Page 8

But Joy looked at her. “Like hell you’ll get it back,” she said to everybody’s shock. “You won’t get a dime of that money back from me.”

Fiona smiled. “See William? Didn’t I tell you that’s all this is about with the likes of her.”

But Joy was still staring at Cassidy. “You put that money in my account without my knowledge or participation to try to destroy me in William’s eyes. You gave it to me. It’s mine now.”

“Are you serious?” Cassidy was concerned. Her family was old money, but it wasn’t a lot of that old money left. She didn’t have mountains of money to throw away. Not that kind of money. “I’ll sue you if you don’t return that money to me.”

“Sue me and tell the judge what? That you tried to blackmail me into calling off my wedding? And you put that money in my account without my permission? And when I refused to go along with your scheme, especially since I didn’t even know about it, you suddenly want your money back? No ma’am. That’s my money now. You ain’t getting a dime of that back!”

Juanita smiled. She appreciated game, and her daughter had it in spades. She would have done it the exact same way.

And it was her opening to get some of that money for herself. “You got it right,” she said to Joy. “Bitch tried to ruin your wedding. But you wouldn’t let her. Now she want the money back? Oh hell no. You doing it right, baby girl.”

Joy wanted to roll her eyes. Her mother didn’t give a damn about her. She knew what “game” she was running too.

“William, will you please tell this . . . this person . . . that she absolutely will give me back my money.”

“Did she know you had deposited it in her account?”

“I told you she knew.”

“Then it’s hers. If she didn’t know anything about it, then it’s still yours.”

Cassidy was crestfallen. She looked at Fiona. She couldn’t afford to lose that money! But Fiona wasn’t thinking about Cassidy.

And William knew it too. He looked at his mother. But she was already staring at him. “How can you believe that child over all of this evidence? How can you do that, William? I didn’t raise you this way.”

“You didn’t raise me at all. Boarding schools did. The best in the country when it came to a good education. When it came to everything else?” He looked at both of his parents. “I was on my own.”

“But how can you believe her with all of this evidence to the contrary? And what her own mother said about her? And what half of that hellhole of a town she hails from said about her? You must be mad to believe her. She spoke with Cassidy, and she agreed to take that money. Why else would she deposit it into that child’s account? And it was a bank account that you knew nothing about anyway.”

“Are you finished?” William asked her.

“Yes I’m finished.”

“Then you hear me. All of you hear me,” William said as he looked from his mother to Joy’s mother to Cassidy and Frank. “Joynetta Johnson is Mrs. William Skeffington now. She’s my wife. And if any of you have a problem with that? Then that’s your problem, not ours.”

Then he looked at Fiona. “Whatever you paid Juanita,” he continued, “was a waste of money. Whatever you paid Frank: another waste.” Then he looked at Cassidy. “Thank you for the donation. Because you aren’t getting a penny of that back. Just like you aren’t getting an inch of me back either.” He was especially crossed with Cassidy because he knew what she wanted. And it wasn’t because she was all in love with him. It was because she wanted the power and privileges that came with being his wife. “Let’s get out of this den of thieves,” he said to Joy and they began making their way out of that parlor.

They could hear William’s father laughing as they walked toward the exit. “They told y’all,” he said. “All that money y’all spent. Especially you, Cass. Your family barely getting by as it is and you’re throwing around almost a quarter of a million dollars to buy William’s name. When all you bought was his bitch,” he said, and laughed out loud again.

William and Joy were both smiling, too, as they left that parlor and then that house altogether.

“What a waste,” Joy said when they got into the limo and made their way back toward the airport. “And for my mama to show up like that.”

“They offered to pay her to show up.”

“I know they did. But she didn’t have to accept that offer. Any self-respecting mother would never do that to her own daughter.”

“Any self-respecting mother would never pay to destroy her own son’s marriage. But there you have it. Neither one of our parents can be called good examples of self-respect.”

Joy nodded. “I know that’s right,” she said.

And then silence took over. William seemed relaxed outwardly, but inwardly he was concerned.

Joy, who was getting to know him in many ways, saw his concern. “What’s the matter?”

William didn’t want to go there, but he felt he must. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a separate bank account?”