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47. She Connected the Dots

She Connected the Dots

Gwen

“Gwen.” Cautious fingers touched my leg. “Seatbelt.”

My head whipped around. “Huh?”

Toby sat in the driver’s seat, waiting. “Seatbelt, doll.” His lips tipped up in a cautious smile. “Safety first.”

“Oh. Yeah,” I mumbled. “Sorry.” It took two attempts to tug on my seatbelt and click it into place. My mind was still lost in the theatrics of the courtroom. Vaguely, I registered that we needed to drive home. Instead, we sat idle in the car park. I flicked a glance at Toby.

He frowned. “What happened in court was good, right?”

“Yeah, that was a good outcome. It would’ve been better if Kayleigh had conceded to the order and saved everyone a full hearing, but I guess she’s decided to put us through the wringer… Because she’s, um…” In love with my husband.

“Then why aren’t you smiling?” Toby asked. “You’re quiet. You’ve got your thinking face on. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” A lot of somethings , actually.

Toby raked a hand through his hair. “Is it because the lawyers were arguing about Ian refusing to hand over some evidence?”

I nodded. “And Ian’s lawyered up. That’s not how people usually react unless they’ve got something to hide. He’s worried. There’s something he doesn’t want you to find.” I cocked my head, walking my mind through the maze of Toby’s work. “Where are the security cameras in the clinic?”

Toby paused, thinking a moment before jabbing the ignition button. The car hummed to life. “The cameras are mostly in the common areas. The waiting room. Outside the changing rooms. Judy’s office.” He lifted a shoulder. “In the carpark.”

“Treatment areas?”

He shook his head. “Patient privacy and all that.”

“How long does the security company keep the footage?” He flicked me a confused look, so I added, “Do they wipe the footage every day? Every month?”

“I have no idea,” he said. “Does it matter?”

“Maybe. It matters to Ian, and that’s…” Strange, that was what it was. Rather than plowing through the thoughts alone in my head, I turned to Toby. “Do you want to puzzle it out?”

His face brightened. “You’re going to solve the case with me?”

“Well, we can try.” I smiled back at him. “We’re in this together, right?”

“Right.” His nod was solemn. “Hit me, doll. Deputy Sullivan is listening.”

I laughed. “Okay, so first up, Kayleigh’s no actress. Her confusion seemed genuine, and I think she might really, um…”

Be in love with you.

Kayleigh’s blushed cheeks and the looks she’d snuck at Toby were real. She was infatuated with him. There was no criminal mastermind knocking around in her twenty-one-year-old body. She was a problem, but she wasn’t the problem.

Toby’s hand left the steering wheel to rest on my knee. “I know Kayleigh said some things that might’ve been hard to hear, but those silly words are all in her head. I’m not interested. Never was.” His smile was tight. “Just so we’re clear.”

“Then let’s focus on Ian.”

Toby slowed the car at the parking gate, his expression flat. “I’d like to do a whole lot of focusing on him with my right hook,” he muttered.

I stifled a laugh. “Keep up that macho crap, and you’ll be the one in front of the magistrate.”

He tipped his head to show me his sly grin. “Nah, I’ve got a better lawyer than that arrogant dickhead we saw today. My lawyer’s smart and sexy—”

“Tobes.”

“Sorry, doll.” His chuckle indicated he wasn’t the least bit sorry for his teasing. “As you were saying—Ian. He’s got a lawyer.”

“Which is weird, and it’s even weirder he’s blocking them from getting access to evidence. Security tapes…employee records…”

“Are you thinking Ian put Kayleigh up to some of this?”

“Why would he?”

Toby flicked his eyes off the road to give me a pointed look. “Why do you think?”

“No one’s going to this kind of trouble over an unrequited crush on a childhood friend.”

“Gwen—”

“Look, this isn’t my self-doubt talking. I know he orchestrated a lot of crap the night of the party, but we’re not seriously going to pretend that my mum bod is so smokin’ hot that it drove Ian to come up with a breakup plan years in the making, are we?”

“I mean…” Toby smirked. “You do have a smokin’ hot mum bod.”

I rolled my eyes. “That isn’t his motivation.”

“It could be one of them. Do you think Ian lied about his feelings for you? I mean, I dunno. He sounded believable, and I found that picture—”

“What picture?”

“Uh…” Guilty eyes quickly turned back to the road.

“Tobes?”

He sighed. “Just a picture I found of you in one of his books. A sexy bikini picture.” His grin turned to me. “Which is now my sexy picture. It’s in my wallet for, er, safekeeping.”

