Amelia (6 page)

“Divorce? Your marriage wasn’t even legal.”

Sam held up a hand and the envelope he’d torn open as the women began their banter. “Um, I think we’d better settle down.”

“I would like to say my piece,” Amelia said directly to him. Her eyes were even darker than when he had kissed her and he knew this was her attack mode. Now he certainly wished he had more people in his office to help than just his mother.

Amelia rested her hands on the table with her palms down. “I didn’t go out to steal
your
husband. I met a man and I fell in love. He asked me to marry him and I did. I never, and I mean never, would have thought that he had a family somewhere else.”

Vivian’s lips twitched. “What about you?” She nodded in Penelope’s direction. “You seriously didn’t know he was married too? You can’t be over nineteen.”

Penelope batted her eyes quickly as the tears had already begun to fall. “I’m twenty-one.”

“Oh, that’s so much better,” Vivian said with her hands in the air.

“Leave her alone. She didn’t know about any of this,” Amelia warned.

Vivian turned back toward Sam. “Listen. I was married to him for ten years. I have his two children. I’m not asking for millions of dollars. I’m not looking to settle everything with what he may or may not have had. But it was his wish that I stay home and raise our children and I did that. He can’t just go giving everything he has to someone else.”

Sam took a piece of paper out of the envelope and slid it toward Vivian. She looked down as he did so and then back at him, her eyes open wide.

“Why did he give that to you? Why do you have it?”

“It was in this envelope,” Sam clarified. “I haven’t opened it until now.”

Vivian sucked her lips in between her teeth and he could see her fight off the tears that would be there soon.

“He never signed our marriage license.” The tears were now falling as she looked down at the paper. “We got married in the back yard just hours before he deployed for the very first time.” She sucked in a breath. “He took the license, tucked it into the pocket of his uniform, and said he’d finish it up. He kissed me goodbye and he was gone for nearly a year.”

Vivian wiped at her cheeks and Sam handed her the box of tissue at his side.

She gave him what he’d consider a grateful look and took one from the box.

The other two women sat there with their eyes open wide as Vivian had spoken. The entire room had realized because he’d never filed the paperwork Vivian Monroe had only changed her name. She wasn’t legally married to Adam Monroe. Though Sam considered that common law.

“For the record you assumed you were married?”

Vivian looked up at him with pleading eyes. “Well, yes. He said we were. He promised me…” She looked toward the other women and there was an understanding in that moment.

When she’d wiped away more tears she looked back at Sam. “I can’t afford to live without his paychecks. They didn’t always come on time. He’d forget to give me money for the electric bill and I’d have to borrow. But it was something. Now what do I do?”

Sam reached his hand over and placed it atop of hers. “Let’s finish through this and then we can decide what legal action we need to take.”

Vivian nodded in agreement and placed her hands in her lap.

Sam was very familiar with the will. He’d looked it over many times after it had been drafted. But, he’d admit he thought perhaps when they’d penned it, generically, that Amelia Monroe was an elderly relative—not another wife—or the woman he’d someday literally sacrifice his career for.

“Amelia is the full beneficiary. She will assume ownership of Mr. Monroe’s personal belongings, bank accounts, pension, and investments.”

“Investments?” Vivian’s hands flew in the air again. “He didn’t have investments. I’m on his bank accounts. She can’t have the ones my name is on.”

Sam pulled more paper from the envelope. “It seems he had many accounts, Mrs. Monroe.”

“She can have whatever they had together,” Amelia said quickly. “This is all absurd anyway. Why me?”

“You were his only legal wife.”

All eyes turned to Penelope whose mouth had opened with a tiny squeal.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Monroe. The man who performed your marriage was not licensed to do so. Your paperwork was not filed with the courts correctly either I’m afraid.”

The room filled with a thick silence. There were three Mrs. Monroes, but only one legal one.

“Mr. Jackson,” Amelia bit out and he didn’t like the sound of his proper name on her lips. “What do I need to do to go about securing what was left to me?”

Vivian stood this time. “You’re going to take it? What kind of woman are you? I have kids to feed.”

