Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Cassie’s brain was at a critical failure point as she shivered in the cool evening air.
The day had started so well. She’d found another client…
and an excuse to kiss Noah. But then her ex-husband had flown across the country to tell her face-to-face that he was having a baby with his twenty-two-year-old girlfriend.
And then he told Noah about her infertility.
Two officers stood by Dave’s rental car, cataloging evidence. Binoculars. Notes on her schedule. Her home address. He had probably been following her for a week.
And now he was sitting on the back of an ambulance, yelling at a paramedic to hold a mirror so he could stitch up his own face.
“Are you sure you don’t want to press charges? Either one of you?” a cop asked.
Cassie glanced at Dave again. “Harassment is only a misdemeanor, right?”
The cop nodded.
Cassie buried a hand in her hair. “He is never going to stop. The board isn’t going to care if he got a misdemeanor in Maryland. He’ll ruin my life, pay a little fine, and skip back off to LA. Straight back to…”
A memory suddenly struck her. Dave, smiling over a bank statement. He’d spent their entire marriage bragging about what he got away with at work. A medical device manufacturer had been paying him $10,000 a patient to use their equipment. And that was just the tip of the damn iceberg.
“Hypothetically speaking, what would happen to a surgeon who committed fraud?” she asked.
The cop let out a low whistle. “Depends on how bad it was.”
“Billing for services that didn’t happen, accepting kickbacks from medical device manufacturers and prescribing unnecessary medication. HIPAA violations. What else?” she mused.
“That’s above my pay grade. That’s a full-blown FBI investigation,” the cop said.
She turned to look at Dave, a dark idea kindling deep in her soul. There was only one way to get rid of him forever. “Can I talk to him?”
“You sure?” The cop raised his eyebrows.
Noah put a hand on her back.
“I’m sure. Come with me?” she said to Noah.
He followed her over to Dave, who looked at them with disdain. “What, you haven’t had enough?” he said haughtily.
Cassie took a deep breath and looked at the man who had been her husband for eight years. They had shared holidays, trips, endless memories—small, good islands sprinkled through the vast sea of shit. A decade of darkness.
Her hand trembled, and Noah held it tightly.
Dave had stolen ten years of her life. But he was never going to hold her back again.
“You’re going to shut up and listen,” she said.
Dave had the decency to look taken aback.
She leaned in closer to him. Despite his rigid Botox schedule, his crow’s-feet were more pronounced than ever.
“You are never going to contact me or anyone I know ever again. If you do, I’m going to release a mountain of evidence to the FBI.
I don’t think they’re big fans of illegal kickbacks and fraudulent medical billing.
I hope your girlfriend’s prepared to raise your son alone while you rot in a federal prison. ”
Dave scoffed. “You don’t have anything.”
“Really? Did the bank statements come with you to LA?” she asked.
A flush crept into Dave’s cheeks. If it was any other time, in any other place, his stare alone would have made her fall in line.
But he couldn’t control her anymore.
“And if anything happens to me,” she added, “there are a dozen copies of this evidence. Safety deposit boxes, cloud storage. You’ll never get it all.”
She leaned in until they were almost nose to nose, heart thumping in her ears. Her voice was low, dangerous. “The next time I hear your name, it better be on a fuckin’ obituary.”
With that, she turned on her heel and strode back to the cop. “We won’t be pressing charges today. Thank you for everything.”
“And then,” Cassie said, pacing back and forth in Lyra’s living room, “he had the audacity to say, ‘It’s interesting how quickly it can happen in someone young and virile.’”
Lyra gasped. Sounds of outrage came over Cassie’s speakerphone.
She’d fled to Lyra’s house after the incident.
“I’m going to murder him. Where is he?” Sammy demanded on the phone. There were sounds of a struggle on the other end of the line, like she was trying to get out of a chair.
“You’re nine months pregnant. You’re not allowed on an airplane,” Cassie said.
“I’ll send snakes to his house. I’ll call the board of medicine. I will set his car on fire.” Hell hath no fury like a pregnant sister.
“I think we can hold off on the snakes. I threatened him so badly, he almost pissed his pants.”
“Do you really have a dozen copies of this evidence?” Lyra asked.
“No,” Cassie admitted. “But I do have the bank records. I don’t know that it would actually be enough to convict him, but it’s definitely enough to start an investigation.”
“You should turn them in anyway,” Lyra said darkly. She held tight to Mochi. The fur was starting to regrow over his IV site. Julian the pug was on the floor, tugging a rope with Taco.
“I’m so proud of you for standing up to him. That must have been really hard,” Sammy said softly.
“It helped that Noah was there. And that he punched him first.”
“Normally I’m not a huge fan of violence, but if anyone deserves to be knocked unconscious, it’s that clump of used surgical tape,” Sammy said.
“I still can’t believe he stalked me. Watched me for days. And the universe rewarded him with a baby.” Cassie laughed bitterly. “I’ll never be a parent, but he will. That seems fair.”
There was silence from Sammy and Lyra.
Cassie flopped dramatically onto Lyra’s loveseat. Taco stopped tugging the rope to come jump on top of her.
“I’m sorry for dumping,” she said.
“You’re not dumping,” Lyra said quickly. “You’re processing a traumatic event.”
“Can we talk about Noah punching Dave’s lights out?” Sammy asked.
Cassie definitely hadn’t processed Noah’s involvement in everything yet.
“We might have to hold off on that conversation. Lyra doesn’t like Noah.”
“Hey,” Lyra said, “I love Noah. He’s a squishy little toffee hidden in the body of a pissed-off grizzly bear. But he’s a self-inflicted recluse who is incapable of forgiving himself. Not relationship material.”
There was a pause as Lyra’s expression turned pensive. “Though I will say he’s coming around more than he used to. He seems…lighter. I think I even saw him smile at the café the other day. I thought it was a trick of the light at the time, but maybe it was real.”
“See? They’re going to get married,” Sammy, the ever-hopeful romantic, said.
“No, we’re not,” Cassie said. “Lyra is right. He’s not looking for a relationship. But neither am I. I’m going to settle comfortably into spinsterhood and take lovers at my leisure.”
“Starting with Noah,” Sammy said.
“I’m not talking about this anymore,” Cassie said firmly. “Sammy, I’ll talk to you later. I need to go unwind a little before bed. I’m supposed to treat a bowed tendon tomorrow morning.”
“Good luck. Love you.”
“Love you.” Cassie hung up, then took a deep, cleansing breath. “Thank you for letting me come over,” she said to Lyra.
Lyra gingerly set Mochi down to come wrap Cassie in a tight hug. “You’re always welcome here. I’m so sorry that this happened to you. And that you’re so beautiful and intelligent and unforgettable that your ex-husband can’t leave you alone.”
“I think maybe this time he will,” Cassie said.
It felt true. She had never seen Dave scared before. She almost hadn’t recognized the look of fear in his eyes.
“Call me if you need anything. I mean it.”
“Thanks.”
Cassie got back in the car, but she didn’t feel like going home yet. She drove aimlessly away from town and dialed her therapist’s number.