“How very chivalrous of you, Sir Toby.”

“Why, thank you, my lady. So? What else could it be, then?”

Streets—thoughts—zipped by in a blur as I gazed out the car window. “Jealousy…?” I suggested.

Did people carry the scars of high school into their thirties? Toby had arguably always won where Ian had failed—popularity, girls, sports—but Ian had never seemed bothered. He’d been focused on his studies, his mum, and too many one-night stands.

“Distraction?” That was my next suggestion.

“He did everything he could to drive a wedge between us after the party. By his own admission, he gave you a sleeping pill to make sure you stayed put. Maybe he hoped we’d stop talking or that you’d be busy focusing on fixing our marriage…

” I frowned. Or maybe Ian had banked on Toby being distracted enjoying his new plaything…

“What’s going on up in your head, doll?” Toby asked. “That’s one heck of a frown.”

“Nothing,” I muttered.

Some things needed to be said out loud, and others would only be twisting the knife in a heart already too soft. Instead of mentioning my theories about Ian, I rested my hand on the special spot on Toby’s thigh. His palm covered mine, and he squeezed my fingers, warm and safe.

“I’m just thinking over all the possibilities,” I added.

Not that there were many. If Ian was the mastermind, he’d gone about it horribly. His actions had only set him on a collision course for a busted nose and for Toby to be shipped off on a never-ending vacation.

My eyes widened. The answer punched me like a fist in my stomach.

Ian hadn’t wanted Toby out of the picture. He’d wanted him out of the clinic . Years of prosecuting mundane embezzlement cases finally started flashing neon lights around the “why” I’d been searching for.

“Toby, the cash flow problems at the clinic… Did they start before or after Kayleigh came along?”

“A month or two before.”

“Was Ian ever worried about any of that?”

“Why would he be?” Toby scoffed. “He got his cut of the partnership profits whether he worked two hours or two hundred.” His lip curled. “Two hours being closer to how much he actually worked some weeks.”

“Did you ever figure out what was going on?”

“I always knew what was going on. Bills and more freaking bills. Suppliers jacking up the prices and never-ending invoices to pay. New equipment. Staff working too much overtime. Patients not paying. Christ, even chasing people not paying costs money. Some months, it felt like I worked my butt off just to keep the lights on.”

A knot tightened in my stomach. “I didn’t realize it had gotten that bad.”

His head hung low. “I never wanted you to worry. I wanted to prove to you I could be a proper husband, you know? I thought I could handle it if I just worked harder.”

“You worked so damn hard. I missed you.”

Toby kept his eyes trained on the road, but his shoulders slumped even lower. “I… I missed you like hell, too. You were so sad all the time. Then Noah came along. I wished every day I’d stayed working for someone else. The clinic was a huge mess.”

“You were doing your best.” I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder. This was an impossible conversation to have in a car. “But Ian was never worried?”

“Well, he started worrying when his cut dipped lower than normal,” Toby sneered. “We didn’t have enough to make any profit payments for a few months. Ian cared then. Judy said he started watching the books like a hawk.”

Bingo .

Step by step from the fraudster’s playbook. I was almost embarrassed I hadn’t thought of it straight away.

“I don’t fully understand how everything fits together yet,” I admitted to Toby, “but I think Ian might be skimming money from the clinic. He might be blocking the security footage and access to the paperwork to cover his tracks around the office. Do you think you could get me a copy of the books?”

I was surprised when Toby turned to me with a huge grin.

“Already got ’em,” he declared, proud as punch.

“I downloaded a copy of everything before I got booted out. I’d planned to rustle up some better deals and hire an accountant or someone to find the holes and plug ’em up.

So, if your big brain needs to see the books, they’re all yours.

A year’s worth of ledgers and accounts coming your way in three… two…” He wiggled his eyebrows.

I smiled. “Thanks.” He teased me, but I was excited.

Poring over evidence and following the trails to find answers—totally my jam.

This type of work was better than boring contracts and never-ending due diligence on high-rise building buyouts.

I didn’t have all the answers—maybe I didn’t have any—but my mind was occupied on the breadcrumb of clues enough for the noise in my brain to quieten for a few hours.

When we met up with Zach for Stroller Squad, I stood on the playground’s edge, smiling as Toby clambered over the spiderweb after Josie.

My smile grew wider when we walked hand-in-hand along the waterfront.

When we stopped for ice cream, and Noah went face first for a taste of Toby’s, we exchanged a look before bursting out laughing.

But when the lights were out in the bedroom, and the mattress dipped under the weight of Toby’s big body, I was restless again.

