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Ava checked the time on her cell again. The event was supposed to start at eight and it was already a few minutes past. Weren’t the first guests supposed to show by now? Ben noticed her worried look.
“Rich people are lazy,” he joked, “they will be late as always.”
But the time went by without a single soul making an entrance. The buzz already had holes in it, and Ava could see people nervously glancing at her.Maybe they just got the time wrong you know, rich people,she kept telling herself.
An hour later, nothing. The staff had already occupied some of the chairs, turning them in various directions and staring at their phones.
Ava frantically checked for any cars approaching, nothing. By the time it became 10. p.m., it was obvious nothing would be happening.
Her denial caved into devastation. When Father Brown threw her another of his well-intended smiles, she literally could feel her legs wobble.
“Ava,” Benjamin went to meet her. His confidence had turned to worry, his forehead rumpled and glistening with sweat. A collar of his shirt was unbuttoned, the jacket gone.
“No one showed,” she whispered and shook her head in disbelief, as if the mere mention of it had snapped her out of a dream. A nightmare.
“I don’t understand… it’s as if the world is against me… against justice and the poor,” she mumbled in a sad voice and made the horrible walk over to her coworkers and Father Brown. To apologize… to feel their sadness as her own.
Benjamin tightened his fists and muttered under his breath, “…not the world… but a very bitter human being…”
Benjamin wanted to say something to Ava, but what could he say? He knew what was going on here, and he felt the urge to correct it—right away.
He found his mother down the walkway on the terrace, sipping a glass of wine as she watched the people who’d now resigned themselves to clearing what they’d spent hours putting together.
“I’m so sorry, Benjamin,” she said in a monotone voice. Benjamin shook his head.
“Please tell me you had nothing do with this?”
She took another slow sip and looked at him, a mask of contempt on her face.
“Don’t be absurd,” she said, narrowing her eyes, staring at the wine like it’d just turned sour. Hard to believe. Benjamin was ready to have a showdown with her right here and there, when he looked down and saw Ava. She glanced at him for a short moment, her eyes full of hurt, and then she bolted out into the garden and was gone.
“Shit,” he cursed, running a few feet into her direction, but then he stopped as he realized there was more he could do then try to comfort her with empty words.
Taking out his phone, he called his lawyer. He was no Elijah Radcliff, but Benjamin was still a man of his word. And he was certainly not a little boy that would let his mother push him around like this. His eyes remained on part of the garden where Ava had disappeared moments ago.
“Ben, what’s the matter?” Walter answered the call sounding worried.
“I’m fine. Sorry to call so late but I need some money transferred anonymously. It is extremely important. How soon can it be done?”
“Well, it could be done overnight, but only if the transfer is not in another account for you, unless the amount is less than $100,000. In his will your grandfather…”
“It’s not for me. It’s for a church. $10,000,000.” Benjamin was shocked for a second how casually he had thrown that out there. It was as if the amount of his own wealth had shocked him for the first time since—ever. Walter grew silent.
“Walter?”
“Y-yes, I am still here. Did you say a church?”
“Yes.”
“Well, technically that would not be an issue if we run it through the Radcliff charity organization, but it would still come out of your personal inheritance.”
Ben felt a huge relief. That he could do this for Ava, but also that he did not care the least about the fact that it was his own money that would be used for this. Walter could use it all, for all he cared. Had he gone crazy?No not crazy… bewitched by his wife was more accurate.
“Do it,” Benjamin said with a smile on his face that came from the deepest corners of his heart.
Ava shivered each time she pictured the disappointed looks on her co-workers faces.
“I knew it was all too good to be true,” she muttered. At first, she’d thought it was Benjamin’s doing; that he’d finally gotten to her, raised her hopes high up and left it to come crashing down. But he’d also had that look of utter shock on his face when no one else showed up. And in her heart Ava knew that Benjamin was not that sort of guy. No, he wasn’t behind this. There was no masterplan on his end.
