Chapter 20 #2
Abby understood his caution. She also saw how the lines beside his mouth eased each time the software found a missing item before a procedure was delayed.
On the tenth day of the pilot, Evan called her shortly after seven in the morning. Abby was dressing for work and answered with one earring in her hand.
“Did something happen?” she asked as she sat on the edge of the bed. “You never call this early.”
“The hospital finished its first audit.” Evan sounded as if he had not slept. “Supply shortages in the pilot departments fell by thirty-one percent.”
Abby pressed the phone closer. “Is that better than you projected?”
“We projected eighteen.” Papers shifted on his end of the call. “Some of the difference may be temporary because the staff knew they were being monitored, but the hospital wants to expand the pilot to four more departments.”
“Evan, that’s enormous.” Abby smiled before realizing he could not see her. “What happens now?”
“We verify every number before telling anyone outside the team.” His voice remained controlled, but she heard the strain beneath it. “Then we revise the expansion plan and try to hire two more implementation specialists before the hospital changes its mind.”
“You have spent years preparing for this.” Abby placed the earring on the bedspread. “You can be pleased for five minutes before you revise a plan.”
Silence followed, then Evan released a long breath. “I am pleased.”
“Good.” Abby looked at the clock and calculated how late she could arrive without missing her first meeting. “Come for dinner tonight. I’ll buy the cake this time.”
“I may be at the hospital until nine.” Evan lowered his voice as someone spoke near him. “Can I call when I know?”
“Call whenever you finish.” Abby stood and reached for her earring. “If it’s too late for dinner, I’ll save the cake.”
He arrived at ten fifteen. His shirt was wrinkled beneath his jacket, and exhaustion had turned his eyes red, but he smiled when Abby opened the door.
“Thirty-one percent,” she said as she pulled him inside by the front of his jacket. “You are allowed to celebrate now.”
Evan kissed her before answering. His hands framed her face, and the urgency in his mouth made Abby step backward until her shoulders met the closed door.
“I’ve wanted to do that since seven this morning,” he said when he lifted his head. “The hospital administrator would not have responded well.”
“Probably not.” Abby kept one hand around his lapel. “You should maintain professional boundaries during audits.”
Evan smiled and kissed her again. Then he followed her to the kitchen, where half a chocolate cake waited beneath a glass cover.
Makayla contacted Abby the following afternoon from a number she did not recognize. The message appeared while Abby was reviewing a contract at work.
I need to ask you about the Covington investigation, Makayla wrote. I know you don’t owe me anything, but I could lose more than my job if they decide I participated. Please meet me somewhere public. I won’t contact you again if you say no.
Abby read the message several times. Makayla had not attempted to reach her since the first weeks after the hotel confrontation, when apologies and explanations arrived too quickly to separate.
The new message asked for something specific. Abby hesitated before replying.
I can meet tomorrow at eleven in the courtyard behind the public library. I will stay for thirty minutes.
Makayla accepted the terms without asking for more. Abby told Sadie where she would be and informed Evan that evening, though she did not ask either of them for permission.
“Do you want me nearby?” Evan asked as he stood in Abby’s kitchen cutting the remaining cake. “I can work at the library without joining you.”
“Sadie already offered.” Abby set two plates beside him. “I told her no. The courtyard is public, and Makayla has never frightened me.”
Evan placed a slice of cake on each plate. “Then I won’t come.”
He did not say more, but she knew his unresolved anger and hurt regarding Makayla still affected him. She touched his wrist before taking her plate.
“I’ll call you afterward,” she said. “We can talk.”
“Yes.” Evan turned his hand beneath hers and briefly linked their fingers.
Makayla was already seated when Abby reached the library courtyard. She wore black trousers, flat shoes, and a navy polo embroidered with the name of a hotel near the airport.
Her blond hair was pulled into a loose knot. Dark roots showed along her part, and the careful makeup she once wore for an ordinary lunch had been replaced by concealer beneath her eyes and nothing else.
Abby stopped several feet from the table. The last time she had seen Makayla in person, her former friend had been crying in a hotel room with Hudson standing between them.
“Thank you for coming,” Makayla said as she rose. “I wasn’t sure you would.” Makayla eyed Abby’s belly, but didn’t make any commentary on it. It was clear she knew about the baby.
“You have thirty minutes.” Abby took the chair opposite her and placed her purse on her lap. “What do you need to ask?”
