Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Lydia sat on a counter stool at her kitchen island, wearing yoga pants and Ty’s cozy hoodie as she stirred the cup of tea that she’d made for herself but had yet to drink.
It was still sinking in that Mac, Everly, and Maverick weren’t moving through their morning routine in the mansion.
Instead, they were thirty minutes into their three-hour drive to Mac’s childhood home.
She sighed as she shook her head, trying to figure out what had happened to her family. Her uncle and cousin were under federal investigation, she was cooperating with the FBI, and Will’s wife had fled with his children to Connecticut for an undetermined amount of time.
Turmoil wasn’t new to the Monroes. Her family had certainly faced the gravest of tragedies, but everything about this situation felt different.
Fate had played its hand the day her grandpa, mom, dad, and brother had gotten onto the helicopter, but whatever this was that was currently going on somehow felt more disturbing because everyone involved had chosen to do whatever it was that they had done.
The front door opened, and Ty stepped inside, toeing off his shoes as the drizzle outside turned into a steady rain.
She got up, holding his gaze as she hurried his way, wrapping her arms around him, immediately finding comfort as she breathed him in.
He sighed as he returned her embrace, settling his cheek on top of her damp hair. “Hey, baby.”
She held him tighter. “She’s gone, Ty.”
He sighed again as he slid his hands up and down her back. “Come snuggle with me.”
She nodded as they walked to the couch and lay on the cushions, staring into each other’s eyes as they shared a pillow and wrapped their arms around each other. “There was nothing I could do to stop her. Her mind was made up. But I didn’t want to stop her.”
He nodded. “What happened?”
“She waited for him at the restaurant. Fifteen minutes before their reservation, she got a text from him that said he had to cancel.”
“Did he tell her why?”
She shook her head. “He had no explanation. He said nothing else, which makes no sense since he’s the one who planned the whole evening.”
He sighed. “That’s really tough, Lyd.”
She nodded. “Apparently, he came home at one o’clock this morning. Mac said she brought the kids in to sleep with her, locked the door, and taped a note to it that told him to go sleep somewhere else, but what she wanted to tell him was to go fuck himself.”
He winced. “Yikes.”
She nodded again, sick about the whole thing. “She packed a lot of stuff. She told me that she can’t save her marriage and take care of the kids and herself, too. I think she’s truly done, Ty.”
He tucked her hair behind her ear. “I knew things weren’t great, but I can’t say that I saw this one coming.”
“No one did. Will and Mac. The two people whom I never thought this would happen to.”
He pressed his lips to hers. “I’m so sorry, Lyd.”
She sighed as she stroked her fingers through his hair. “He loves her. I know he does, so what is he doing?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Your FBI buddy, he doesn’t know anything?”
He shook his head. “There’s nothing new.”
“What happened at your meeting today?”
“It was just a check-in.”
She sighed again, growing more frustrated when she had no idea how to make anything about this situation better. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I’m so angry with my cousin. I just don’t understand what he’s thinking.”
“I’ll try to talk to him. Maybe we can finally get some answers.”
“Do you think that all of this might be about the case?”
He shrugged. “It’s hard to say, but maybe.”
She closed her eyes as she shook her head, beyond worried.
“Hey,” he said quietly as he stroked her cheek.
She looked at him. “Don’t tell me it’s going to be okay.”
“Then how about I tell you that we’re going to figure this out.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t help.”
He pressed his lips to hers. “We’re going to figure it out.”
She nodded.
He kissed her again.
She closed her eyes, letting him take them both deeper, finding everything about Ty to be soothing.
Moments passed before he moved so that she lay on her back and he lay on top of her, staring into her eyes. “I’m right here with you, Lyd.”
She nodded again, bringing her mouth back to his.
He slid his tongue against hers before they both paused when they heard a car door slam outside.
They both sat up in a hurry, looking toward the main house, watching Will run inside in one of his typical suit and tie outfits.
She nibbled her lip, feeling a messy mix of anger, concern, and sadness. “I don’t know if Mac told him that she left. I probably should’ve texted him after I calmed down, but I didn’t know what to say…”
Ty kissed her again. “I’ll go check in with him.”
She nodded, growing sick all over again as he moved to the entryway to put on his shoes.
“I’ll be back.”
“Okay.” She hurried off the couch to close the distance between them. “Thank you. For doing this. For making sure he’s okay.”
