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“She holds your mortgage,” Lisa Livia said. “Why didn’t you go through a bank, you dumbass?”
“She gave us a better rate.” Agnes put her glass down. “Taylor had our lawyer look at the papers. They’re standard. I mean, they’re boilerplate. It’s the exact same contract that Evie gave Palmer and Maria for the house they’re buying next door to the Keyes place. The only clause Brenda added was that Maria hold her wedding here, and that’s not a problem, I want Maria’s wedding here, plus I get three months’ mortgage payments free if I do it. It’s a great deal.”
“I know it’s standard, and I know it’s the same one Evie gave Palmer.” Lisa Livia rolled her eyes at Agnes’s obtuseness. “The difference is, Evie loves Palmer. It’s also the kind used by crooked lenders to rip off buyers all the time. You think the Real Estate King became King by playing fair and square? Brenda learned everything she knows about selling houses from him. She’s taking you, Ag.”
This is ridiculous. Agnes pulled back a little. “LL, the contract just says I have to let Maria get married here, it doesn’t say she has to get married. I know you and your mother have your problems?—”
“She’s a vicious bitch,” Lisa Livia said, and finished off her wine.
“—but she’s not a crook.”
“She killed my father,” Lisa Livia said. “Real estate fraud is a step up for her.”
Here we go again, Agnes thought. “Look, you’re the best friend a woman could possibly have until you get started on your mother?—”
“Okay, you think I’m crazy, but just listen to me.” Lisa Livia put her glass on the table and leaned forward, her tube top shifting in ways Agnes could not possibly appreciate and yet somehow was glad that Shane was not there to witness. “You know that clause that says that if you’re in default of your payments for three months, the lender gets the house back?”
“Yes,” Agnes said patiently, “but that’s a standard clause, and we’re not in default.”
“But you will be,” Lisa Livia said, just as patiently. “If Maria doesn’t have her wedding here, Saturday, by noon, you are in default.” She picked up her bag and pulled out a paper and handed it to Agnes. “Remember this?”
Agnes looked at it. “Yes. It’s the wedding agreement. We’re having the wedding here in exchange for ... the first three months’ mortgage payments.”
Lisa Livia nodded. “Those three payments are past due if the wedding doesn’t happen here.”
Agnes heard Brenda say, If we held it at the country club ... “What?” Lisa Livia said, watching her face.
Agnes swallowed. “Brenda’s trying to move it to the country club. She even had some insane idea about using the flowers there.”
“What?” Lisa Livia said.
“And Evie wants to have it at the country club, but not use their flowers.” I don’t believe this. Brenda would not do this to me.
“Jesus, 1 should hope not the country club’s flowers.” Lisa Livia sat back. “But there you go. Anything that keeps the wedding from happening here by Saturday noon means you lose the house and Brenda gets it back and she keeps your down payment. I knew there was no way she’d let this house go. She’s been hanging on to it for twenty-five years, but she’s broke, she’s in debt up to her ears, big debt, Ag, and she’s desperate for cash.” Lisa Livia shook her head. “1 told you, she learned this crap from that shyster she married. Real Estate King, my ass. People used to come to the house and threaten to kill him.”
“I don’t believe she’d do this,” Agnes said, looking at the paper. “It’s too far-fetched. I know you and she have your differences, LL, but she was good to me. She taught me to cook, for heaven’s sake. She’s like a mother to me.”
“She is a mother to me,” Lisa Livia said. “And I’m telling you, she’s doing it.”
“Lisa Livia, I have real problems.” Agnes poured herself another glass of wine. “A kid died in my basement last night after trying to kidnap my dog at gunpoint, and now I’ve got this wedding?—”
“Died? As in dead? And you’re still here?” Lisa Livia’s face changed, and she straightened. “Wait a minute. Brenda sent him.”
“Oh, for the love of God, LL,” Agnes snapped. “Your mother is not responsible for everything.”
“She’s trying to scare you out so you can’t do the wedding so you’ll have to forfeit and she’ll get the house back. I betcha. Don’t you leave this house.” She drank more wine.
“I’m not.”
“You’re not staying here alone, are you? Get that worthless Taylor out here.”
Agnes shook her head. “Joey got his nephew to come stay. Shane.” Lisa Livia choked on her wine. “Shane?” she said, wiping her mouth. “Little Shane?”
Agnes thought of the guy filling up her kitchen that morning. “He’s grown.”
“This I have to see,” Lisa Livia said. “But I am not kidding about my mother.”
“You are overreacting,” Agnes said, and when Lisa Livia glared at her, she glared right back.
