He kept going. “I tried to log into our bank accounts, but all the passwords had been changed. So I drove down to the credit union and got the shock of my life.”
I could guess, but I held my tongue.
“All of it was gone. Everything. He’d maxed out the credit line, taken cash advances on the credit cards that weren’t already maxed out. He took the deposits from buyers. He took every single penny he could get his hands on. All gone.”
“Surely the bank could trace it.”
“You’d think.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I was too upset to understand what the manager was telling me. Something about crypto and—” He blew out a breath. “He kept saying I had authorized it all. I kept saying I didn’t know anything about it.”
Still, we walked.
“I had to go up to the jobsite and let everyone go—I had no way to pay them. Since the credit union folks were convinced I’d taken the money, they wouldn’t even front me enough to pay the guys. Nothing was near completion, so it wasn’t like I could finish a house, have the sale completed, and have a bit of money. Sort of numb, I went home.”
“Wow.”
We were nearing the parking lot.
“Right? Then I figured I should get out ahead of this, so I went to the police. That was just the beginning of my nightmare.”
My gut churned. I wanted to rail against what he’d been through—but he’d only really begun to share. As much as I might need to know this as a future partner—he really needed to be sharing it with Justin.
He slowed, apparently realizing we were near the end of our walk.
“We can keep going.” I pointed to the street. “It’s a lovely neighborhood.”
“Nah.” He headed toward his truck.
I followed.
He turned to face me. “I’m trying to say I’m a really bad bet. I trusted my ex-husband. Implicitly. All told, he stole more than sixteen million dollars—mostly deposits from unsuspecting homebuyers. Plus the equity from our home and every last penny of credit he could squeeze out of everything. I had the cash in my wallet and a couple hundred I kept in the safe along with my passport and marriage certificate. At least he left those…although where I could’ve escaped to, I had no idea. Just…gone.”
“And the police haven’t been able to track him down?”
“While I was feeding them everything I had, they built a case against me. Everything had my signature.”
“But it wasn’t yours.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know how he managed, but he forged my signature on everything. I mean, everything. If someone at the credit union had just called me.” He kicked a piece of gravel. “I didn’t even really care about the trial. I mean, I was half willing to plead guilty because at least in jail I could get three square meals a day and a roof over my head.”
“What happened?”
“Bernie. The office manager. She came to see me. She knew I hadn’t done it because she’d never seen me in the office. She felt guilty because Stephen had seemed secretive and squirrelly the last few weeks he was there. She’d just figured we’d fought or something. Naturally, she wished she’d called me.”
“She spoke to the authorities?”
He nodded. “Yeah. They blew her off. I thought that would be an end to it, but she showed up at my doorstep with a legal-aid lawyer. The patron saint of lost causes.”
“Oh?”
“Better known as Arnav Mehta.” He chuckled. “Bernie ordered me to sit down and to tell Arnav everything. And I meaneverything. So, I did. At one point, she went and grabbed food. The three of us talked for twelve hours as we went through every single point. By the end, he said he was pretty sure he could get me off.” He shivered.
“You’re cold. Do you want to come to my place? We can do takeout. Or I can cook. At the very least, you need a hot chocolate.”
He waved me off. “I’ll finish this, and then you can decide if you still want to be with me.”
Inwardly, I bristled. Outwardly, I remained impassive.Silly man. Of course I want to be with you. And not just because my Daddy heart longs to heal you. There’s a pup inside, longing to burst free. I can be your safe harbor in the storm.Still, I said nothing. I just gestured for him to keep going.
“He did it. He convinced the jurors that I honestly didn’t know anything about it. He didn’t have any more or less evidence than the prosecutors had—he just showed the jury a different way to interpret it. Longest wait of my life. When the jury was deliberating.”