Makayla sat again. “Covington Holding’s attorneys contacted me about the transfers. They think I knew Hudson was submitting them as consulting expenses.”
“Did you?” Abby searched Makayla’s face.
“No.” Makayla leaned forward, then stopped herself and moved back. “Hudson told me the money came from his personal accounts. I thought he paid my bills himself.”
“Some transfers did come from him directly.” Abby remembered the records Robert identified. “Others came through a company Hudson’s friend owned.”
“He said that was for privacy.” Makayla pressed her palms against her thighs. “He told me the friend handled personal payments for several people in their circle because the families wanted to be discrete.”
The explanation had been designed for Makayla’s fear. Money hidden through another company could resemble protection when she wanted to believe wealth operated by rules she had never learned.
“I can tell the attorneys what I know,” Abby said. “The messages described the money as gifts. I never saw you discuss consulting work or false invoices.”
Relief weakened Makayla’s face. “That’s all I’m asking. I don’t want you to lie for me.”
Abby’s eyes moved to the embroidered logo. “Is that your job now?”
Makayla followed her gaze to her own chest. For a moment she said nothing, and then her chin dipped and her throat moved and she brought one hand up to cover her eyes.
The crying, when it came, was quiet and controlled in the way of someone who had been doing it often enough to keep it small.
Abby watched and felt something briefly open in her chest before the thirty minutes she had allotted reasserted itself.
“What happened to the pharmaceutical position?”
Makayla dropped her hand. “Covington’s lawyers triggered an audit of my travel expenses. Three conferences I’d filed reimbursements for—I was with Hudson for all three.”
“You charged your employer for those trips?” Abby asked as old memories rearranged themselves.
“The flights were real for two of them, but I changed the return dates.” Makayla rubbed one thumb across the opposite palm. “The third trip never happened. Hudson booked the hotel, and I submitted meals and mileage so that Evan wouldn’t get suspicious.”
Abby stared at her, shaking her head in disbelief. “You risked your career to make the lies consistent.”
“I told myself it was temporary.” Makayla’s voice thinned. “Every time Hudson promised he was leaving you, I believed the next trip would be the last one I had to hide.”
“But he never left.” Abby kept her hands still on her purse. “You continued lying to your employer, Evan, and me.”
“I know.” Makayla looked toward the library doors. “They fired me and required me to repay the expenses. Their lawyer said they could report it as fraud, but they accepted a repayment agreement instead.”
“Is that why you’re working at the hotel?” Abby asked. “Are you there full-time?”
“Four nights a week.” Makayla touched the logo on her shirt. “I stock shelves at a pharmacy on weekends, and I’m applying for sales jobs.”
Abby thought of Makayla’s old apartment, the carefully chosen designer clothes, and the panic that entered her voice whenever Evan suggested delaying their wedding until his company became stable. The security she had tried to seize had collapsed into hourly work and a repayment plan.
“Where are you living?” Abby asked. “Did you keep the apartment?”
Makayla laughed once without humor. “I couldn’t afford it after I lost the salary and car allowance. I moved into a one-bedroom sublet near the airport. Hudson… he’s there now too.”
“Hudson is living with you?” Abby had assumed he would choose a hotel rather than accept a home below his standards. “Is he working?”
“He says he’s consulting.” Makayla’s mouth tightened. “So far, consulting means calling people who won’t return his messages and explaining why every job is beneath him.”
“Then you’re paying the rent.” Abby watched shame enter Makayla’s face. “You’re supporting both of you.”
“Until he finds something.” Makayla said the words too quickly. “His parents will change their minds once they see he’s serious about rebuilding.”
Abby recognized the promise because Hudson had used another version on her. Everything would improve after she returned, after Robert relented, after someone else performed the action Hudson considered beneath him.
“What has he done to rebuild?” Abby asked. “Apart from waiting?”
Makayla looked down at the table. “He sold a watch to cover the deposit.”
“A watch his parents bought him?” Abby asked. “Is that his contribution?”
“I didn’t come here to defend him.” Irritation sharpened Makayla’s voice before exhaustion replaced it. “I don’t know why I’m defending him.”
Silence passed between them. Abby heard children shouting beyond the courtyard wall and a delivery cart rolling across the library lobby.
“I saw the article about Evan’s company,” Makayla said. “The hospital results were posted this morning.”