Page 13 of Taken Away

“You’re treating him like an opportunistic stranger trying to take advantage of your aunt’s estate. What you’re missing is the decades of expertise he brought with him, and the years he spent consulting on soil and clonal selection for top-tier vineyards across the country.”

“He rebuilt Blackwood after your aunt nearly lost it,” she said evenly. “The little hobby operation you thought she was running? Bennett turned it into one of the most respected boutique operations in the Southeast.”

Deck leaned back quietly. “Mercer Distribution fought like hell for the rights to carry Blackwood.”

“Without him,” Eleanor finished, “those one hundred and eighty-seven acres you were left would be nothing but a tax liability and tired dirt.”

Aubrey had seen Mercer’s logo on every high-end wine list she’d ever signed off on; she knew exactly how hard they were to impress.

Her mouth stayed open, but whatever argument she’d been loading died on her tongue.

“There is also a letter,” Eleanor said quietly, reaching for an envelope. “One for each of you.”

She opened Aubrey’s first.

“‘Aubrey,’” Eleanor read, and suddenly Mabel’s voice seemed to fill the room. “’If you are hearing this, then I am gone, and you are likely already planning your escape back to Pennsylvania. You always did hate getting mud on your shoes.’”

Mary Lou snorted. Aubrey stared at the table, her throat burning.

“‘But you’re going to stay. Live in the house. Learn the business. Give this place a chance. You inherited more than land, sweetheart. You inherited a life. And whether your mother ever admitted it or not, your roots are here.’”

Eleanor unfolded the second page.

“‘And as for Bennett McCrae—Lord help you. He is stubborn, impossible, and usually right. But he has looked after me for a long time. He was the son I never had, and I loved him dearly. So Bennett, look after Aubrey for me. She will pretend she doesn’t need you. She will be wrong.’”

The room went completely quiet.

Aubrey, already humiliated, exposed, and raw, snapped.

“I don’t need anyone looking out for me,” she said, glaring across the table at Bennett. “Much less him. Especially him.”

She heard how harsh she sounded and hated that she couldn’t seem to stop.

Mary Lou burst into tears. “Oh, she was matchmaking from the grave.”

“She absolutely was,” June whispered.

Eleanor set down the letter.

Bennett was staring at the empty leather chair at the head of the table where Mabel should have been sitting, arms crossed, waiting to tell them all to shut up. His hands rested flat on the walnut table, the knuckles white, his breath coming slow and heavy as if he were trying to anchor himself in a room that had just pulled the floor out from under him.

He looked up at Aubrey, his eyes bloodshot, completely wrecked.

Something in her chest tightened, quick and disloyal. He looked nothing like the smug stranger from the bar and far too much like a man with nothing left to lose.

“Mabel was not a lonely old woman,” he said. His voice wasn’t loud, but it had a quiet, vibrating register that cut right through her defenses. “And I didn’t ask her for a single percent of this company. I didn’t want your family’s land, Aubrey. I just wanted her back.”

He rose slowly, straightening his sport coat.

“If you want to walk away and forfeit the estate, go ahead. Someone will carve it up soon enough. But don’t you ever come into this town and insult what Mabel and I built.”

He turned on his heel and walked out. The heavy office door shut behind him with a definitive click.

From the corner of her eye, Aubrey saw Deck watching her again, the easy warmth gone from his expression.

This, she thought grimly, was the look he gave people who ended up in files.

Finally, Eleanor removed her glasses and rubbed lightly between her brows.