She bit her lip. “The other night I went into her bedroom to check on her, and she was gone. I tried calling her cell phone, but she didn’t answer. Just as I was getting ready to start calling her friends, I caught her sneaking back into the house. It turns out she’s been riding her bike over to the house late at night, after we’ve all gone to bed, and crawling in through a window in the laundry room. Maggy admitted that she sleeps in our bed, because she said the pillow smells like Wendell. She misses him dreadfully, and that house, and its memories, are all she has left of him. You’ve been wonderful letting us stay here, Mama, but it’s such an imposition.”
“Oh, Riley,” Evelyn started, then she burst into tears.
“Well for goodness’ sakes,” Roo said.
Billy knelt by his mother’s side, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Now, Mama,” he started, “I know you thought the world of Wendell, but you heard what Parrish said. It really is true. I think we have to find a way to help Riley, if we can.”
“That’s just it,” Evelyn sobbed. “There’s nothing I can do. I—I don’t have any money either.” She buried her face in her napkin. “I’ve been such a silly old woman.”
“Mama?” Riley rushed over. “Please don’t cry. Can you tell us what happened?”
“I’m so stupid,” Evelyn insisted. “I’ve ruined everything. Everything your daddy and granddaddy worked for.” She lifted her head and looked around at her family.
“He told me it was a sure thing. That I would get my money back, with interest, and nobody would have to know. And, like the old fool I am, I believed him.”
“Who, Mama? Who told you that?” Billy asked, patting her hand.
But Riley knew, of course.
“It was Wendell, wasn’t it?”
Evelyn nodded, too overcome for a moment to speak.
Parrish got up and silently fetched the bottle of wine she’d brought from the kitchen, refilling all the empty glasses at the table.
* * *
When she’d downed a glass of Parrish’s Silver Oak cabernet, and after she’d gone upstairs to repair her makeup, Evelyn sat back down at the head of the table.
“Wendell came to me, last fall, and said he had finally managed to talk the Holtzclaw boy into selling him their house and land. It was something my daddy, and then W.R., had been working on for as long as I can remember. Miss Josie strung W.R. along for years, but she never would sell. And after she died, one son wanted to sell, but the other boy didn’t. Then the son who was the holdout died of a heart attack. I don’t know how Wendell did it, but he finally got that Holtzclaw boy to agree to sell. But he wanted an awful price! Fifteen million! Wendell said this was the chance of a lifetime. But the bank would only give him so much, and he was still short. He said another buyer was waiting in the wings, and if he didn’t come up with the money, we would lose out, and some other developer would swoop in and get that land.”
Evelyn looked around the table. “Belle Isle Enterprises has always been the majority property owner on this island. When W.R. married me, my daddy made him promise he’d never let the island get taken over by an outsider.” She shook her head. “I thought of Wendell like my own son. He came from such a nice family. I can’t understand what happened to him.”
“How much money did you give him, Mama?” Riley asked.
“Not as much as he wanted,” Evelyn said. “He told me he needed another five million, which was preposterous! I went to my stockbroker, and asked him to sell some of my stocks, but he said the market was down and it was a terrible time to sell. So, then, Wendell had another idea. He said I should take out a mortgage on Shutters.”
“If you did that, you really are an old fool,” Roo said, draining her wineglass and sliding it across the table to Parrish for a refill.
Riley’s stomach twisted, knowing what would come next.
“Wendell said I should take out a balloon note. I’d never heard of such a thing. So I went to the manager at Wells Fargo, and he explained it. The bank would lend me three million dollars, and I would pay the interest only on that amount, for three years, but then, at the end of that time, the balance of the mortgage would be due.”
Evelyn took a deep breath. “Wendell showed me the plans for the marina and the condominiums and the new subdivision. The lots on the creek would sell for nearly a million apiece, and he said he already had commitments from three buyers. He promised I’d have my money back in a year—with interest. And, in the meantime, he’d help me pay the monthly interest on the loan.”
“You really did it? You mortgaged Shutters?” Billy asked, looking queasy.
She nodded. “For the first three months, Wendell did what he said. But then in April, he said he couldn’t come up with the money, because he’d had some kind of a shortfall, due to expenses. He promised to make it up the next month, but May first came and went, and he didn’t send my check. And then, well, you know. He was dead.”
“What did you do?” Riley asked. “How did you pay?”
“I sold some of my stock, and my broker gave me the dickens about it, but I didn’t know what else to do,” Evelyn said. “I kept telling myself that something would change, and it would be all right, but then we found out your house had been foreclosed on, and all I could think about was losing this house.”
Parrish cleared her throat. “Evelyn, if you don’t mind my asking, exactly how much interest are you paying?”
“It’s forty thousand dollars,” Evelyn said. “Every month.” She turned to Riley. “I’m so sorry, honey. You don’t know how sorry. I believed Wendell instead of my own flesh and blood. And now I’ve ruined everything. This house—this was to be yours and Billy’s after I’m gone. And Maggy’s. It was all I had to give you. And now it’s gone.”
“You haven’t missed a payment, though, have you, Evelyn?” Parrish asked.
“Well, no. But I’ve been dipping into my principal to pay that interest, and W.R. told me I should never, ever, do that unless it was an emergency.”
“I’d say keeping a roof over your head is an emergency,” Parrish said.
“You haven’t ruined anything, Mama,” Riley said, hugging her mother again. “And it’s not your fault. Wendell fooled all of us. We’ll figure this out, somehow, and anyway, nobody wants to lose this house, but the most important thing is that we have each other, right?”
“That’s true,” Evelyn said tearfully. “And right now, I’m realizing how important that really is.”
Billy cleared his throat. “Uh, as long as Mama’s coming clean about her questionable judgment regarding Wendell, I guess now would be a good time to admit that I did the same thing.”
“Oh my God,” Riley cried. “You didn’t! Why?”
“Same old story,” Billy said. “He came to me, said his hotel deal was in jeopardy, and if he didn’t get the money to buy some additional land, the whole north end project would go up in flames. He swore me to secrecy and promised it would be strictly a short-term loan, and he’d pay interest. Long story short, I cleared out almost everything in my trust fund and gave it to him.”