another suitcase, this one bursting at the seams with undergarments.
“I don’t know why I never thought of that angle before, but your father’s will states that the company would be split fifty-fifty in the event of his demise. There’s no language precluding me from transferring my portion to someone else. And it’s done.” She held up her arms in a touchdown signal. “Hallelujah. I’m out.”
“But…” Ginny pressed the back of her wrist to her forehead. “You just sold half of the business without speaking to me?”
“I spoke to my lawyer.”
Ginny sat down on the stairs out of necessity. Her legs would no longer support her. “But I don’t even know this person.”
“I’m sorry, sweetie, but that’s no longer my problem.” Larissa slowed on her third trip up the stairs, sighing as she passed Ginny. “Look, you’re a good girl. Kind of weird, but nobody’s perfect. I gave it the old college try, honey.” She lifted a hand and let it drop. “This place just gives me the fucking creeps.”
“Did you really love my father?” Ginny blurted the question, unaware that it had been sitting on her tongue for years without being voiced. More than that, it had been eating at her, wondering if this woman who’d soaked up so much of Peter Lynn’s legacy had ever known how quietly extraordinary a human being he was. “Did you, Larissa? Because this place you detest so much…is him. It’s so him.”
“Yes,” her stepmother whispered shakily, her eyes turning to two perfect pools of glass. “I did love him. Why do you think I’ve stayed this long? Why do you think I’ve been trying so hard to—” She cut herself off with a headshake. “Yes, I loved Peter Lynn, right down to his uneven beard and mismatched socks.”
Ginny closed her eyes. “Thank you.”
Genuine grief flashed in her stepmother’s eyes. “One last chance to come with me.” Larissa playfully punched Ginny in the shoulder. “Make a clean start somewhere.”
“I have to stay.”
Larissa nodded. “That’s that, then, I guess.” She looked like she wanted to say more, but she hopped to her feet once more, as if the poignant moment never happened. “The investor offered me double my asking price for fifty percent of P. Lynn. The only condition was I get out today.”
“What? Are they planning on moving in here?”
Roksana cleared her throat loudly from her hiding spot in Ginny’s room.
Larissa whirled around. “Did you hear that?”
“No.” Larissa started to creep along the landing in the direction of the noise—and Ginny panicked. “You know how sometimes dead bodies expel air. That must have been it.”
“There are no bodies to speak of.”
“Oh I didn’t mention,” Ginny said, scratching her eyebrow. “A new guest arrived just as I did. Had the whole thing arranged. Didn’t I tell you?”
“No…” Larissa paused. “Oh, who gives a shit anymore? I’m done. Let the dead bodies do as they will.”
Ginny waited until Larissa had disappeared back into her room before speed walking to her own bedroom and closing the door. “What was that?”
Roksana rolled out from beneath the bed. “Ask for the name of the investor.”
With that, she trundled back out of view.
A very unladylike curse hovered on Ginny’s lips as she stomped back out into the hallway, calling, “Larissa. What did you say this person’s name was?”
“Oh, um…what was it…” She poked her head through the doorframe. “J. Cantrell. Sounded kind of cute, too. Maybe you’ll get lucky.”
Ginny’s jaw hung in the vicinity of her knees. From underneath her bed, she could hear Roksana snickering. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or livid.
Livid. Definitely livid.
This was the second time in twenty-four hours Jonas had made a huge decision without even dropping her an email. And that was on the heels of a series of decisions he’d made on her behalf since day one. Oh, she’d walked into this relationship with eyes wide open. Less than a day later, however, she was already questioning her sanity.
“How could he do something like that without even asking?” Ginny breathed, walking back to her bedroom in a stupor. “I never would have agreed to let him bail me out. I was figuring out what to do on my own.”
“You asked for human gestures.”
“No, I didn’t. You and Tucker decided I needed human gestures.”