Page 80 of Her Billionaire Boss
“Is she all right?Are the children all right?”Matt asked.I’d never seen Elizabeth upset before, but using Matt’s reaction as a gauge for the situation, things werebad.
I braced myself to hear that there had been a car accident, that all of them had perished.But what she said was somehow worse.
“She’s left Jackson.She’s left him for your… your…” Elizabeth’s eyes flicked to me, then back to Matt, her expression hardening.“For her brother.”
Oh, how quickly the ownership of my brother has changed.I took a step back, as if I’d been physically slapped.The venom in her voice stunned me.
“I-I,” I stammered, but I wasn’t sure what to say next.
“For Scott?Are you sure?”Matt asked, his glance cutting to me.
I shrugged.
“Of course, I’m sure.”Elizabeth nodded in my direction.“You knew already, didn’t you?”
“This is the first I’m hearing of any divorce,” I said, holding my hands up and taking another backwards step.Maybe if I kept doing that, I could back out of the room entirely.
But Matt reached to catch my hand and draw me even with him again.I didn’t know if he needed my support or thought I needed his, but either way, standing in front of his mother like a firing squad was the last thing I wanted to do.
Scott.FuckingScott.He could have given me a heads up.He could have given both of us a heads up.How long had he been planning this?It hadn’t been that long since I’d last seen him, since I’d asked Matt not to…
I turned sharply to him.“Did you have anything to do with this?”
“Of course he didn’t!”Elizabeth snapped.
“When did all this happen?”Matt asked before I could shoot something sassy back at his mother.I was grateful; while she’d been perfectly nice in the past, I got the distinct impression that I probably wouldn’t beafforded such a reception ever again.
Elizabeth dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.“She called me last night and told me that she’d thrown Jackson out of the house.He’d apparently spent an exorbitant amount of money on a townhouse for some woman he’s gotten pregnant a time or two.”
My mouth dropped open in shock.Matt’s closed tight, jaw clenching.Somehow, he managed to grind out, “That bastard.”
“Oh, don’t be so sentimental.Her marriage was always for status.She’s the one who forgot that.”Elizabeth propped her cigarette holder against the delicate china ashtray in the center of the table.The embers at the end still glowed, and smoke curled up like expensive incense.
“I don’t think it’s sentimental to object to your husband having an entire second family,” Matt argued.“Is she okay?”
“Okay?No, she isn’t okay!She’s walking away from her marriage without even trying to come to an agreement on things.These are illegitimate children he’s barely involved with; they won’t stand to inherit much of Jackson’s fortune.”
“Did he tell her that?”Matt asked.
Elizabeth blinked as if confused by the question.“Of course, he did.”
“She clearly didn’t believe him.”
“I can’t see why she shouldn’t.He’s her husband.Husbands do these things.Your father never recognized any of his illegitimate children in his will,” Elizabeth pointed out.
My brain made the screeching noise of a train engine braking.
But Matt was unfazed by the mention of these half-siblings that I never knew existed.He released my hand to gesture broadly.“No, he didn’t.He put them through college and bought their mothers houses.Catherine is married to a carbon copy of our father.”
“With less money,” Elizabeth was quick to point out.
“Does that even matter?”he demanded.“I can’t believe you’re still totally fine with your husband having a second family.And I can’t believe you’d be fine with that for your daughter.”
“I want what’s best for my daughter,” Elizabeth insisted.“And for my grandchildren.Imagine their prospects in society now, coming from a scandal.”
I felt like I was walking around in an episode ofThe Gilded Age.Who even thought divorce was a big deal anymore?Or worried about social prospects?
“Let’s settle down on the prospects talk, because it’s not like you don’t have friends who’ve been divorced eight times,” Matt said dryly.