His arm wrapped around me, his hand resting on the curve of my belly. He sighed. “I can hear you thinking,” he whispered.

“Something’s still bugging me. You know when you’re trying to remember the name of a song, and the words are right on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t spit them out?”

“Yep.” He nuzzled his nose into my hair. “Is that what it’s like stuck up in that big brain of yours?”

“Kind of. I feel like I’m on the edge of figuring out what Ian’s up to, but there are so many other thoughts screaming at the same time. Noah. You. Liam. House stuff. It’s crazy in there.”

“Have you thought some more about talking to someone?”

I rolled over. We were nose-to-nose on the pillow. “I made an appointment, but I…” I puffed out a sigh.

“Put it off?”

“How did you—”

“I know you, Gwen. If you say you’ll do something, you do it. No ifs, no buts, no coconuts. You said you’d talk to someone weeks ago, and you haven’t. What’s holding you back?”

I nibbled down on my bottom lip. “I don’t know.”

“Fibber.” His hand softly cupped my cheek. “I know I haven’t earned your trust back. Maybe I never will. But you can trust me to listen to you about what’s worrying you about trying therapy. No judgment. Let me in a little bit.”

I buried my face in the pillow. I’d asked Toby to be honest, but I was still lagging ten steps behind.

And it wasn’t just the situation with Kayleigh—we’d had problems before she came into the picture.

I had a lifetime of secrets buried inside me.

I needed to be brave and let Toby in, but it was hard after hiding my vulnerabilities for so long.

Nerves battered my stomach in waves. “I, um…” It felt impossible to show weakness to the one person I desperately wanted to think I was the greatest in the world.

I wanted Toby to believe I was invincible.

Worthwhile . “What if underneath it all I’m just…

nothing… No one. Just the daughter of some drunk.

Or worse— like her?” I couldn’t swallow past the lump in my throat.

“What if the psychologist can’t fix me?”

“Gwen…” Toby wrapped strong arms around me and squeezed me against his chest. He was kind of heavy. I loved that spot. “You don’t need to be fixed. You just need a bit of extra help to sort through all the old news in your brain. You’re already the best person I know.”

“You have to say that. We’re married.”

“That’s not why I say it. The way I feel about you has nothing to do with you being some other person’s definition of perfect.

Remember what I said the other day? I’m here for Just Gwen.

It doesn’t matter what form you come in.

My high school sweetheart. My badass lawyer wife.

I like hanging out with all the Just Gwens. ”

“The broken one?”

“She’s ace. She gives the best cuddles.”

“The mean one?”

“Everyone has bad days. You’re never intentionally mean.”

“The yard sale…”

“I’d upended our life, and you were hurting pretty damn bad. It’s not the same thing.”

“I sold all your favorite stuff.”

“The keyword being ‘stuff.’ I can buy new stuff. It’s easy to replace. You aren’t. You’re kinda…dunno…priceless. One of a kind.”

My cheeks flamed, and my patched-up heart squished in my chest. “I think the same thing about you.” I touched my hand to his cheek. It was stubbly and rough but still soft—just like the sigh that escaped him.

“You really think that?” he asked in a whisper. “About me?”

“Yeah.”

“In a…good way?” He sounded doubtful.

“In a very good way.” I pecked a kiss on the tip of his nose.

“You’re a sweet and genuine guy under all the jokes.

A super hard worker. A great dad. A wonderful friend.

You always help me feel safe—even when I’m spiraling.

Plus…” I hoped he could hear the grin teasing in my voice. “You’re kinda gorgeous.”

“Damn,” Toby breathed out. “Gorgeous enough for a sexy kiss?”

“That wasn’t our agreement, Tobias.”

“You going all bossy lawyer on me isn’t helping things. Can I negotiate my way into a sexy kiss tonight?” His body pressed impossibly close to mine. “Maybe…some sexy kisses starting”—he flicked the waistband of my unsexy knickers—“here.”

I squirmed. “Um…” I swallowed hard. “Toby… We’re not…”

He groaned. “I know we’re not ready. My body just refuses to listen to my brain.”

“Soon.” I gnawed down on my lip. “Maybe.”

“Only when you’re ready.” A hint of sadness edged his voice when he whispered, “Only when you truly love me again, okay?”

“Okay,” I whispered back.

I buried my face in the pillow and clamped my lips together. Important words stayed stuck in my mouth. I didn’t want to admit I was already there. It was even more than being “all in,” like Toby wanted.

I truly loved him again.

And that thought was terrifying now I knew how bad it hurt to lose him the first time.