“If you want to hear the gory details, I’m going to need more wine first,” she said, grinning ruefully.
Connor chuckled and reached for the wine bottle. “Yeah, I think I might need a little more, too.”
“Okay, the day we got married, we moved into his mother’s mansion in Boston’s Beacon Hill.”
“You lived with his mom the whole time?”
“Yeah,” she said. “They were close.”
Connor almost spit his wine out. “They were demented.”
“That, too.” She speared a chunk of lobster and popped it into her mouth. “Oh, and none of my family were invited to the wedding, did I mention that? And within a few days of the ceremony, he was insisting that I cut off all ties with them.”
“The better to isolate and control you.”
“Yeah.” She gazed at Connor. “I wasn’t really smart about any of this. I think I was still traumatized about breaking up with you and I just kind of went along with things. It wasn’t easy, because his mother was really cold and unbending. And he got worse as time went on. I just couldn’t do anything to please either one of them.”
“I wish you’d called me.”
“I do, too, Connor.” She reached across the table and touched his hand. “But I was adrift. After our last conversation, I didn’t think you were all that interested in hearing from me. I wasn’t sure of myself anymore. They did a good job of whittling away at my confidence.”
“They sound like experts.”
“Oh, they were.” Her eyes hazed a bit as she remembered more. “After seven long years, I finally grew some gumption and decided it was time to divorce them both. And the very day I made an appointment to see a lawyer, Sybil died of a massive heart attack.”
“Whoa.”
“She left all her money to Ashcroft. And on the day of her funeral, he informed me that he was divorcing me.”
Connor let out a string of expletives. “He did you a favor. You know that, right?”
“Oh, I know it,” she said fiercely. “But even on the occasion of his mother’s death, he couldn’t leave it alone. No, he had to go on and on, explaining how unsuitable I was for him. How I had been nothing more than a convenience to him.”
“He should be glad he’s still breathing,” he muttered.
“A convenience,” Maggie repeated slowly, her hands tightening into fists. “That son of a bitch.”
“Literally,” Connor muttered.
She waved her anger away. “The divorce was a gift, frankly, because it meant I was blessedly free of him. He tried so hard to break my spirit, but he never broke my heart, thank God. And I’m so glad he saved me the trouble of trying to divorce him.”
“Because he would’ve fought you to the bitter end.”
“That’s right.” She chuckled. “Irony was always lost on Ashcroft.”
“No sense of humor, that guy.”