“I’m sorry, Mama. I’ve already told you I’m not marrying Frank. And there isn’t time for me to fall in love.” She was already in love, but her mother didn’t need to know that. It hurt too much to talk about anyway.
Again the blurry vision of Rafe’s supposed wife invaded her mind. What might her face look like? Was she brunette like Angie? Or blond? Or red-haired like that horrible Lori at Deb’s?
She shook her head. Lori and Deb. She’d been awful to them. Absolutely bratty. Lori wasn’t horrible. Angie was.
No longer. Along with disinherited Angie came new and improved Angie. She’d make amends for all the nastiness she’d spewed in the past if it took the rest of her life. She’d begin tomorrow by boxing up all the clothes she never needed in the first place and donating them to charity. She’d be moving in with Mama soon anyway. The smaller closet in her old bedroom would thank her.
“You’re right, Angie.” Maria steadied herself, taking some of her weight off Angie. “You’re not going to marry Frank. You’re not going to marry anyone you don’t love just to get a piece of land.”
“Then I think we’re done here,” Jeff said, moving toward the door. “Nice to see you, ladies.”
Maria rushed forward and pounded her fists onto Jeff’s chest. “Damn it, Jeff, we are not done here!”
“Mama?” Angie said, inching toward her mother and uncle.
“You won’t do this to her. I swear you won’t!”
Jefferson gripped her mother’s shoulders. “I stand to gain everything by doing this.”
“But you can’t.”
“You keep saying that, Mia.” He shook her.
Angie inched forward a little more. She would not let him hurt her mother. He eased off, though his hands were still clamped onto Maria. Angie inhaled and stayed put.
“Why? Why can’t I?” he continued. “Why shouldn’t I take what should have been rightfully mine in the first place?”
Maria whipped her hands upward and grabbed both sides of Jefferson’s face.
“Because she’s your daughter, God damn it!”
Chapter Nineteen
Angie’s heart plummeted to her stomach. Had she heard right?
“Mama?” Her voice squeaked.
“I’m sorry, Angelina. I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that, but it’s true. Wayne Bay is not your biological father. Jefferson Bay is.”
She swayed, her muscles tensing. Her knees weakened and threatened to collapse under her. Her doting daddy not her daddy? It couldn’t be.
“You’re lying, Mia,” Jefferson said, “and it won’t work.”
“It’s not a lie, you fool. To be honest I’m surprised none of you suspected it at the time. If it’s proof you want, you and Angie go for a DNA test. I guarantee the results will show she’s yours.”
“How? Why?”
“Didn’t you wonder why I suddenly had an interest in your brother when I’d had none previously? Didn’t you wonder when my baby girl was born a month early? No, none of you gave it a second thought. It seemed so obvious to me, but neither you, Wayne, nor your grandfather batted an eye over it.”
The words rang in Angie’s ears. First they made sense, and then they didn’t, and then she was sure this had to be a dream, and then she knew it wasn’t. This was real. Terrible and horrifying and real.
“I think I might be sick,” she said.
Maria rushed to her and helped her to one of the queen beds in the hotel room. “I’m so sorry, Angie. I never meant for you to find out like this. I never meant for you to find out at all.”
“At all?” Angie blinked her eyes. This was her mother, right? The same woman who’d hugged her and kissed her boo boos. The woman who would never keep something this important from her. From her father. “How could you? How could you lie to me all these years?”
“I’m sorry.”