When they were finishing second cups of coffee, Sylvie asked, “What’s it like, Lauren? Being in love now, after ending a twenty-five-year marriage?”

She thought for a moment. “Startling,” she finally said. “So unexpected. So shocking, really. Like my heart is full of sunshine. Like I just woke up and everything is all right. Finally.”

* * *

Lauren eagerly accepted Sylvie’s offer. She couldn’t wait to tell Beau. When she got home she found him cleaning out the garage with Drew’s help. It was a detached garage but they needed room for two vehicles and since Pamela had left, it seemed to have filled itself up.

When Lauren told him about the job offer, he hugged her and said, “That’s wonderful, honey. When will you start?”

“I’m going to start going over there afternoons right away. Her current assistant will start showing me the ropes, introducing me to some of their projects. I’ll be the liaison between Sylvie and some of their fund-raisers. They hire event planners for golf tournaments, auctions, dinners and other things. She’s going to have us to dinner soon so we can all get better acquainted.”

Beau chuckled. “Dr. Delaney is going to shit himself.”

“I’m going to avoid talking to him about my new job,” she said.

There were a couple of people she was anxious to tell, along with an explanation about where she was now living and why. Lacey immediately asked if Lauren suspected Brad of the bomb and Lauren said, very honestly, “I can’t imagine it. Not the way your father values his hands. I’ve not only never known him to play around with explosives, he never even talks about things like that. And Beau is so well liked by everyone, no angry clients, nothing... I bet we find out it’s random.”

To her surprise, Lacey did not get her back up about Lauren staying with Beau and Cassie was relieved to hear it—she wanted her mother to be as safe as possible. Beth wanted Lauren to stay with them but understood why she’d rather stay at Beau’s. “I come with a lot of baggage,” Beth said. “But promise you’ll come to dinner soon and bring that young man. Drew. The boys love him.”

When Lauren went to the Emerson home the next day, there was a shiny stained oak table sitting in the middle of the library. A laptop was open on it along with a couple of new iPhones. “What do you think?” Sylvie asked. “Would this be a good office?”

“Oh God, it’s delicious. Is this where Ruth Ann worked?”

“She moved around a lot—my office, the kitchen, sunroom. You might do that, too. But this is a good place to start. We cleaned out a cupboard for you,” she said, opening a couple of cupboard doors, the shelves inside empty and waiting for her use. “We’re almost entirely paperless now but you’ll need the scanner and computer.”

It was like a dream come true for Lauren.

There was one more poker night before Tim and Angela left town and it was a wonderful celebration filled with laughter, but at the end of the evening, during the goodbyes it was a little emotional. When Tim took Lauren into his arms and said, “I’m so happy Beau has a good woman in his life,” she completely lost it.

“Please, please, please be safe,” she said, sobbing onto his shoulder.

It took a lot of comforting to get her under control again but before all was said and done, lots of people were crying.

There was a lot going on. Brad failed to provide his financial records and was cited with contempt and fined by the judge who had made the order. Brad’s response was to stop sending Lauren monthly support payments.

Beau was checking with the police about the progress of their investigation almost weekly. One of the first things he learned was that the detectives had interviewed Pamela and Brad, separately of course, and both had alibis for the night of the bomb and were not suspects, however they now both knew that Beau’s truck had been destroyed.

Lauren was going into the city to work with Sylvie daily and at the urging of both Sylvie and Lauren’s lawyer, she did not withdraw her suit against Merriweather. “Please do it,” Sylvie said. “They shouldn’t be allowed to do this to someone else in the future.”

Lauren was offered her old job back, but she declined on the grounds she just couldn’t trust them again. She had a long conversation with Sylvie and said if there was a financial settlement, she’d donate it to one of the Emerson foundations. “I’d rather you donate it to law school for someone who doesn’t plan to make herself rich but plans on doing some good in this crooked world. Know anyone who fits that description?”

The first week in February everyone at the Magellan house rose to go to their jobs—Lauren to the city, Drew to school, but Beau was wearing a suit.

“Today I have mediation with Pamela,” he told them.

“You didn’t say anything!” Drew said.

