Chapter 21
Sunday brought rain, lots of it. The shop was so quiet, as no one was out in the pounding rain.
When it first started and was just a drizzle, a few people popped in, but Claire suspected it was mostly to get out of the rain for a moment.
They took a quick look around but left when the rain lightened up.
Claire had brought a sandwich in with her and ate it with a cup of tea, completely uninterrupted.
She wasn’t sure if it was the effects of the turkey sandwich, the rainy weather, or just pregnancy sleepiness catching up with her, but by one o’clock, she could not stop yawning and felt bone-tired.
All she wanted to do was curl up on the living room sofa and snuggle under one of her mother’s fluffy fleece blankets.
She made an executive decision to leave early and do exactly that.
She flipped her sign to Closed and headed home.
The house was quiet as she arrived. She’d texted Marsha to let her know and to see what she and Lily were up to.
They were on their way to have lunch with Grammy at the assisted living.
Her mother invited Claire to join them, but she explained that she needed a nap.
She’d been sleepy like this at the beginning of her pregnancy, but the heavy sleepiness and morning sickness had eased up a lot in the past few weeks. But she knew from her past pregnancy that sleepy days could still happen at any time.
She kicked off her shoes, collapsed on the soft sofa, pulled the fleece throw over her, and was asleep in minutes.
Claire woke almost two hours later to her phone ringing.
She missed the call but didn’t mind the interruption.
She’d had a good nap and felt refreshed.
She checked her messages and saw the call was from one of her Manhattan friends.
Vivian was married to one of Ellis’s colleagues, and they’d gone out to dinner occasionally.
Claire liked Vivian but didn’t see her as often the past few years because her husband was older and had left the firm to semi-retire and work from home with a handful of clients.
And because he worked from home, they spent most of their winters in Naples, Florida.
She smiled listening to the message. “Claire! Call me. We need to catch up. I’m back and just heard you left Ellis and moved to Nantucket.”
Claire made herself a cup of cinnamon tea and called Vivian back. She answered on the first ring.
“Sorry I missed your call. I just woke up. Pregnancy nap. Not sure if you heard that news too?” Claire hadn’t told many people, but she knew how quickly gossip traveled.
“No! Tell me everything.”
Claire caught her up on all the drama. She left out the part about their financial issues.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that. I always thought you two were so solid. Are you happy to be back on Nantucket?”
“I am. It’s good to be with family, and some of my childhood friends are here.”
“At least you don’t have to worry about money. I heard they were sorry to lose Ellis and he took most of his clients with him. My Gray, Ellis, and a few others are the only ones who didn’t sign noncompetes. All the newer people have them.”
“Sorry to lose Ellis? What did you hear?” Claire felt like she’d missed something. Or maybe Vivian had, since Gray had been gone for a few years.
“Well, he’d been there for so long. People rarely leave unless they are going on their own or to a better arrangement elsewhere.”
“You didn’t hear that Ellis was let go?”
“No! Why?”
Claire filled her in on what Ellis had told her.
There was a long silence before Vivian spoke.
“That is odd. I thought I heard that most of his clients followed him. But maybe that wasn’t right.
When they do let people go, they usually spin it that the person left.
It’s less messy that way. So it probably is the way he explained it.
It doesn’t seem like him to be that careless though.
Everyone knows that shorting stocks is risky. ”
“Yes. He can get cocky sometimes though and thinks he can do things others can’t.” Ellis had always been very confident of his skills in the market. And he had had other big losses before, but they were surrounded by big wins. And they were never catastrophically huge.
Vivian had also heard about Claire’s new business and congratulated her. “I think it’s fantastic. And such a great idea. I may actually have a bag to send you. Possibly two, as there are a few I never use.”
They chatted a while longer and promised to keep in touch.
When the call ended, Claire got up and paced around the room.
None of her Manhattan friends had said anything to her about Ellis being let go.
She’d assumed they all knew but were just being respectful.
Or it could be that they really didn’t know.
As Vivian said, the firm may have publicly said he left on his own.
She knew if she questioned Ellis, he’d stick with his story.
Since it was a Sunday, she couldn’t call Sloane, but she did send her an email.
I’ve changed my mind. Let’s do the forensic audit.