“And your kids will be fed.”

“You don’t deserve this. You can’t have this. I’m going to fight it.”

“You can’t afford to fight it,” Amelia pointed out.

Vivian’s eyebrows narrowed in. “He was
my
husband. Ten freaking years!” She slammed her fist to the table. “I’ll find a way to fight you for what should be mine.”

Amelia exchanged glances with Penelope and then looked back at Sam. “I need this. I need what he left me.”

“I have all the papers here. The accounts and…”

“Bitch!” Vivian was walking around the table and that was when Sam and Amelia got to their feet.

Sam watched as Amelia held her hand out as if to just say stop—as if she were Darth Vader and had the force. And Vivian stopped.

“Listen,” her voice shook, but only with a resonating anger which he knew was filling her body and not the fear of women getting out of control, which was filling his body. “I respect that you need to take care of your family. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. But Penelope was his wife too.”

“Their marriage wasn’t legal,” Vivian pointed out and then it was evident by the look on her face that hers wasn’t either.

“Penelope doesn’t get cut out,” Amelia said again firmly.

“And you? You’re just going to take all of it? Give us a little crumb and run off?”

“I don’t want anything the asshole had. He screwed up two years of my life and then messed around behind my back. I don’t need his money or his crap.”

“Then just sign it over. She’ll be fine.”

Amelia took a step toward Vivian and that prompted Sam to move in, though he wasn’t sure what he’d do.

“I said you’d be taken care of and so will Penelope.”

Vivian’s face was contorting in her anger. “Why? Why does she deserve anything? My kids deserve it. They lost their father. Do you know what that does to a kid?”

“I lost my mother to a sniper in Desert Storm. I have a good idea.”

He watched as Vivian stepped back and her face softened. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.

She walked back around the table.

“I just don’t understand. If you were trying to divorce him before he deployed and he was only gone six weeks,” Vivian looked at Penelope. “You couldn’t have been
married
long.”

“Two months, ma’am.”

“Two months?” Vivian’s shoulders dropped. She looked back at Amelia. “Really? She’s worth everything he had for a two month marriage? Ten years,” she reiterated jabbing a finger into her own chest. “Two kids. Please, just do the decent thing and walk away.”

“She deserves it as much as you do. She’s going to need his help too.”

“Why would she…” Vivian’s eyes went wide. Sam was sure she’d quit breathing. He stood just as Vivian sat back down in her chair. “Son-of-a-bitch.”

Amelia nodded. “Yeah.”

Sam darted his eyes from one woman to another. He probably had more education than anyone in the room, but he was lost. He hated days where the estrogen in a room was much higher than the testosterone.

Amelia finally looked up at him and she must have realized he was lost.

“Penelope is expecting Adam’s baby.”

Chapter Seven

Things weren’t much different for the next hour. Penelope cried and said, “I’m sorry,” about six thousand times. Vivian fought for her rights, denounced Adam and cursed his name, cried, and fought again. She’d asked for a computer to look up the marriage information. She’d made phone calls. But to no avail. Adam had left her hanging—he’d never filed their marriage.

Sam watched and intervened when he needed to, but it seemed to him Amelia was running the show.

For being such a strong woman that any man in his right mind should fear, she was very soft and caring.

She saw to it that Penelope drank water and kept calm. At one point she’d moved to the other side of the table and sat next to Vivian and placed her arm around her shoulders. He was sure she’d asked about the children which at first had eased Vivian, but at some point she’d snapped and then told her that they were none of her business. Amelia had then moved back to Penelope as his mother brought in sandwiches and cookies.

Sam wasn’t sure about that move. He’d hoped they’d all get so hungry they’d need to leave.

He looked at Amelia now holding Penelope as she sobbed and he thought he was hungry—for her.

Realizing that the battle ahead of him was just that—a battle—he wondered why he’d even approached Amelia in his office. But he just couldn’t help himself. He’d never made a move on a woman like that in his life. Let alone a widow who had just—just—buried her husband.

