Indebted: Part Three (Series Finale): The Virgin & The Bad-Boy Billionaire (A BWWM Billionaire Romance) Read Online Free Page B

the picnic table like a rain cloud over a wedding.
     
    “Yeah, that’s him.”
     
    “Why do you want to know about the kid?” Issaiah interrupts us, twisting his mouth to the side.
     
    “I’ve been dating him.” I breathe the confession into my hands, hanging my head over the table. I can feel their eyes on me, making me smaller with each second ticking by.
     
    “You’re what?” Regional looks concerned. “How does that happen, exactly?” His fidgety hands abandon their work peeling the paper off his beer as he crosses his arms across his chest. Blake and Issaiah don’t say a word, just waiting for me to explain myself as I coax my tongue to speak. A light snore spreads across the table from Tania, breaking some of the tension. Blake puts his arm around his fiance, pulling her head onto his shoulder.
     
    “He came to the diner one day. Not too long ago, maybe a month. I was on shift so I brought him a menu, and we went on a date.” I breeze over the details of the day. They don’t need to know about how I yelled at him for calling me sweetheart or that he called me at home after I threw away his number. Reginal and Issaiah exchange a glance but remain silent. “What? Tell me,” I prod them, knowing they’re holding back.
     
    “So,” Issaiah rolls the word over his tongue like an expensive wine, “he was looking for you?” It’s impossible not to hear the alarm in his voice. “Did he offer you money?”
     
    “What? What the hell are you asking me?” My shoulders stiffen with the implication. Is he asking me if I’ve been acting as some kind of call-girl for Matthew? Blake and I exchange our own glance, but it’s one of shared confusion. Apparently he’s been living in the dark right along with me.
     
    Reginal raises his hand up, shushing us up. He closes his eyes like he’s trying to remember the details of what he’s about to tell me, “when you first went to university, Matthew Blackwell tracked down Mama. He told her that he wanted to make things right with her. His heart seemed to be in the right place, I guess, but he tried to give her some money.”
     
    “Some money!” Isaiah snorts. “She never would’ve worked again!”
     
    Reginal nods at Issaiah and continues, “it’s true, he offered her enough to retire comfortably. Mama wouldn’t have any of it though. She told him that she’d never taken a handout in her life, and she wasn’t going to start with him. The kid, I mean, your boyfriend kept persisting though. He wasn’t taking no for an answer, but he didn’t know what he was up against with her stubborn streak. She ripped a strip off him, yelling at him about how his cash wouldn’t fix the damage done. About how rich people are all the same, they think money can smooth everything over.”
     
    In my mind, I watch Matthew bearing the brunt of my mother’s anger over his father’s mistake. My heart hurts when I picture him reaching out to her, trying to help her in the only way he was taught how to. With money.
     
    “She should’ve taken that check, if you ask me,” Issaiah speaks up. “They say pride goeth before the fall, don’t they? If she just wasn’t so damned proud, then she wouldn’t have worked herself to death. Her heart was already weak, and she knew it. Taking it easy back then would’ve kept her around to meet all her grandchildren today.”
     
    “Why would anyone turn down a chance like that?” Blake blinks, trying to understand her decision. I already understand as clearly as if I had slammed the door in his face instead of Mama. Lord knows, I’ve had plenty of experience turning him away myself.
     
    “Because she didn’t want to be pitied. She didn’t want to be his charity case.” I echo the words I’ve repeated to Brianna numerously since I learned about the accident.
     
    “Exactly,” Reginal agrees, “and look where that got her. Mama made a mule look like a push-over. In the end, I’d say you’re right Issaiah, her