Garnet Flats (The Edens)

“Come in.” I waved Vivienne inside, shifting to make space.

Foster’s grip on my hand tightened as his forehead furrowed.

“I’m sorry.” A tear dropped from Vivienne’s cheek, landing on the floor. “I’m so sorry.”

She was on the verge of hysteria. Her fingers shook so badly she couldn’t grip the zipper on her coat. She tried four times before Foster finally stepped in, helping her take off the jacket before steadying her as she struggled with her shoes.

“Did you fly?” Foster asked.

She nodded. “To Missoula. Then picked up a rental and drove here.”

“You should have called me.” Foster frowned. “Called the charter.”

“I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked. She glanced at him, then at me. Whatever she saw on our faces was enough to push her over the edge. Vivienne buried her face in her hands, the muffled sobs shaking her shoulders, until Foster pulled her into his side.

“You’re worrying me, Vivi,” he said, looking to me with an unspoken question in his gaze.

This okay?

I nodded.

Maybe I’d overlooked it before, or maybe I’d been too stuck in my own head to notice, but the way he hugged her was the way my brothers hugged me. It was just a hug. He gave her a strong body to lean against, nothing more.

It was nothing like the comfort he’d given me earlier. There was no intimacy in that embrace.

They were . . . friends.

Maybe, in time, I could be friends with Vivienne again too.

Somewhere along the way, I’d forgiven her. It had happened so quietly that I hadn’t even realized it until this moment. The awkwardness might linger for a while, but I didn’t hate Vivienne. I didn’t resent her for the years she’d had with him.

And Foster, well . . . I think I’d forgiven him months ago. Around the time we’d made snow angels in my yard.

“Vivi,” I said. “Do you want to see Kadence?”

She stepped away from Foster’s side, using the sleeve of her shirt to dry her face. Then she nodded. “Please. Is she asleep?”

“Yeah. But you know how she is,” Foster said. “We could blare heavy metal from the hallway and she’d sleep through it.”

The corner of Vivienne’s mouth turned up.

“I’ll show you to her room,” I said, leading the way through the house.

“You have a beautiful home. Kadence talks about it sometimes. She loves it here.”

I smiled over my shoulder. “I’m glad. I like having her here.”

We reached the doorway, and I stepped aside so Vivienne could slip into Kaddie’s room. But she didn’t go in. She hovered at the threshold while a different sadness—bittersweet and lonely instead of pained and desperate—filled her gaze.

“I feel like I’m losing her. Or a part of her. But if I have to share her, I’m glad it’s with you.” Before I could reply, she walked into the room, going straight for the bed where Kadence was curled in her blankets like a burrito. Vivienne bent and kissed her forehead, then whispered something before leaving her daughter to sleep.

Her shoulders were squared as she returned to the hallway. She sniffled but had stopped crying. “Can we talk in the living room?”

“Sure.” I nodded, and when we turned, Foster stood a few feet away.

“Need a drink?” he asked.

Vivienne shook her head.

“Tally?”

“I’m okay.” I walked to his side and let him take my hand, tugging me to the living room.

Foster and I sat on the couch, seated so closely that our thighs touched. And Vivienne took the seat opposite us in my favorite reading chair.

“What’s going on, Vivi?” Foster asked. “What’s going on with Dex?”

She sat ramrod straight, her hands clasped on her lap and her chin down. A woman who was preparing for an interrogation, ready to make her confession. “I’ll start at the beginning.”

For me. Foster knew their background because he’d been there. But I appreciated that she was including me too.

“Dex and I met at Angel’s about three years ago. He came in with a mutual friend to learn how to box. I was working at the gym. It was all part of Dad’s grand plan. He had his son-in-law for teaching and training, this wildly successful fighter Dad could claim was his protégé. And his daughter was in the office, wasting the teaching degree she’d earned to run the business side of things at the gym. It was Dad’s perfect Angel’s Gym family. All lies and manipulation.”

Animosity crept into her tone. Vivienne glared at an invisible spot on the carpet like she was picturing her father’s face.

“Thankfully, Dad wasn’t around much. And he was never interested in accounting or marketing. Which meant I had the office to myself most of the time. It was perfect when Kadence was a baby.”

“We set up a play area. Vivi would keep Kaddie in the office, and I was close by to help,” Foster said.

