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Simone just laughed and shook her head.

“And I still think there’s more going on between you and Abagail than you think there is.”

“Said like a true romantic. Get your head out of the books, Alanna.” Nicola stood up and snagged her phone. The text messages filled the screen. God, she didn’t want to deal with him. Not right now. Well, honestly, not ever again. “I need to get going.”

“I’m going to call you soon,” Simone said. “I think we need to talk more often than we have been.”

“Yeah, probably not a bad idea.”

thirty

“What’s the emergency?” Elia asked as she walked into Abagail’s house.

Abagail instantly relaxed. Elia, despite all they’d been through in the last year, was always there for her, no matter what. They were always together, and Abagail wanted to keep it that way.

“I need advice on family matters.” Abagail squared her shoulders. “It’s going to involve whiskey. Do you need to drive back tonight?”

“No.” Elia furrowed her brow. “But I’ll have to leave early in the morning then.”

“Perfect.” Abagail walked directly to the library and poured each of them a drink, knowing that Elia was going to follow her there. She settled into the chair but crossed and uncrossed her legs. Everything that had happened in the last few days was throwing her entire system into chaos.

Elia eyed her over simply, her lips pressed into a thin line. When Abagail didn’t say anything or start the conversation, Elia set her drink down and raised an eyebrow at her.

“You’re going to have to tell me what happened.”

“I cut Warren and Estelle off, at least from what I can. They still have the trusts that my brother set up for them, which will sustain them for a while.” Abagail’s stomach twisted. She’d hated making that call, but something had to change. Something had to be different than it had been for the last few years.

“Are you serious?” Elia asked.

Abagail nodded. “Warren’s come into my office twice now to harass me, and he was such a bully to Nicola at the Cape.”

“Wait.” Elia put her hand out, as if that was going to stop Abagail from barreling forward with whatever else she was going to say.

Well, it worked. Because Abagail froze.

“The Cape?”

“Right.” Abagail breathed deep. “Nicola and I took a week at the Cape, and Warren showed up with his new fiancée—now ex-fiancée—” Abagail shook her head “—with Chaya, and while Chaya was fine, Warren’s treatment of Nicola was crossing one too many lines.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think…” Abagail stopped talking. How did she say this? There wasn’t a delicate way to put it, was there? “I think Warren abused Nicola. At least, I’d put it in that category, and based on what I saw, he’s still willing to terrorize her.”

“Has she said anything?” Elia snagged her glass up and took a sip.

Abagail shook her head. “I’m not sure how she defines it.” She traced her finger around the rim of the glass she had. “But from what I witnessed, I couldn’t support his decisions any longer.”

“So you cut him off financially.”

“As much as I could.” Abagail looked at Elia. “He needs to grow up. He needs to stop being coddled. He needs anunderstanding of how the world functions when he’s not the center of it. He needs to learn a damn work ethic!”

Elia hummed. It was that annoying hum when she was thinking something that Abagail wasn’t going to like or agree with. “And Estelle?”

“She’d only enable him. I cut her off mostly for him, but also because she’s not part of the family. I should have done it when he was an adult.”

There was that noise again. The all-knowing Elia noise, like she could sense something was amiss in the story that Abagail had been telling herself for days now. But what the hell was it? Because Abagail had known it was there, but she hadn’t even bothered to try and figure it out.

“And Nicola?”