Was he too late? Had she already left?
“You’re a real beast. You know that?” Elizabeth asked, sniffing.
“Yeah. I do.” He picked up his phone and swiped his finger across it. “I’m surprised it took you so long to notice, though.”
She swept off without another word.
He dialed Maggie’s number and prayed like hell that he wasn’t too late. That she hadn’t gotten on the plane yet.
She couldn’t leave him. He couldn’t let her. He loved her.
As the phone rang, he stared at a paper on the floor, squinting at the tiny print. The dates…they were off. This was dated a little over six years ago, right before his father had passed away. He blinked, just in case the booze was fucking with his head.
It wasn’t. These were old figures.
“What the hell?” he muttered, bending down and picking it up.
“That was uncalled for,” his mother said, making him jump and curse under his breath. The paper floated back to the floor. He let it. “She’s always been a nice girl. Far too nice for a spoiled brat such as yourself.”
He turned to his mother, the phone still held to his ear. “Jesus Christ. How long have you been standing there watching me?”
“Benjamin.” She scowled at him. “Language.”
Voicemail picked up, so he turned his back on his mother.
“Hey, it’s Maggie. I’m not available at the moment, so leave a message. Bye.”
He swallowed hard, her voice sending a shaft of agony rushing through his veins. “It’s me. Call me back. We need to talk.” He paused, glanced at his mother, and added, “I’m sorry. Please. Call me.” He hung up and slid his phone across the desk.
“She’s gone.” His mother crossed her arms. “I watched her go.”
He froze, his heart pounding full speed ahead. “When did you see her?”
“When you were busy kissing Elizabeth. She saw that, too.” She sat down on the chair by the door—the one he hadn’t sat in because it was Maggie’s, and it hadn’t felt right. “Don’t worry, though. She wasn’t upset. The money she made off of you was well worth it.”
He pressed a hand to his chest, as if it would ease the empty ache within, and picked the paper up again. Staring down at the date, he crumpled it into a ball, seething with the knowledge that he’d been had. These numbers were out of date, and he’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. I simply informed her you wouldn’t be able to buy her farm, like she’d hoped. It’s why she roped you in. Her parents finally lost the valiant battle to keep their useless, insignificant business afloat. She was going to beg you to buy it and save her.” She rested an arm on the table next to her and traced an invisible pattern. “So I told her that wouldn’t happen, but that I’d buy it if she left. So I did. And she did.”
He shook his head slowly, cursing the drink that fogged up his brain. “You bought her off, and she took it?”
“She did.” She smiled and pulled something out of her purse. “Here’s the paperwork, in case you don’t believe me.”
“But—” He took the documents and sure enough, it was paperwork to buy a large lot of land in South Dakota. And the dates were accurate on these papers. “It was all a lie. The money…it’s there. It’s all there.”
She sighed. “Figured that out, did you? I’m not surprised. You always were a bright boy, when you chose to apply yourself. You simply chose not to.”
“Yeah. I did.” Benjamin blinked. “Why did you do this?”
“She had to think you were poor and couldn’t help her. And you had to believe you were poor, too, or she wouldn’t buy it, and you wouldn’t have let her go. You gave me the idea when you started poking around in the financials. So, the credit truly goes to you. I dug out those old papers, handed them off, and the rest just fell into place. It was perfect, really.” Her smile widened. “You’re not a pauper after all. You don’t need to marry Elizabeth—though I still wish you would—and that backwoods gold digger is out of our lives once and for all. I won.”
Rage—so much fucking rage—blinded him. And he let it.
Lifting a trembling hand, he pointed to the door. “Get out.”
“All right. I have dinner plans anyway.” His mother stood, staring him down. “Be angry all you want, but you’ll thank me later, when you meet a proper woman and realize I saved you from the biggest mistake of your life.”
No, she hadn’t, because he didn’t believe a word she said. Maggie wouldn’t have taken a bribe. “What was your biggest mistake? Having me?”
“Close enough.” His mother hesitated. “Pretending you were mine.”