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“Time for what?”
“I’ll be at your place in half an hour. Let’s go see your uncle.”
* * *
“Mia, and the lovely Angelina.” Jefferson Bay’s deep voice was laced with sarcasm as he opened the door to his hotel room.
“We need to talk,” Maria said.
“Perhaps you and I had best talk in private.”
Maria shook her head. “This is Angie’s business. After all, she’s the one who’s about to lose her inheritance.”
“So you didn’t find a suitable suitor after all?” He c
licked his tongue. “How very sad. But how very lucky for me. I now own half a ranch.”
“You don’t own anything yet, Jeff,” Maria said, her voice shaking. “Angie still has over a month to get married.”
“Let me guess… She’s holding out for love, right? Love is overrated.”
“Is it?” Maria inched closer to him. “Is it really? Don’t you remember?”
“I remember only that you betrayed me by sleeping with my sainted brother. I may have loved you, but you didn’t return my love.”
Maria’s eyes misted. “That’s not true, Jeff. You know it’s not.”
Dear Lord. Mama and Daddy had never been in true love. They’d made no bones about that. Yet they’d had a good life. All that time, had Mama been in love with someone else? With Jefferson? Angie’s legs wobbled beneath her. What else would be revealed today?
“I know only your betrayal, Mia. You slept with my brother and had his child—this beautiful girl in front of us. It’s only fitting that I be the means to the end of your and Wayne’s love child.”
“Damn it, Jeff, you know I was never in love with Wayne.”
“Really?” He scoffed. “A marriage that lasted this long and produced three children? You’re lying.”
“You were going to prison.”
“I was innocent! I would have fought, Mia, if I’d thought there was even a ghost of a chance that you and I could be together.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He raked his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end. A wolf, Angie thought. He looks like a wolf in fear for his life. Strange.
“Because you made it clear you thought I was guilty. Dear Granddad had all but hanged me already.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were innocent? I would have believed you. I would have stood by you.”
“No, you wouldn’t have. You had already run to Wayne by then.”
“I ran to Wayne because—” She choked into sobs. “My God, I can’t do this.”
Angie regained the strength in her legs. Her mother needed her. She walked to the woman who had given her life and embraced her. “She just lost her husband, for God’s sake. Can’t you take it easy on her? I’m the one you’re trying to ruin. Your argument is with me, not her.”
“How little you know. You’ve told your children nothing of me, have you, Mia? Yet you stand there and tell me you had feelings for me all that time ago.” He glared at Angie. “I can hurt your lovely mother by hurting you. Icing on the cake.”
“No, Jeff,” Maria choked out. “I won’t let you do this to her.”
He smiled. Not a nice smile. A wicked smile. An evil smile. “I don’t see that you have much of a choice.”
