Chapter Four
It was later in the afternoon when Henry escorted Cora into his suite of rooms at the Ramesly Hotel. The FBI had kept them waiting five hours before the lawyers finally extracted Cora.
Five hours of wondering what FBI Agent Kepler thought he had on her.
Five hours of worry and feeling useless while standing and waiting in that grim little lobby of the police station while all sorts of humanity carried on with their business, each hoping for their problems to get solved.
At one point Lincoln had left, only to return with two brand new fold out camping chairs, insisting Henry and Addison sit.
It was a bit demoralizing, but Henry was grateful to get off his feet. He could admit he was tired. Addison had simply smiled indulgently at her husband and sat.
Henry was starting to like Waters more and more.
He didn’t understand why Gerrit and Nate had been so hostile in their opinions of the man the few times they and Henry had spoken about him in the past. Yes, they had thought Waters was surveying their hotel and trying to steal intellectual property from Ramesly Hotels, but the truth was that he had been secretly seeing Addison.
From what Henry had seen over the last two months, Waters seemed to treat Addison well and had been decent when speaking with Henry.
The three of them had chatted amicably and worried about Cora together.
The conversation had shifted to the hotel and how it was fairing, with Lincoln offering sensible suggestions.
Then Temple and Addison’s lawyer had appeared with an exhausted looking Cora.
Despite the fact Henry wanted all of them to sit down and discuss what had happened, one look at Cora had him insisting on simply bringing her back to the hotel.
Now here they were, with Henry putting down his keys and the envelope he had gotten from the front desk of the hotel.
Cora stood in the middle of the living area.
Henry could see that she was shaking. Her expression was troubled as one hand was pressed to her mouth and the other protectively rubbed her abdomen.
Henry wanted to take her in his arms and tell her it was all going to be okay. It would be a lie. He didn’t know if it would be okay. He also didn’t have the right to hold her.
Instead he carefully took her hand from her abdomen, gently enfolding it in his. “Hey, talk to me. I might be able to help.”
Cora shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. Henry’s heart clenched as a tear spilled over, tracking down her cheek.
“What did Kepler want to talk to you about?” gently pressed Henry. He knew a little of what had happened from Addison and would learn more when he talked to the lawyers but it was better if Cora told him herself. He didn’t want secrets between them, even though he had his own.
He hoped their friendship could withstand it all.
“Cora?” he asked softly, hoping she would talk to him.
She dragged in a steadying breath, the tears coming in earnest now. “He wanted to talk about Nate and how he died. Kepler went over the details again and again. It was awful.”
Cora had been the one to discover Nate, lying on the road, presumed dead of a heart attack from jogging, recalled Henry.
Finding her husband, the man she loved, like that must have been traumatic.
Forcing her to relive the moment was terrible in Henry’s opinion.
Henry was about to apologize to her for Kepler’s insensitivity when she continued in a choked voice.
“He thinks I’m lying. I know Kepler thinks I’m lying about what happened,” said Cora. Her lips trembled as she wiped away tears. She looked at Henry and he saw fear in her eyes as she made her confession. “He’s right. I did lie.”
Henry’s stomach bottomed out. Addison had said that Kepler had told Cora Nate hadn’t died of natural causes.
Ben had intimated Addison had been afraid of Nate.
Had Cora been afraid of her own husband?
Nate had left her penniless, without a home, or a means of providing for their sons.
Had she done something to Nate? What had their marriage been truly like?
He felt sick.
“I was trying to leave him,” whispered Cora, her hand unconsciously clutching his.
“I was going to pick up the boys from school and we were going to leave. Nate found out. He was furious. I thought he was going to kill me. I didn’t break my arm falling when I found him like I said.
Nate broke it by slamming it in the car door.
“I had to do it. I had to leave,” cried Cora, the tears coming in earnest now. She tugged her hand out of his, pressing her palms to her eyes. “He would have killed me and the baby.”
‘I had to do it’, just what had Cora done? Henry swallowed the question. He reached out, gently pulling her towards him, cradling her in his arms. Cora sobbed on him, leaning against him for support as he held her.
Had she killed Nate? Henry found he didn’t want to know the answer.
Nate had been his brother. He wasn’t blind to his brother’s faults.
Nate could be witty, charming, and often manipulative to get others to do exactly what he wanted.
