Page 137 of The Me I Left Behind

His wife moved in closer to Max’s parents. “You know he hit her. Right? He was mean to her. And that day? She was going to tell him she was leaving him. That’s why he killed her.”

Max’s father’s face turned red. “My son did not kill your daughter!”

“She was not leaving him,” his mother added. “That’s ridiculous. Why would anyone leave my son?” She spotted Maggie then, and though she appeared surprised, responded with a sneer. “Max was a handsome man, a hard worker, and a good provider…why would anyone even suggest leaving him?”

Maggie couldn’t stand it any longer. “Because he was a nasty son-of-a-bitch? And yes, Mrs. Oliver, you are the bitch.”

Max’s mother grasped her husband’s arm and fully faced Maggie. “And you, Maggie Oliver, are the tart who got knocked up only for his money.”

“So that’s what you’ve thought of me all these years.”

“That’s what he told us. I believed my son,” Mrs. Oliver scoffed.

“That’s a lie and you know it. I had money. I also worked hard. I had no choice but to take an unpaid leave of absence because of my pregnancy. He didn’t have to stick around.”

His father intervened. “But he did. The last thing we needed right then was you coming at us with a paternity lawsuit, too.” He pointed at the McDowell’s. “Those people were already leeching money from us hand over fist.”

Maggie glanced at Caroline’s parents. Good for them.

“Your son was a scoundrel. Of course you knew that. That’s why you always covered for him. Right?”

“I covered for him because I could,” Mr. Oliver said. “And because he was my son.”

“And because he was sullying your long-standing, proper Southern family name, I imagine.”

Mrs. Oliver pushed forward. “You know he never loved you. Or those kids. He wanted none of that, but because you trapped him, we had to do something.”

Wait. We?Maggie’s abdomen tightened. “What do you meanwe.”

“We!” she went on. “His father and I. You knowweare the reason he married you. You should be grateful. We insisted.”

Shut-the-fuck-up.“Go on.”

Max’s father pulled his mother back. “We’re not getting into that today.”

Maggie took two determined steps forward, closer to him. She spoke firmly and directly. “Oh, yes, we are. You are going to tell me what you did, because if you don’t, I am going to make one helluva scene. Right here. Right now.”

He stared at her, then at the McDowell’s, and grumbled angrily. “Fine. If he didn’t marry you, I was going to cut off his trust fund.”

“Excuse me? What trust fund? Max told me you canceled that years ago.”

“Oh, we threatened to several times when he’d come home whining about his lack of freedom. But the last time he did, about ten years ago, I told him if he came back again, I’d cut him out of the trustandthe will for good.”

“You should have.”

His mother shook her head. “Not true. We always took care of him because…” She stopped talking.

“Because he always fucked things up. Right?”

“If he married you, and stayed married to you,” his father went on, “he would continue to get the funds from the trust he’d been getting since he was eighteen. If anything, I wanted to make sure the grandchildren were taken care of, even if he wouldn’t let me see them. If he divorced you, however, the trust funds would stop.” He glowered. “We don’t do divorces in this family.”

Just staged accidental killings?

Marital hostage taking?

All for money?

Maggie suddenly felt queasy and lightheaded.Shit.She took a moment, staring at the Olivers. “So you’ve been supporting us all these years?”