The Devine Doughnut Shop(29)

“That she and Edward are leaving today for their island,” Macy sobbed.

Sarah sat down beside her and draped an arm around her shoulders. “Why would that make you test this thing?” She held up the ring and eyed it carefully.

“What’s going on in here?” Grace asked.

Sarah handed the ring off to her. “This isn’t real. It won’t scratch glass. And Edward and Darla Jo are leaving town today.”

“Does that mean that Neal is in the clear?” Grace asked.

Macy took the ring from Grace and put it back on her finger. “It means I need y’all to go with me to Darla Jo’s house right now. We’ll talk on the way about why. My heart wants me to be wrong, but my mind tells me that I’m right. If Neal and Edward are the same person, I will never trust another man as long as I live.”

Grace locked the front door and came back to extend a hand to Macy. “Let’s go take care of this once and for all.”

Macy put her hand in Grace’s and stood up. Her heart was doing double time, and her head was beginning to ache, but she still held out hope that her Neal and Darla Jo’s Edward were two different men. Her phone pinged. She checked it to see a message from Neal: Haven’t gotten those numbers. Did you send them?

She sent one back: Working on it right now.

Sarah stood right beside her and read over her shoulder. “Working on what?”

“Long story, but here goes,” Macy answered, and told them what had happened as they left the shop, got into Sarah’s truck, and drove north toward the ranch that Henry had left Darla Jo when he died. Talk around town was that its sale was being finalized for a cool five million.

She ended the story with testing the diamond in her ring, but part of her was still holding on to hope that there was an explanation as they drove through town. Grace reached up from the back seat and laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry—but, honey, it’s over. Neal is not in San Diego. He’s at Darla Jo’s, and they are about to leave. Getting his hands on what you have is their final play.”

“Why would he even want what I have in savings when it wouldn’t be but a drop in the bucket compared to what Darla Jo has gotten from Henry’s and Wesley’s estates?” To keep from crying, Macy looked out the passenger-side window of Sarah’s truck. Everything looked different than it had a week ago. Even the lovely signs of spring that sped past the windows were as dull as the ache in her heart.

“He thought he was going to get everything,” Sarah said. “You didn’t tell him that most of your money is tied up in investments, did you?”

Macy shook her head. “Not until today. I just told him what it all amounted to.”

Sarah drove past the sign that said “Devine, Texas: Small Town. Big Heart. Great Future.”

“Yeah, right,” Macy muttered. “Small town is right, but it should say only fools have big hearts and think they have a great future.”

“At least the first one is right,” Sarah said.

“But that last one is probably going to break my heart.” Macy tried to keep the tears at bay, but it was impossible. How could she have been so blind?

Sarah made a sharp left turn into the lane leading back to a long, low sprawling ranch house—and right there, in front of Macy’s eyes, was Neal’s bright red SUV. Macy straightened her back, set her jaw, and got ready for the battle. She had always been slow to anger, but seeing Neal’s car parked there caused wrath to rise to a peak she didn’t know she even had in her. She didn’t have anything that faintly resembled a weapon, which was a good thing, but then she didn’t need one.

Vengeance is mine, the annoying voice in her head said.

“Today, God needs a little help,” she muttered.

Two little boys ran out of the house and got into the back seat of the SUV. Macy thought of the two boys that she and Neal had talked about having—Teddy for his grandfather, Elijah for hers. Had his parents really even been killed in a car wreck, or were they alive and well somewhere? Had he learned the art of conning from them, or had he and Darla Jo come up with that all on their own?

Macy’s phone pinged. She checked it and found another message from Neal: They’re getting really impatient, and I’m getting pretty scared right now. Need those numbers. Love you.

Darla Jo was so preoccupied with her blue purse, a small pink suitcase, and the yellow box of doughnuts that it took a moment for her to realize Sarah had parked right behind Neal’s SUV.

“He’s texting me about the numbers right now, and he’s walking out the door to run away with Darla Jo,” Macy growled.

“Oh. My. God!” Sarah said.

“He’s really doing that,” Grace gasped. “Let’s go . . .” She swung open the truck door.

The little boys hopped out of the car and ran back into the house. The older one yelled, “We forgot to get the charge cords for our tablets.”

Darla Jo raised her voice. “Well, hurry up!”

“This is my fight,” Macy said through clenched teeth as she got out of the truck. “You can stop me from killing him outright, but other than that, I’ll take care of it. I’m not planning on being in jail when Raelene graduates or when Audrey inherits the shop.”

Darla Jo’s face went blank when she saw Macy storming across the lawn. She dropped the suitcase, the doughnuts, and her purse, then turned around, screamed, “Edward!” and took off in a dead run toward the porch.