When he was a child, he wasn’t always kind to those he perceived as inconsequential to him.
Henry had often found his brother to be a bit of a narcissistic snob.
He knew that Nate hadn’t always treated Addison and Ben very well and had sometimes intervened, even though Henry had mostly thought it was simply sibling rivalry.
Afterall, Gerrit and Nate had seemed to get along fine. Yet now Henry wondered just how much Nate had been using Gerrit as well.
Henry had thought Nate had grown out of his manipulative ways. He had seemed to be better, especially in college. Then when Nate had dated Cora, he had been on his best behavior, reformed and entirely pleasant. Never once had Henry thought Nate might hurt her.
He had been wrong, Henry regretfully decided. He didn’t want to believe it, but he knew deep down that Cora wasn’t lying. She had a wrist brace for the funeral. She had worn it for weeks and it was just recently off. Sadly, Henry found that he could fully believe Nate had abused her.
She had thought Nate was going to kill her. Henry closed his eyes for a moment, painfully aware of the woman in his arms. Cora was a traumatized victim in all of this. If she had done something to protect herself that happened to result in Nate’s death, wouldn’t it be self-defense?
What had Nate died of? Was Cora responsible? What exactly did Agent Kepler think he knew? The questions swirled around Henry’s mind.
How could he best protect her? wondered Henry as Cora’s sobs quieted. She sniffled, holding onto him tightly.
“Did you say anything to Agent Kepler?” softly questioned Henry.
“No,” Cora managed to say with a watery sigh. “I told him the same story I said before. Most of it was true anyways. I’m scared, Henry.”
Kepler must not have any definitive proof, decided Henry. Otherwise he would have arrested Cora already. Which meant as long as she kept to her story and didn’t provide Kepler with a motive or a confession, she might just be okay.
Had she really killed his brother? Henry didn’t like the question and found that even if Cora had killed Nate in self defense, he really couldn’t blame her.
“It’s going to be okay,” he reassured her. “The lawyers are involved now. You don’t speak to Kepler without them. Stick to what you have already said. I’m right here to help.”
“Thank you,” murmured Cora.
Henry hesitated but decided it was best to bring everything out into the open. “I found out that Nate didn’t leave you, Oliver, or the baby anything in his will.”
Cora stiffened, pulling away a little. She looked at him with red rimmed eyes. “Who told you?”
“That doesn’t matter,” replied Henry. “I also learned the house has been sold.”
She nodded, her eyes downcast and her shoulders slumping in defeat.
“It’s all been put in Nick’s name. I can’t touch it.
I’m not really worried about the money, but I need someplace to raise the boys, and I just don’t know what to do.
I can’t work, not with the baby coming. I don’t have any real work experience.
I don’t know how I can provide for my sons. ”
“You aren’t going to worry about it. You are going to keep raising your boys,” firmly said Henry. Reluctantly letting go of Cora, he grabbed the envelope from the coffee table. “This is going to help you.”
Cora gave him a questioning look before slowly taking the envelope. She opened it to find the paperwork and a couple of cards in her name. There were two credit cards and a debit card. “What is this?”
“I put you on all of my accounts. They are all joint accounts now. It makes it easier if I do happen to pass away so that you can access the funds,” explained Henry.
“You are not going to die,” she stubbornly told him. “And I don’t want your money.”
“You need it. Plus, it is going to you and the boys anyways at some point. Well, some will go to Addison’s kids as well,” he said.
“I also set up a trust for Oliver and the baby. You need to know that I’m not certain if Nick’s trust fund is going to be seized by the FBI.
Nate was involved in laundering money through the company.
He profited personally from doing so. It’s only a matter of time before the FBI puts a penalty against the estate.
Whatever it is, I will pay it or replace Nick’s trust fund. ”
“Henry, you don’t need to do this,” she shook her head before looking tearfully up at him. “But I’m grateful you are. I’m not really in a position to say no.”
“Hey, I have too much money anyways. I’m happy to share with you and my nephews,” replied Henry as he put his hands on her shoulders.
“Thank you,” murmured Cora, touching the debit card, running a finger over the embossed letters of her name.
“We also need to talk about getting you a new home. The boys need someplace to grow up and they can’t do that at the hotel,” mentioned Henry.