The woman could physically break him in half and carry his body to the ocean and toss him in. Why was he doing that to himself?

When he looked up at her again she gave him a soft smile as she rested her cheek against Penelope’s blonde curls. He was in trouble. If this woman took her inheritance and left him he certainly was going to suffer a broken heart.

Amelia was exhausted. Adam had certainly screwed them all over. What the hell did she need his crap for and what was all this about her marriage being the only one that was legal?

She gritted her teeth. The part she really was angry about was that from what Sam had presented to them—Adam was fully aware that their marriage was the only legal one.

Penelope sucked in a breath and Amelia sat back, leaving her hand on Penelope’s back.

“I’m very tired,” Penelope said softly as she wiped away tears. “What do we need to do? I mean, I don’t understand why you needed me here. Obviously there was no need for me.”

Sam clasped his hands and leaned his elbows on the table. “Adam had asked for you to be here. I’m sure that even though this seems like a mess Adam assumed you three would handle it.”

Vivian scoffed. “He was a game player, obviously. He loved puzzles and riddles. This is crap though.” She looked down at her watch. “We’ve been here nearly two hours. I have a sitter I’m paying. What more do we need? I obviously need to find a job, sell my car, and move.”

“No,” Amelia said firmly. “Ladies, this sucks. If he weren’t dead I’d think about killing him over this. But, it is what it is and we have to deal with it. I hate that he left me anything, but I’m not going to forget you. You all have his children to think about.”

Vivian gripped the pen she’d been holding and Amelia was sure soon enough that ink would be all over that pretty dress.

“Sam, can we meet again? I think I know how to make this all better, or at least manageable, but I think we all need a break.”

Vivian looked up. “You want to just walk away with everything right?”

“I told you, I’d make sure you were taken care of. You can either trust me or lose everything. I think in your shoes I’d start to trust.”

“Trust isn’t what has the four of us sitting in a room together.”

“Well, maybe we should learn from this,” Amelia said as Sam stood.

“I’m fine with all of you coming back tomorrow. I’d like to see everything wrapped up as well.”

Vivian had taken a breath and Amelia was sure it was to make some comment none of them wanted to hear. But she closed her mouth, stood, and hoisted her purse over her shoulder.

“What time tomorrow? I have to find a sitter again.”

“And,” Amelia interrupted, “I will make sure the sitter is financially covered as I’m the one asking to come back.”

“Generous of you,” Vivian said, but there was an underlying tone of sarcasm.

“Let’s meet here again tomorrow at ten,” Sam said.

“Fine.” Vivian was the first to walk out of the office.

Amelia heard Sam’s mother wish her a nice day, but there had been no reply.

Penelope hadn’t stood. Instead she rested her head on her folded arms on the table.

Amelia rested her hand on her back. “Are you okay?”

“I’m exhausted. That took a lot out of me.”

“C’mon. I’ll drive you back to the room.”

Sam stood and moved toward them. “I have a very nice couch in my office and a blanket. Why don’t you rest there for just a few moments? I’d like to talk to Amelia if you don’t mind.”

Penelope raised her head and nodded.

Sam escorted her across the hall and returned a few minutes later, shutting the door to the room behind him.

“You’re not going to seduce me again are you?” Amelia raised an eyebrow.

“Something tells me trying that more than once in one day would be dangerous. Besides it seems you’re the only married woman around.”

“Right.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Widowed—remember that.”

He nodded and then sat back down where his paperwork was and she followed.

“I don’t mean any disrespect, but why did he leave you everything when he had Vivian and the kids?”

Amelia shrugged. “I have no idea. We always did everything separate. Different accounts. Different credit cards. Hell, I leased the house.”

Sam looked down at his papers. “I don’t suppose anyone noticed that there really isn’t much to what he left. In fact, by doing this he left a lot of different debts in his wake.”

Amelia let out a breath. “I wondered about that.” She leaned back in her chair and pulled the band from her hair. “We need to pay off those debts and take care of those kids.”

“You could turn it all over. If you’re okay financially and he didn’t leave you with debt you could…”