Chapter Fifteen #4
She scoffed. “Make that Ms. Llewellyn. The nerve of that slut—attacking your mother and her children while her own husband was divorcing her for sleeping around, and her daughter wasn’t anywhere near Princeton.
She was halfway around the world learning how to pick up STDs and surprise babies just like her mommy dearest. Did you know that Courtney girl has a daughter?
” Mrs. Choi smiled that little, malicious smile shared by everyone who got sick enjoyment out of feeling superior over others.
“Apparently, she’s got no idea who the father is.
Everyone was talking about it at the baby shower.
” She sniffed. “I tell you this, Ms. Llewellyn hasn’t had a peep to say about you, Sarang, or your mother since then. ”
“That’s... good,” I forced out. What I really wanted to do was tell her off, but I couldn’t.
Opening up about the people who hated Omma was exactly what I needed her to do.
I just wished she could do it without trashing my closest friend.
“And I guess Ms. Llewellyn must’ve epically freaked out when I posted all over my socials that Courtney was in Paris, and then Omma told everyone else. ”
She whistled. “Epically freaked out is putting it lightly. She rammed your mother’s car in the parking lot.”
“What!”
“Shh,” she hissed, flapping her hand—but that nasty smile widened. “Oh, yes, didn’t you know? That’s why your omma had to scrap the Ferrari. She totaled it and almost put your mother in the hospital. Didn’t your mother tell you this?”
I shook my head. “There was a lot Omma didn’t tell me. I guess kids never really know what’s going on in their parents’ lives.”
“Dae Sung sure doesn’t,” she scoffed. “I swear that boy’s fingers break every time he’s supposed to call his mother. Even now, my best friend was murdered and my own son can’t be bothered to pick up the phone.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Choi.”
“No, no, no,” she gruffed, waving that away. “Don’t you worry about comforting me. My loss is nothing compared to yours. It’s you I’m here for.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate that, and you really are helping me. Despite everything, I know Courtney didn’t do it, and the four of us are terrified knowing a murderer walked right into our home and is still on the loose. I mean, we’ve got Nari to think about.”
“Oh dear, I hadn’t thought of that,” she breathed, laying her hand over her heart. “If the police have got it wrong, you may still be in danger—not to mention that precious child. Oh, Sue, you must know how much we all love Nari. I swear the heavens gave us one of their own with that girl.”
“Yes,” I whispered, smiling soft. “They did. That’s why I need to be sure. Now, you’re saying that the feud between Courtney’s mom and mine got so bad it resulted into road rage, but they must’ve buried the hatchet, right? Otherwise, why would she have invited Omma to the baby shower?”
“Hmm. It’s true, she did.” Mrs. Choi paused to sip her tea.
“And ever since, they were both too busy showering their grandchildren with attention to worry about the other. It’d helped that Courtney’s predicament humbled that nasty shrew.
Llewellyn certainly wasn’t bragging about her Ivy League–dropout daughter after she admitted she couldn’t even remember her child’s father’s name. ”
I clamped down hard on my tongue, holding back the lashing. You need her, you need her, you need her. For all her badmouthing Courtney, she’s eventually going to say something that’ll save Courtney’s future.
“Was there anyone else?” I asked. “Someone else who resented my mother so much, they couldn’t get over it? Something they’d want to settle the score over, even though Omma was already dying.”
Shaking her head, her gaze drifted out the window.
“My dear, no. Of course not. It’s as you say, any petty grievances were settled with the news that my friend didn’t have long in this world.
At this point, her death achieved nothing except satisfying the murderous lust of a monster.
Because if it wasn’t that Courtney girl, that’s who it was—a monster,” she spat.
“Some sick, soulless beast who’s too much of a coward to face a woman head-on, so they strike from behind or when they’re laid up in bed and couldn’t hope to fight back.
Just like they did with your mother, that woman who used to work for you, and that poor girl from the post office.
Did you know that’s how that young woman died?
” she asked. “Struck on the back of the head. She was probably walking to her car, heading home from work, when that beast came up behind her. She wouldn’t have seen a thing coming. ”
“I didn’t know that was how she died,” I admitted. “All I heard was that she was found on Bonsai Beach. Look, Mrs. Choi, I don’t doubt the killer is a madman, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a motive to go after Omma specifically.