“When she started preschool, it was lonely. Really lonely. Maybe that was why I didn’t dismiss Dex the first time he came into the office and flirted with me. Because I was alone and, well . . . no one had flirted with me in a really long time.”

“Did he know you and Foster were married?” I asked. Even if Dex had known it was a sham, it seemed like a bold move to chase after Foster Madden’s wife.

“It was harmless.” She shrugged. “And for about a year, that’s all it was. Dex would come into the gym every Monday, Wednesday and Friday over the lunch hour. He’d work out. Hit the showers. Then before he left, he’d pop into the office and compliment me on my hair or my shirt or my ears or my laugh. He’s handsome. I was flattered. And he made me feel wanted.”

Foster sighed. There was a lot of guilt in that sigh. The reason she’d felt unwanted was because Foster had always loved me.

I put my hand on his knee and leaned in deeper. There was nothing for him to feel guilty about. He never could have been the man Vivienne needed.

Because he was mine.

“Somewhere along the way, the flirting became more serious,” Vivienne said. “I can’t even pinpoint when, but our conversations felt different.”

“It wasn’t harmless anymore,” I said.

“We developed feelings for each other.” A ghost of a smile pulled at her lips. “Until one day, he came in—it was a day when Foster wasn’t at the gym—and asked if he could see me. He knew I was married but he said that he couldn’t stop thinking about me. So we started an affair.”

“No,” Foster said. “Not an affair.”

“Wasn’t it?” she asked.

“I knew about it,” he said. “I understood.”

“Until today, I never felt ashamed. I fell in love with Dex, and yeah, it wasn’t how I would have liked to start a new relationship, but we didn’t have a lot of options, did we? But today . . .” She swallowed hard. “Was I so desperate to find love that I invented it? Was I so lonesome that I overlooked all of the red flags? He pursued me. Actively. He knew I was a married woman and he chased me anyway. Yeah, our marriage was a sham. But he didn’t know that. Not then.”

“Vivienne, if you missed it, then so did I,” Foster said. “Those days he came to the gym, I knew who he was. I knew why he went to the office. You think I’d let him waltz in there if I thought he was using you?”

Vivi closed her eyes. “I think . . . I think neither of us knew the real Dex. Like we didn’t know the real Arlo.”

Foster stiffened at the comparison. “What happened?”

“Dex and I have been together for years.” She didn’t answer Foster’s question but continued the story for me. “I didn’t want to risk my dad finding out and making our situation worse, so we kept it a secret. In the beginning, Dex thought that the reason we were sneaking around was because of Foster. That we were unhappy in our marriage but staying together for Kadence. Except I couldn’t have that secret hanging over our heads forever.”

So she’d told him about the blackmail.

“I told Dex the truth about six months before Dad died,” she said. “He wasn’t very happy that I’d lied to him, but we got through it. Then Dad died and we were free.”

Free. It was the same term that Foster had used.

“How does all of this lead to you coming to Montana in tears?” Foster asked. He’d been patient, letting Vivienne give me the backstory, but that patience was fading.

Vivienne’s frame shrank in the chair. “Dex doesn’t want to move. He’s basically refused to at this point. We’ve fought about it so many times, I’ve lost track.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” he said. “You said he was just dragging his feet.”

“You needed to be here,” she told him.

With me.

“He was upset about changing his job,” Vivienne said.

Foster scoffed. “He works remotely for a tech company based in Houston. Nothing about his job was going to change other than the address of his home office.”

“I know.” Vivienne held up her hands. “But regardless, every time I brought up the move, we’d get in a fight. He didn’t like that I was moving to accommodate you, even though I told him it was best for Kadence.”

Foster’s jaw clenched. He’d told me that Dex was a good guy, but based on the strain creeping into his body, I was thinking that opinion was changing.

“The real reason he didn’t want to move is because he can’t leave Vegas,” Vivienne said.

“Can’t?” Foster asked.

Vivienne sucked in a shaky breath, then leaned forward, elbows to knees. “Dex got in with a bookie. Put big money on a horse race and lost. I had no idea. But apparently, my dad found out.”

Foster inched forward.

“Dad knew Dex and I were together. I don’t know how or when he found out, but he knew. So he approached Dex about it.”

“And what? Threatened him?” Foster asked.

