Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
193
loan papers between our two ranches and wanted to
return them to Abel.”
She stared, trying to comprehend what her mother
was telling her. “They tried to forgive the loan?”
Viviana nodded tightly. “Marjorie wanted to tear
them up right there, but Abel would not allow it. He
threw them back at them. ‘I will not take Dalton
charity’ he said in a cold, proud voice. He said he
would continue to pay as he had been until the debt
was cleared.”
“He insisted?”
“Marjorie, she tried to change the loan to a better,
more honest rate than Hank charged. Many times she
tried. But Abel and his pride would not allow it, even
as he had to work harder and harder to pay the interest.”
Her mother’s delicate features tightened with sorrow
and no small amount of anger. “He did not have to work
those two jobs, niña. He chose the road he traveled. No
one else did that. Not Hank Dalton, not Marjorie or her
sons. Only your father.”
Maggie’s head whirled, and she couldn’t seem to take
it in. Everything she had believed for twenty years was
evaporating like a heat mirage in front of her eyes. She
was glad to be sitting down because she was fairly certain
the shock would have knocked her on her rear end.
“After Abel died,” Viviana went on, “Marjorie and
Wade, they came to me with a check for all the money
your father paid them over the years, keeping out only
enough to cover the original debt.”
“And you took it?”
Her mother lifted her chin. “Yes. I used it to help pay