Chapter 6 #2
My gut churned. I wanted to rail against what he’d been through—but he’d only really begun to share. As much as I might need to know this as a future partner—he really needed to be sharing it with Justin.
He slowed, apparently realizing we were near the end of our walk.
“We can keep going.” I pointed to the street. “It’s a lovely neighborhood.”
“Nah.” He headed toward his truck.
I followed.
He turned to face me. “I’m trying to say I’m a really bad bet.
I trusted my ex-husband. Implicitly. All told, he stole more than sixteen million dollars—mostly deposits from unsuspecting homebuyers.
Plus the equity from our home and every last penny of credit he could squeeze out of everything.
I had the cash in my wallet and a couple hundred I kept in the safe along with my passport and marriage certificate.
At least he left those…although where I could’ve escaped to, I had no idea. Just…gone.”
“And the police haven’t been able to track him down?”
“While I was feeding them everything I had, they built a case against me. Everything had my signature.”
“But it wasn’t yours.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know how he managed, but he forged my signature on everything.
I mean, everything. If someone at the credit union had just called me.
” He kicked a piece of gravel. “I didn’t even really care about the trial.
I mean, I was half willing to plead guilty because at least in jail I could get three square meals a day and a roof over my head. ”
“What happened?”
“Bernie. The office manager. She came to see me. She knew I hadn’t done it because she’d never seen me in the office.
She felt guilty because Stephen had seemed secretive and squirrelly the last few weeks he was there.
She’d just figured we’d fought or something. Naturally, she wished she’d called me.”
“She spoke to the authorities?”
He nodded. “Yeah. They blew her off. I thought that would be an end to it, but she showed up at my doorstep with a legal-aid lawyer. The patron saint of lost causes.”
“Oh?”
“Better known as Arnav Mehta.” He chuckled.
“Bernie ordered me to sit down and to tell Arnav everything. And I mean everything. So, I did. At one point, she went and grabbed food. The three of us talked for twelve hours as we went through every single point. By the end, he said he was pretty sure he could get me off.” He shivered.
“You’re cold. Do you want to come to my place? We can do takeout. Or I can cook. At the very least, you need a hot chocolate.”
He waved me off. “I’ll finish this, and then you can decide if you still want to be with me.”
Inwardly, I bristled. Outwardly, I remained impassive.
Silly man. Of course I want to be with you.
And not just because my Daddy heart longs to heal you.
There’s a pup inside, longing to burst free.
I can be your safe harbor in the storm. Still, I said nothing. I just gestured for him to keep going.
“He did it. He convinced the jurors that I honestly didn’t know anything about it. He didn’t have any more or less evidence than the prosecutors had—he just showed the jury a different way to interpret it. Longest wait of my life. When the jury was deliberating.”
“That was just a week ago.”
His gaze sharpened.
“You told me to google you. I googled you. In truth, I had some idea of who you were before we met. But not your story. I don’t think I need to tell you that therapists need to have an open mind. I didn’t have any preconceptions of you—except that a jury had found you innocent.”
He shook his head. “They didn’t see enough to convict without certainty. They still deliberated for almost two days.”
I held that intense gaze. “Or they were doing what they’d been told to do—go through the evidence carefully and consider each piece.
The prosecutors were a little overzealous in their charging.
” This much I’d gleaned from the analysis of the case—so many charges and so many elements of the crimes to be proven.
“The prosecutor had it out for me.”
“Why?”
“You know, Arnav was never able to figure that out—but he was convinced of it as well. They tried me in Surrey because that’s where the fraud took place—the credit union is located there.
I didn’t know the crown prosecutor, and I also don’t know if things would’ve been different.
Arnav knows the prosecutors in Cedar Valley, and he swears this case never should’ve been brought.
” He rubbed his temple. “And there’s this one cop who is convinced, I’m certain, that I killed Stephen and dumped his body.
That I’m somehow sitting on sixteen million dollars and am waiting for—” He gestured wildly.
“What is that asshole thinking? I live in a crap apartment on scraps, and he thinks I’m sitting on a windfall.
Waiting for what? Like Stephen, why wouldn’t I have taken off?
Fucked off to places unknown?” He clapped his hand over his mouth.
I chuckled. “No children here. No sensitive ears, either. Trust me, I’ve heard it all before. I lived in a co-ed dorm in university. Very little shocks me.”
“Still.” He winced. “I do try. I mean construction crews are notorious for their language, but I always tried to keep a rein on my guys. And women—more and more. Riley’s crew?
We’re almost at gender parity. I think that’s great.
” He smiled. “That said, Stella can say stuff that would make a sailor blush. She’s got quite a mouth on her. ”
“And you like her.”
“Yeah, I really do. They’re all great people. And they’ve accepted me—trusted me even when maybe they shouldn’t.” He shivered again.
I stepped closer.
He didn’t back away.
Telegraphing my movements, I advanced again.
He held his ground.
I grasped his biceps and rubbed his jacket vigorously up and down his arms. “I’m cold just watching you.”
“This is the only nice jacket I’ve got.”
The leather had a supple feel to it. Certainly expensive.
“You didn’t need to wear that on my account. Wear whatever’s warmest.” I held his gaze. “Not that I don’t find you super sexy in this…”
He bit his lower lip.
I resisted the urge to kiss him. Because it was just way too soon for that.