Vivian

• Title Page
  
• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Chapter Nine
  
• Chapter Ten
  
• Chapter Eleven
  
• Chapter Twelve
  
• Chapter Thirteen
  
• Chapter Fourteen
  
• Chapter Fifteen
  
• Chapter Sixteen
  
• Chapter Seventeen
  
• Chapter Eighteen
  
• Chapter Nineteen
  
• Chapter Twenty
  
• Epilogue
  

The Three Mrs. Monroes Trilogy

Vivian

book three

by

Bernadette Marie

Bernadette Marie and 5 Prince Publishing copyright 2014

This is a fictional work. The names, characters, incidents, places, and locations are solely the concepts and products of the author’s imagination or are used to create a fictitious story and should not be construed as real.

5 PRINCE PUBLISHING AND BOOKS, LLC

PO Box 16507

Denver, CO 80216

www.5PrinceBooks.com

ISBN 13: 978-1-63112-042-8 ISBN 10: 1631120425

VIVIAN

Bernadette Marie

Copyright Bernadette Marie 2014

Published by 5 Prince Publishing

Front Cover Viola Estrella

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations, reviews, and articles. For any other permission please contact 5 Prince Publishing and Books, LLC.

First Edition/First Printing September 2014 Printed U.S.A.

5 PRINCE PUBLISHING AND BOOKS, LLC.

Other books by Bernadette Marie

The Keller Family Series

The Executive’s Decision

A Second Chance

Opposite Attraction

Center Stage

Lost and Found

Love Songs

Home Run

The Acceptance

The Merger (Fall 2014)

The Escape Clause (Winter 2015)

Aspen Creek Series

First Kiss

Unexpected Admirer

On Thin Ice

Indomitable Spirit

The Matchmaker Series

Matchmakers

Encore

Finding Hope

The Three Mrs. Monroes

Amelia

Penelope

Vivian

Single Titles

Cart Before the Horse

Candy Kisses

To Stan,

The one who leads me to all healing by being by my side.

To Stan and our boys who make every pain I ever have (physical or emotional) go away because of your love.

To Mom, Dad, and Sissy, your love and support is immeasurable! Thank you for it!

To Connie, Clare, Marie, and Grace, you literally keep track of all my pieces and make sure they fall back into place. You are glorious women!

To June thank you for being you. Thank goodness this isn’t our last year together!

To my Street Team and Beta Readers, you continue to inspire me with your love and support!

Dear Reader,

Here we are at the conclusion of the Monroes.

What a wonderful journey I have had with these three women. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I have.

In the final installment, we see the rise of Vivian. For so long, she’s been the angry, bitter, moody side of the Monroes. Now we begin to see her soften with the love of a good man who sees a silver lining in everything.

I hope you enjoy Vivian. I fell in love with her writing this.

What’s next for me? Follow me on Facebook and Twitter and you’ll be the first in line to see the progress of my new family series, The Walkers—coming 2015.

Happy Reading,

Bernadette Marie

Vivian

God she was miserable. Vivian Monroe sat in her car just on the outskirts of town. The late November wind was kicking up. It was cold and her damn car had stalled—just like everything had for her for years.

It had been less than six months ago that she found out her husband of ten years had married two other women before his death.

Never in a million years, though, did she think she’d make a new life with those other two Mrs. Monroes. Adam, her late husband, had left her with nothing. His second wife, whom he’d left everything to, had stepped up to make sure that Vivian and her daughters were always taken care of. She may never admit it aloud, but she’d learned a lot from Amelia.

It had been Amelia who had come up with the plan for Adam’s widows to take what he’d left and start a business. It would help to take care of Adam’s children and then no one walked away with everything. They were building a daycare center of all things. It would open next week if everything went according to plan.

Her mind shifted to Penelope, Adam’s newest wife. Though Penelope was only ten years, or so, younger than her, she felt as if she were a mother to the girl. Penelope was eight months pregnant with Adam’s baby. She needed compassion—especially from Vivian, who’d been through the process.

Vivian gritted her teeth and tried to start the engine again. Nothing.

She’d called for help, but it was going to be awhile. Sam, her late husband’s lawyer and Amelia’s new fiancé, was in court. Amelia had an inspector at the old house they were converting into the daycare center. And Penelope and Brock, the man who had been by Adam’s side when he died in combat and now was Penelope’s fiancé, were in a doctor’s appointment.

She was totally alone. Even her own girls were at the rec center daycare for the day. That, she thought, was the only plus to the day.

The day trip to Oklahoma City to find out anything she could on Adam’s mother hadn’t turned up much. Stella Monroe, by all accounts, seemed to be missing.

Vivian hated that she thought it wasn’t really a bad thing to have the woman MIA. But, it did mean they didn’t know where she was and there was a great chance she’d be coming after her.

After Adam had died, her mother-in-law had, well, gone off the deep end. Her husband had even found it beneficial to move her to Florida and away from Parson’s Gulch, Oklahoma where she’d made her home for most of her life.

Still, she’d texted Vivian three weeks ago saying she was coming after her and then the house where they were building the daycare had been broken into. Things just weren’t adding up.

Vivian smiled when she thought about the books that had been thrown around in the attic the night of the break in. They’d all been full of money. Six thousand dollars had been found in between the pages and in the cutouts of the vintage books. Adam’s grandmother had stashed it all there. As far as she was concerned, when they were given the house and all of its contents that included the money too. Of course, now sitting in her broken down car meant it might have to be used for costly repairs.

Another car pulled up behind hers, but it wasn’t one of the four people she’d called. She looked into the review mirror and saw Clayton North stepping out of his car.

Great. The one man who had turned her head in all these years had come to rescue her. He and that shiny gold band on his hand that she’d neglected to see the first day she’d met him.

Oh, she had to have looked stupid flirting with him like she was. What made her think he was available? And why did she care, except she’d gotten caught up in all this falling in love that had been going on. First Amelia and Sam and then Penelope and Brock. She was a woman after all. She could certainly blame it on hormones.

She let out a long breath and waited for him to come to her door. When he tapped on the window, she opened the door.

“
It’s so dead I can’t roll down the window,” she said, forcing a smile on her face.

“
I brought cables. I’ll give you a jump.”

“
Thanks.” She popped the hood of her car, climbed out, and watched as Clayton walked back and climbed into his car. He drove it around the quiet road so that he was parked right next to her.

He popped the hood of his car as he climbed out. “It’ll just take a moment.”

He pulled the cables out of his car and walked around to the front of the cars.

Clayton chuckled to himself. “I always forget which way these go.”

“
Red ones are positive. Black are negative.”

He nodded. “Right. You’d think that would be easy enough to remember.”

Clayton went about connecting the cables and Vivian watched, then what he said hit her.

“
You said you brought cables. You didn’t just have them and saw me stranded?”

Clayton shook his head. “The gal at the front desk of the rec center lent them to me. I’d gone to get my girls and they said you’d called because you were going to be late. I told them I’d come get you.”

Vivian nodded slowly, her stare fixed on this man she’d flirted with and even had invited to a private bar-b-cue. She sickened herself. Though he did come without his wife. That didn’t uphold his character very well, she decided.

“
You drove all the way out here to get me?”

“
Yes.”