He nodded, kissing her once more before he left, jogging toward the house.
She blew out a breath as she watched him disappear through the main back door. “Now what?” she asked herself, completely on edge.
She glanced toward the laundry room, deciding that putting a load in the wash was better than standing around, making herself crazy.
Ty walked down the hallway in the quiet house, not loving anything about the last forty-five minutes. Lying to Lydia didn’t sit well with him, but that’s exactly what he’d done while they discussed Mac’s abrupt departure.
She’d asked him point-blank if he and Nick knew anything new, and he’d said nothing because he had no idea what the hell was going on, but whatever it was, it was big.
Will had ditched his date with his wife to meet with Richard Russo.
That meant something. Until he knew exactly what, he was keeping his mouth shut.
He moved past the kitchen, then the playroom, stopping in the living room doorway when he found Will sitting on the couch with his elbows on his thighs and his face in his hands. “Hey, man.”
Will glanced up, looking like shit. Messy hair, his pale, drawn face, and exhausted, shadowed eyes left no room to question that he was at his breaking point.
Ty moved farther into the room. “What’s going on?”
Will scrubbed at his face. “She’s gone. She texted me to say she was on her way to Connecticut with the kids. She won’t pick up my calls. She won’t answer my texts.”
Ty sat in the chair adjacent to the couch. “What happened with your date?”
Will shrugged. “Something came up. I had to cancel at the last second.”
“I thought you were trying to fix things. What was more important than dinner with your wife?”
“I can’t talk about it, man.” He exhaled a shaky breath as he shook his head. “And of course, I got a call last night from my client—the one who we played golf with the other day.”
Ty nodded, letting Will say whatever he wanted to say for the time being.
“He decided that today of all days was when he wanted to pull the trigger on his fucking multibillion-dollar merger. I’ve been at the office for hours, drafting shit up so my co-worker could close it up for me instead of being here, trying to fix things with my wife.”
“From what Lydia told me, I don’t think Mac was going to let you fix things.”
Will covered his face again and exhaled several more shaky breaths. “God, man. Everything’s a mess.”
“I guess the good thing about a mess is that you can clean it up.”
Will shook his head. “Not this one. I’m in so much fucking trouble.”
Ty clenched his jaw, knowing that Will was on the verge of telling him everything. “Talk to me, Will.”
“I can’t.” But then he lifted his head after several tense seconds. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Ty nodded, understanding that this was it. “Tell me about it. What’s going on?”
“I’m in trouble with the wrong people, and I don’t know how to get out of it.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“I owe someone money. A lot of it.”
“Why do you owe someone money?”
“Because I’m broke.” A tear trailed down his cheek. “Because it’s all gone.”
Ty frowned. “What’s all gone?”
“Our savings. The money that we set aside for the buy-in.”
“What happened to it?”
Will blew out a long breath as he shook his head. “I gambled it.”
Ty struggled not to frown, trying his damnedest to keep his expression neutral. Because of all the things he’d been expecting to hear, this wasn’t it. Will and Asher’s argument now made sense.
“She’s never going to forgive me,” Will said next. “I’m never going to get my wife back.”
“That’s not necessarily true.”
“Yeah, it is.” Will closed his eyes. “I didn’t mean for things to get this out of control.”
Ty nodded, knowing that saying nothing was usually the way to go when someone was ready to spill. And Will was finally ready to get it all off his chest.
“For years, I played in a couple of Fantasy Football leagues. We’d place some friendly wagers and have a little fun. Sometimes, I would win. Usually, I didn’t. It was never a big deal. I never gave it much thought once the season was over.” Will shrugged.
Ty nodded again.
“But something changed last summer. Mac was sick all the time with the pregnancy. It was so fucking scary to see her so down for the count. She lost so much weight when she didn’t have any to lose in the first place.
She could barely eat, and she slept all the time when she wasn’t vomiting.
There wasn’t much that I could do but hold her close in bed and promise her that everything would be okay when I had no idea if it would be.
I watched a lot of sports on my phone while she slept snuggled up against me.
I kept seeing all these advertisements for a first free bet on those sports betting sites, and one day, for reasons that I can’t explain, I gave it a shot. ”
Ty sighed, understanding where this conversation was going to go.
“I won. Five hundred bucks. Then a thousand. It started out as fun, you know? Just little bets here and there to pass the time.”
Ty sighed again. “Yeah.”