“The killer took a serious risk going after Omma in a house full of cops and witnesses. They planned a way to get in, out, and frame an innocent person all without being seen. That’s a lot of premeditation for an opportunistic coward.”
Mrs. Choi tipped her head, nodding. “Yes, I see what you mean.”
“So, please, thinking back to everything my mother’s said and done. Think about everything others may have done and said about my mother. Did anyone have a reason to want to silence her? One that couldn’t wait.”
She tossed her head, face crumpling. “Soo, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing like that. Your mother shut herself away for months. No one had a reason to... to silence...” Trailing off, she stiffened. “Wait. Silence... Silence her...”
“What?” I pounced. “What is it?”
“It— No, it’s probably nothing. Even the thought is ridiculous—”
“Please.” My grip tightened on her hand. “She was my mother. Your friend. We have to do everything we can to find her killer—even if it’s ridiculous.”
She looked at me, eyes filling. “Sweet child, you say you want to know this... but I don’t think you do.”
“I do,” I replied before she finished the sentence. “Tell me.”
Sighing, she pressed her lips tight together—looking at me like she wasn’t going to budge.
“Okay,” she said, making me release a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “First, you must understand that I was only doing what she asked of me. I even told her that she should talk to you and get your permission first, but she claimed a mother didn’t need permission.”
“Permission to do what?”
She trapped my gaze. “Permission to investigate her sons-in-law.”
“Investigate?” I blew back, eyes darting around. “Investigate what?”
Mrs. Choi flapped her hand, gesturing for me to lean back in.
Just because she loved telling everyone’s business, didn’t mean she wanted it shouted in public.
“It was last year—around June,” she said softly.
“Apparently, you were in a bad spot in your marriages at the time, and it was looking like a divorce—or three—was inevitable. She said they’d already struck the first blow by canceling all of your credit cards and removing your access to the joint accounts.
” She gave me a look. “And you know what comes after that.”
“Of course. Large cash withdrawals, secret Cayman bank accounts, opening trusts in your cousin’s name, undervaluing assets, overvaluing debts, stashing money in the corporate accounts, and suddenly catching the urge to invest in gold and safe-deposit boxes,” I rattled off easily.
“All from the Rich Douchebag’s Guide to Cheating Your Spouse Out of Their Earned Divorce Settlement. ”
“Precisely.”
Hey, I grew up in the land of the rich with the rest of the Lantanans. I learned how to cheat taxes and hide assets before I learned fractions.
“You’ve devoted years of your life to not one, but three men. You have a child with them,” she cried. “Your mother wasn’t going to see you cheated out of a single cent that you deserve, so at the first sign, she asked me to put her in touch with a private investigator and forensic accountant.
“I’m entrusted with millions and millions of dollars meant for poor and needy people.
Ha-eun knew I was fanatical about every dollar being accounted for,” she said.
“I gave her what she asked, but I made her promise that if they found something, she’d take it to you first. Let you take it to your attorney, so they’d be prepared to spring it on your husbands the minute they walked into the mediation room.
If she tipped your hand to them, they’d be forearmed and ready, and it’d just drag out the fight that much longer. ”
I almost laughed. Of course, Mrs. Choi’s only concern was to see Sue with all the weapons she needed to drain her rich husbands dry. She wasn’t at all concerned about her and my mother poking their noses into someone else’s marriages.
“And did the investigators find something?” I asked, and even as the question came out of my mouth, I hoped the answer wouldn’t be—
“Yes,” she stated. “Almost a month later, I was driving your mother to chemo when she just came right out with it. She told me they found out something about one of your husbands—something big. So big that it wouldn’t just get you half, it’d get you everything and more.
The money, the assets, the house, the cars, and Nari. You would even own his freedom.”
My brows crumpled. “His freedom? That’s what she said? That I’d own his freedom.”
“That’s correct.”
“What does that mean? Like— Like— Like jail?” I screeched. “Was she saying she found something that would put one of my husbands in jail?”
“That was my assumption, yes.”
I goggled at her. “What was it? What did they find?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
I was out of my seat and almost in hers, leaning over the flower centerpiece. “Did she at least tell you who it was?”
“She didn’t name him, but”—discomfort crawled over her face—“she did tell me, rather inappropriately even I must say, that it was the one you’d expect.” She gave me another meaningful look. “If you take my meaning.”
“I do,” I croaked, feeling that pit grow until it stole all the air from me. “Unfortunately, I do.”