“I wasn’t being secretive,” he said. “I knew it would cause some anxiety and I just want us all to stay calm. It might take more than one meeting. It might take more than two. I’m hoping for a peaceful outcome that’s fair to everyone.”

“I’m really surprised Mom hasn’t called me, tried to get me to wrangle something on her behalf.”

“I’m a little surprised by that, too,” Beau said. “I hope it means things are calming down and we’re getting to the end of hostilities.”

And Lauren thought, wouldn’t that be nice. But she had an ugly feeling the end was not yet in sight.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Beau’s day of mediation was surprising, to say the least. One surprise after another. He had worn his best suit and, for a landscape architect, that was saying something. He was typically seen in jeans, khakis or shorts. There was hardly ever a business meeting that required this much of a suit, however there was the occasional wedding or funeral.

He thought of this meeting as a funeral. He expected to be buried. He came to the marriage with so much and it never once occurred to him to create a prenup. Not so much because of his ferocious trust for Pam but because he wanted the boys, his boys, to be well cared for right into adulthood. Their fathers had pretty much bailed on them. Beau was going to hang with them till his last days.

The mediator had looked over the figures, done all his own figuring, calculated again and again and gotten his own value estimates on things like the business and the house. There were things that Pam was asking for that had a red line run through—like her legal fees—that adjusted the total by quite a bit. She wanted the house and half the value of the business. The mediator explained the law very patiently, it was assets accrued during the marriage.

Their lawyers argued about their research—the value of the house and business at the time of marriage versus current assessments. The mediator split the difference.

Beau had to concentrate to close his mouth. He really hadn’t expected to get a break on this.

Alimony was out. She didn’t need alimony—her income was substantial and she wasn’t supporting her kids. Her income was nearly as good as his and not only were the boys still living on his income rather than hers, he was paying their tuition. She wanted half of his substantial retirement funds, but those were off the table. They had agreed early on to stick to the standard no-fault parameters. That put her retirement off the table also, but the difference was, Pam had socked away a little, paid cash for her fancy car and since she had a 401K retirement fund, she’d built a tidy little investment portfolio. She’d been taking vacations, partying, buying clothes, living it up. Beau had been investing in the boys and saving for the future. By the time Pam had left him twice, he increased his retirement fund and put away a substantial amount for college educations, money he had wisely put in the kids’ names, keeping it safe.

Once Pam saw the totals on the college funds, she wanted half of that as well. She loudly protested her assets were being added to the mix; he was allowed half of that. By the look on his face, that soured the mediator. Pam lost ground when he realized she would take from the boys.

It took three hours to go through the financial reports, then they each met with their lawyers. Pam and her lawyer went out to lunch, Beau and his very astute and grandmotherly attorney ate in her boardroom while figuring.

“It’s my opinion, you’re coming out in good shape. Given the value of your home, possessions, business and investments, if you accept this settlement, she is due about 27 percent of your house value and 34 percent of your business value. We can negotiate that you’ll pay her a fixed amount based on current appraised value, but not due until you sell the house or in ten years. But you’re not going to be so lucky with the business. To keep it clean, you have to buy her out or she can put a lien on it. Trust me, you don’t want that.”

“Do we have a number?” he asked fearfully.

She turned around a page and ran a red circle around a figure. $1.3 million.

“My business is worth three times that?” he exclaimed.

“More. Much more. Your net worth is very respectable. Impressive. We’re not negotiating based on your net worth but income accrued during the marriage. Thank God you lived with her for a while. We were able to depreciate a lot of your office equipment, office space, salaries and benefits, et cetera. You have a very successful operation, Beau.”

He started to laugh. “Don’t tell anyone but I could work from home if I had to. I’d be damn busy, doing all my own paperwork, but that’s how I started.”

“Believe me, I won’t tell. But your business assets are all tied up,” she said. “You’d better arrange to clear that debt right away.”

“Yeah, but I can get that much,” he said. “I have a house to live in. When I bought it, it was falling down. I spent a lot of money and did almost all the work myself. It’s paid for. It was already fixed up when Pam moved in.” He laughed. He ran a hand through his hair. “Damn.”

“I have a question,” Sonja said. “What kind of man has every receipt for every nail he ever bought?”