CHAPTER 29 Reid
Reid
Reid walked. Sprinklers ticked steadily somewhere nearby. A kid shot past on a scooter, wobbling slightly as his mother called after him from a driveway.
He thought of the way Barbara had treated his wife. Reid hadn’t just put his wife into legal jeopardy, he’d ruined her reputation. Her reputation in this community she lived and breathed for.
They all needed to know the truth. They needed to know he was just a bad analyst, and a worse husband.
Taking down Julian Cross wasn’t enough. Replying on social media wasn’t enough.
The sound of hammering carried across the street. Greg and Sandra were working in a front yard halfway down the block.
Good. Reid lengthened his stride as he crossed the road. They needed to know the truth.
Greg was positioning the next piece of lumber. Sandra had a clipboard in her hand, head bent over something she was writing.
Greg straightened slowly. “Lawson,” he said. “We’re busy.”
“Here to arrest someone?" Sandra asked. "Or just to lend another conwoman some credibility.”
“Maya is innocent," Reid said.
Greg blinked.
“The fraud was done by her bookkeeper,” Reid told them. “I can show you my report if you want to see it. I was just too stupid to realize until too late.”
Reid watched. The understanding moved through them in stages. Disbelief first, then dawning horror.
Color bloomed in Sandra's face. “But— We thought—" she managed. "If you arrested her—"
"If I arrested her, she must have done it," Reid finished.
Neither of them argued.
"I did arrest her," Reid said. The words felt physically painful. "I put my wife in handcuffs.”
Sandra had gone quiet.
“I’m the villain here. Not Maya. Maya didn’t do anything wrong. And you all turned on her. I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive you, but you need to apologize. You need to get on your fucking knees and grovel. God knows, that’s what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life.”
He hoped it would be for the rest of his life. He hoped she would let him be near enough to her to do that at least.
The alternative was unbearable.
Julian crossed his arms. He looked mildly irritated, like this was an inconvenience he expected to smooth over in ten minutes.
A noticeable bruise was darkening his jaw. The sight of it calmed something inside Reid. It was a start.
Reid smiled at him. Then he turned his attention to the man behind the desk.
“Your accountant is a crook,” Reid said to Julian’s boss.
Julian laughed and the CEO laughed along with him. He slapped Julian on the back. “Don’t worry, kid. I know there’s nothing in it.”
Reid kept smiling. He knew corporate accounting. He knew the rules in place in firms like this. This was different to the hot physical rage that had driven Reid’s fist into Julian’s face. But it felt just as good.
“You need to audit anything he’s handled. Everything he’s touched.”
Julian smirked at Reid. “I don’t think so.”
The CEO cleared his throat. “Damn annoying, but the policy is clear. You’ll have to take a couple of weeks off.”
Julian stopped smirking. “Geoff—”
“Paid, of course,” his boss assured him. “A nice little perk.”
Reid watched Julian's eyes move—to the CEO, to the door, back to Reid. Calculating.
"I can't just step away right now. I’m, uh—“ A pause, too long. "—in the middle of some really delicate projects."
“My hands are tied,” his boss said. “You have to step back. IT will handle access to your accounts.” He typed a message into his phone.
Julian laughed once, but there was no humor in it. “Look, okay, I get it. Just give me to the end of the day and then I’ll handover.”
Security stepped into the room.
Julian looked at them. Then at the CEO. Then at Reid, for just a moment—and Reid saw it. The first real flash of fear.
“This is not necessary,” he said, standing halfway out of his chair. “Jesus Christ, Geoff, you know me.”
Reid almost laughed at that. Reid had thought he’d known Julian, too.
Maya had trusted this man because Reid had told her she could. He had brought Julian Cross into her world.
“Julian, calm down. Nobody here thinks you’ve done anything wrong,” the CEO said, his tone reassuring. “You’ll be back before you know it.”
Julian didn’t look reassured. He looked nervous. He looked… scared. “How about you give me five minutes? That's all I need.”
The CEO put his hands out, palms up, as if to say sorry and it’s out of my hands and let it go.
Security gestured toward the door. The office beyond the glass walls had gone quiet, people pretending not to stare.
As Julian was escorted out, heads turned more openly. Conversations stalled, then dropped off entirely as the small procession moved through the space.
Maya had stood in front of a crowd like this.
And Reid had put her in handcuffs in the middle of it.
He was going to tear Julian Cross apart for what he’d done.
And when he was finished, it still wouldn’t come close to balancing what Reid himself owed.
Julian reached the elevator, and security pressed the button for him. The wait was brief but long enough to stretch, the silence thick with observation. When the doors opened, Julian stepped inside without looking back.
The doors slid shut.
The office noise rose immediately, rumors already flying.
None of this was anywhere near enough.
The books had been a good start, the therapy had been a waste of time. Reid needed more help.
He sat across from Thomas with his hands around a coffee cup trying to put his damage into words.
The park was quiet at this hour. A dog walker crossed the far end of the path. Two joggers passed without looking up.
Reid looked down at his coffee.
“Teach me how to be different," he said.
Thomas raised an eyebrow. "Different?"
“Better,” Reid amended.
Thomas considered him for a moment. “You and Maya,” Thomas said. “How did you meet?”
The question felt… misplaced. Irrelevant.
“At a local planning meeting,” Reid said. She was presenting a proposal. He was there as a favor to his neighbors. She had been energy and fire and everything that Reid wasn’t. She was magnificent. He was dull.
Thomas nodded. “And you’ve been together how long?”
“Five years.”
“Why did you think she was guilty?” Thomas asked.
Reid didn’t answer.
Thomas waited.
Reid looked down. He didn’t want to say it.
Thomas said nothing.
He remembered the feeling when he’d followed the money to accounts in her name.
Not outrage. Not disbelief. Something colder.
Something that had been there long before any spreadsheet.
"It made sense," he said finally. His voice came out quieter than he intended. "That's the—" He exhaled. "It made sense of things I'd never been able to make sense of. Why she'd picked me. Why she agreed to marry me.”
Reid closed his eyes briefly.
“Because she’s better than you?” Thomas asked.
Reid nodded. For a moment, neither of them spoke.
A jogger passed. Then another.
"I had the same problem," Thomas said eventually.
Reid looked up.
Thomas smiled fondly. “Edith is completely out of my league.”
“At least you didn’t—” Reid stopped himself. Didn’t arrest her.
“Son, I’m going to tell you what you have to do. You have to beg that woman to take you back, you have to lie on your belly, and kiss her feet, and tell her that you’re not worthy of her. And then, if she takes you back, you have to trust her.”
“I thought I did,” Reid admitted. “I thought I trusted her, but then—” He rubbed his face. “How can I trust her more than I hate myself?”
Thomas leaned back slightly in his chair. He looked at Reid directly.
"Is Maya a liar?"
"No."
"You're certain?"
"Yes."
"Then you can trust her,” Thomas said. "The rest is just you getting out of your own way."
Thomas smiled ruefully. “The problem isn’t that you think she’s too good for you. She is too good for you. The problem is that you think she can’t be too good for you and want you anyway.”
Reid looked at him.
“You have to accept that you’re not good enough but she chose you anyway.”
The words hit harder than they should have.
“You make it sound easy.”
“Believe your wife.” Thomas said firmly. “It’s the easiest thing in the world.”