Tailored for Trouble (Happy Pants #1) - Mimi Jean Pamfiloff Page 0,98
then he died because of me.”
“You didn’t make that tsunami happen, Bennett.”
“No. But I’m the one who didn’t lift a finger to save him. I’m the one who decided it was a waste of money to install an alert system on the property. That’s the sort of cold-hearted bastard I was. I never thought about their safety. I thought…” He looked down at his hands. “I thought, ‘What use would it be to spend thirty thousand dollars if I’m hardly ever here?’ ”
Taylor nodded, trying to take it all in.
“That day changed me—broke something inside me—but as much as I try, I can’t erase the past. It’s the one thing money can’t buy me.”
“So what is all this? What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Like I said, it’s me, trying to make things right—at least, the things I can fix. It will never be enough though. Never. Not after what I did to my own child.”
Taylor’s eyes filled with tears. The torment in Bennett’s expression was too much.
“I couldn’t give these people back their land,” he explained, “and if I could, it wouldn’t help them. Things are different now and that land has been overworked. That’s why I’ve been buying up this valley. It’s perfect for growing flowers and a particular kind of tree.”
“You’re going to grow flowers and trees?”
“No. They are—the people we took land from. I’ve paid the previous landowners a very, very good price and am titling it to a co-op owned by the families we ruined.”
“That’s really nice to do, but flowers?” How would that help anyone?
“Lady Mary Fragrances is the largest purchaser of floral compounds and terpenes in the world. This place will become the exclusive source for all of their ingredients.”
“You want to buy Lady Mary so you can control their sourcing?” It was…really, really smart. And now it all made so much sense. Bennett’s company was the king of manufacturing and processing equipment. He could set up a world-class operation here.
“The ingredients they’ll produce are for a premium market,” he said. “The families will make good money, and Lady Mary Fragrances will be more profitable because they’ll have an exclusive contract. We can use the profits to build water-processing plants, roads, schools. A lot of good can come out of it.”
“Wow, Bennett. Just wow.”
“It’s costing me almost everything I have. Or it will if Mary Rutherford agrees to sell the controlling stake of her company.”
“Wait. So you’re giving up everything you’ve built to do this?” She jerked her head toward the wet green lands laid out in front of them.
“I’ll own fifty-one percent of Lady Mary so I can ensure they do things my way, but that money will be tied up, and anything I make will go to this. I have money for living expenses and to build the factory here, but that’s it. I’ll just have enough—after I sell off Wade Enterprises.”
“Oh my God.” In a million years, Taylor would never, ever have imagined that this was Bennett’s secret. It was sad and dark and…he was trying to make good.
“Kate, my ex, is the only other person who knows absolutely everything,” he said. “She left me when she realized I’d be living a more…modest lifestyle. We were together for almost two years.”
Taylor was speechless. How could anyone do that to this beautiful man? It ripped her heart out. “Two years?”
He went on, “She’d been hustling me the entire time—telling me she wanted to stay out of the limelight, refusing any expensive gifts I tried to give her—it was all just an act to make me think she was down to earth, so she could get her hands on my money. I’m glad I didn’t marry her, but to me, there’s nothing worse in this world than being stabbed in the back by someone you trust.” His words reminded her of that incident in Tokyo.
“You mean like that Japanese lady you yelled at in the hotel?” she asked.
“Yes.” Bennett looked slightly irritated. “I was trying to get a rival equipment company to sell their patented processing equipment for the flowers. It would’ve kept our costs down, but that backstabbing bitch I hired tipped off one of Lady Mary’s competitors. The technology was up for grabs. I lost it.
“We’ll still be able to function,” he said, “but it will be more expensive—lower crop yields.”
He looked at her with his big blue eyes. “Say something.”
She couldn’t. Her mind was too busy filling in all the blanks. His loathing for people who took advantage of others.