Cece gently put her hand on her daughter’s arm. “I could really use a coffee. You want one?”
“Yeah, all right,” Natalie said. “Where do you want to get it? Food court?”
“Might as well.”
They left the store without saying anything else, made their way back to the food court, and got in line at the cookie and coffee place. Cece ordered two large coffees and one enormous chocolate chip walnut cookie.
They found a table nearby and sat. Cece broke the cookie in half and put the largest piece on a napkin for Natalie.
Then Cece broke off a small piece of her portion of the cookie. “Tell me what I can do to help.”
Natalie wrapped her hands around her cup and shook her head. “I don’t honestly know, Mom. I don’t know where to start. You were an investigative reporter. What would you do?”
This was the opening Cece had been waiting for. “I’d start with finances. There’s always a paper trail, even in this day and age. You could look at his social media?—”
“Mom, you really think he’s going to post about having a girlfriend on Facebook?”
“No, but I think there’s a good possibility he has social media accounts you don’t know about.” There were other clues that could turn up on social media, which Cece would look for regardless of what her daughter said. Cece wasn’t going to just ignore this.
Natalie’s mouth turned down. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I’m so sorry, honey. This is indefensible behavior, if he’s really cheating, I know that. Do you want me to do the digging? Then you wouldn’t have to take on the weight of it.”
Natalie took a big bite of her cookie, eyes gleaming with unshed tears. She chewed, nodding as she did. “I hate to ask that of you.”
“I’m offering.”
“You’d really do that?”
“Of course.”
“I don’t know that I want the details if he is. Just enough to…I don’t know. Get custody of Tyler, I guess. Make sure we’re taken care of.” She sniffed and a tear slipped down her cheek. “I can’t believe I’m even saying this. I’m sorry for ruining the day.”
Cece grabbed her hand. “You haven’t ruined anything. If the day is ruined, it’s Jim’s fault. Listen, why don’t you take me home. We don’t need to stay here. I’ve got enough for my article.”
Another sniff. “You’re sure, Mom? I’m fine to stay. I really am.”
Cece shook her head. “Let’s enjoy this cookie, then head back.”
Ten minutes later, they were in the car, making the drive to the Colony. Cece had her notebook and pen out, old-school style, but it was what she was used to. “You realize if you want me to look into Jim, you’re going to have to give me personal information.”
“Like passwords and stuff?”
“Yes. To things like bank accounts. If you’re all right with that.”
Natalie took a breath and nodded. “It’s okay. I trust you, obviously, and I need to know.”
“Any chance you can get into his email?”
“I don’t know his password, but it can’t be that hard to figure out. The Netflix password is Tyler’s birthday and Jim set that up.”
“Okay, I might take a crack at that then, so long as it won’t trigger an alert that gets sent to him.”
“Yeah, other than that, do whatever you need to do. I want to know one way or the other.” Natalie gave Cece all the information she could think of.
Cece wrote everything down. As much as she wanted to take out her phone and start digging immediately, her daughter needed her to be present. It was clear Natalie still had a lot of talking to do, now that the dam had been opened.
Natalie sighed, her eyes on the road. “What will I tell Tyler?”