Vivienne shook her head. “No. Dad just offered Dex the chance to make more money. Said that he’d never allow you and me to get divorced, so if Dex was always going to be my side piece, he might as well get rich in the process.”

“Damn it.” Foster dragged a hand through his hair. “Fights. Dex bet on fights, didn’t he?”

“Yep. Dad took him to an underground fight and he’s been going ever since. It started about the same time I told him the truth about the blackmail. Maybe the reason he went in the first place was because he was pissed at me. I don’t know. But even knowing all that I’d told him about those illegal fights, Dex went with Dad. He did okay at first. Won most of his bets.”

“Because Arlo was telling him exactly who to bet on.” Foster’s jaw ticked. “Fuck. Then that old bastard died.”

Vivienne didn’t so much as flinch at that last comment. I doubted it was the first time Foster had cursed Arlo’s name.

The room went still. Vivienne didn’t really need to explain. Our minds were all barreling in the same direction. When Arlo had died, Dex wouldn’t have known who to bet on.

“How deep is he in, Vivi?” Foster asked.

“Almost three million dollars.” She gulped. “He kept losing. Kept borrowing, promising to win big. Arlo had taught him enough about fighting, so it was just a matter of time. He was just on a losing streak.”

A three-million-dollar losing streak. Who kept giving that idiot money? I studied Foster, waiting to see if he was going to explode. His face was granite. His stormy eyes raged. But he didn’t so much as breathe, let alone speak.

“Dex sold his house. He moved in with me after Kadence came here,” Vivienne said.

“That should at least buy him some time, right?” I asked. “How much did he pay off?”

Vivienne stared at the carpet again. “He, um, didn’t put it toward his debt. He took that money and put it on another fight.”

“Son of a bitch.” Foster shot to his feet, walking to the fireplace to brace his arms on the mantel. “You’re fucking kidding me.”

“He bet it on your fight.”

“Of course he did,” Foster muttered. “Well, at least he’ll likely win this one.”

Vivienne winced. “He bet on Savage to win. It’s two to one odds. You’re favored.”

So Dex had bet on Savage in the hopes that he’d get a bigger payout. Even though Foster was likely going to win.

Foster straightened. “Tell me you’re joking.”

“I didn’t know.” Vivienne’s brown eyes filled with more tears. “Not until this morning. A guy came to the house and threatened Dex. I was in the kitchen, cooking breakfast. I heard shouting and banging. When I got to the living room, Dex was kneeling on the floor. The man had a gun to his head. He said either Dex gets the money or he’s dead. To give him extra motivation, he promised to kill me first. And make Dex watch.”

I gasped.

Vivienne was trembling. “I packed up and left.”

Foster stood frozen, staring blankly at the mantel. The muscles in his shoulders and back were bunched.

“Three million dollars?” I asked Vivienne.

“Yes.” She caught a tear before it could fall. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I can sell the house and give Dex my half. Sell my car. Sell Angel’s. Hopefully the man who has been fronting Dex will give me time to liquidate everything, but I don’t know. It sounded like they’re expecting to be paid immediately after the fight.”

The fight was in two weeks. She wouldn’t be able to sell properties in that time.

“Who’s the man Dex has been borrowing from?” Foster asked.

“Tony Sabbatini.”

“Christ.” He closed his eyes.

“Who’s Tony Sabbatini?” I asked, staring between them both.

“A man you pay back,” Vivienne said quietly. “One of Dad’s nefarious acquaintances.”

“I’ll give you the money,” Foster said. “Then we’ll be done with it.”

“It’s not that simple.” Her face paled. “Dex won’t take it. I already suggested we borrow it from you.”

“He’s a fucking fool,” Foster clipped.

“He’s jealous,” she said. “He won’t admit it, but he’s jealous of you. He said he’d rather die than live in debt to you the rest of his life.”

Foster raised his chin. “That’s his choice.”

“Even if that means they come after me?” she asked. “I’m sorry. I know you’re angry. I’m angry too. But, Foster . . . I love him.”

Her love, and Dex’s pride, might get them both killed.

My stomach knotted.

Foster’s hands balled into fists. “What are you asking me to do, Vivienne?”

Her chin quivered. And though she whispered the word, it was as loud as a gunshot.

“Lose.”