“How do you feel about seafood?” Cody popped into her shop at a quarter to noon, just as she finished ringing up a customer who’d bought two candles and the book on scarves.
“I love it. Why?”
“I made a big pot of paella yesterday, and there’s a lot left over. Maybe you can help me eat it for lunch? I have it heating up now.”
“I wouldn’t say no to paella.” Claire put up her Back in 30 Minutes sign and headed over to Cody’s shop.
He was plating the food into big paper bowls and handed her one.
They ate in the back at his small table.
Claire took a bite of a scallop and rice with peppers.
“Cody, this is so good.” It was chock full of seafood—scallops, mussels, littleneck clams, shrimp, and spicy sausage in a flavorful tomato-based sauce with rice.
While they ate, Cody told Claire about his dinner with Sally. “I felt badly for her.”
Claire shook her head. “Trying to make someone jealous doesn’t seem like a good strategy.”
“No. She said she wants to hang out again, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Not if you don’t want to date her, no. I’d agree with that.” Claire dug a clam out of its shell and popped it in her mouth. It was sweet and briny and delicious.
When they were just about done, Claire’s phone rang, and it was Sloane. “Sorry, I need to get this.”
“No worries.” Cody took her empty bowl, and she headed back into her shop, mouthing, “Thank you,” as she went.
“Claire, I got your message. Has anything changed since we last spoke?”
Claire told her about her conversation with Vivian.
“It might be nothing, like she said. The firm may just be publicly saying something different from what happened. But that combined with him moving into a pricey condo has me questioning things. I think it may be worth doing a forensic audit just to be sure.”
“I agree. I’ll start the process. Just so you know, this can take a while. It could be fast, just a few weeks, but it’s more likely to take a few months to uncover any hidden assets.”
“I understand.”
“Good. I’ll be in touch once I have something to report back.”
Claire felt a sense of relief when she ended the call. Even if nothing turned up, at least she could be sure. She put it out of her mind after that as Sloane had it said it would be a while before they heard anything.
So she was surprised later that evening when her phone rang and the caller ID showed that it was Ellis. She’d been sitting in the living room with her mother and Lily, watching a cute romantic comedy. She went in the bedroom to take the call.
“Hi, Ellis.”
“Claire, really, a forensic audit? What the? Are you serious?” He sounded frustrated and annoyed and something else, anxious maybe? Ellis was usually so calm and collected, smooth even.
“My attorney recommended it. Just to be on the safe side. I heard from Vivian, and she said Gray told her you left. She was very surprised when I told her that you’d been let go.”
There was a long moment of silence before Ellis spoke again.
This time, he spoke slowly as if talking to a silly child.
“Claire, you know that’s what they always say.
It’s just to protect the company. They don’t want it out there that they had to let one of their top people go because they lost a client a significant amount of money.
How would that look for them? They might have other clients leave because of it. ”
What he said made sense, and Claire felt a bit of doubt for a moment, but she was still confused about something. “Vivian seemed to think you took all your clients with you. How do you explain that?”
Ellis remained calm, but Claire could hear the irritation in his voice.
“I already explained that. The biggest clients stayed—the ones I lost money with. Some of the others, with whom I did not lose money, followed me. Now, can you stop this silliness and cancel the forensic audit? That’s going to cost you a lot of money.
And you don’t have it. I don’t have it either. ”
“I’ll think about it,” Claire said, just to get off the phone. “But I may still go through with it. My lawyer will be in touch with yours. Goodbye, Ellis.”
Claire emailed Sloane to let her know about the conversation.
Just the fact that he wants me to drop the forensic audit confirms that we need to continue with it.
The next morning around eleven, Sloane called.
“Claire, I just wanted to give you a quick, interesting update. I saw your message. I also had a new message from Ellis’s attorney with a new settlement offer.
They doubled the amount again, but it’s contingent on us dropping the forensic audit.
They are looking to settle this quickly.
Frankly, the fact that they suddenly are able to pay this much and want the audit stopped says to me that we should keep on with it.
I think it’s safe to assume that if they can pay this, they can likely pay quite a bit more. What do you think?”
Claire felt a rush of disappointment followed by anger. This Ellis wasn’t the person that she’d married. “I agree. I want to keep going.”
“Good. That’s our best course of action, I think. Stay tuned, Claire.”