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She turned to face him. “Do you think that he could have done that with the accident? I just don’t know… and yet so many things are starting to make more sense.”
“I don’t know. Let the cops figure that one out… Your job right now is to protect yourself.”
“They could take everything, Myles. I’ve watched enough TV in my life to know how this works…”
“Look, Jessica… worst case is it sounds like it could cost you millions… but, like I said, that’s not for you to worry about right now. Call your father’s attorneys,” he urged, handing her the phone.
She placed the call and was immediately passed through to James Horowitz. James was the attorney her father had used for at least the past thirty years or as long as Jess could remember. Their families had vacationed together for years growing up. He was a good attorney, the best her father always said, and when he picked up, she gave him all of the information she had, and he assured her that he’d put his finest team on the case.
The children arrived on schedule, around one o’clock and suddenly, the house was teeming with people. From the chef, to the nanny, to Dean—the butler and the instant chaos of having the children there and all of the commotion seemed to help take Jess’s mind off everything.
That afternoon, as she sat out on the beach watching the kids play in the water, she wondered just what she’d tell them about their father if the allegations turned out to be true. Ultimately, she realized that he would always be their dad, no matter what, and she would do her best, for them, not to tarnish that.
As Jess was pondering how she might go about telling them, Jonathan sauntered in from the water and plopped down beside her in the sand. “I’m so glad you guys are here,” Jess said to him.
“Are you coming back home with us, Mom?”
She considered his question for a moment before answering. “I figured we could stay here for a while. What do you think?”
“You mean for the whole summer?”
She nodded.
“I don’t know. I’d miss my friends…”
“We could have them come down.”
He shrugged.
Jess eyed him. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he said, staring out at his sister playing in the water.
“Me too, sweetie. Me, too.”
Three days later, Jess and Myles drove back to Austin for the day so that she could meet with her attorneys. She trepidly entered her lawyer’s office, not exactly sure what to expect, only to find that her entire life had been laid out before her in a series of spreadsheets and financial documents and timelines on a conference room table.
Over the previous two days, Jess had given the lawyers and their staff membe
rs all of the information she had. The calls back and forth had been endless, and now it was all spread out before her like pieces of a puzzle that she wasn’t sure she wanted to put together. James Horowitz had met with the FBI agents himself and had come armed with his own information.
As she entered the conference room to find out precisely what this information was, she was met by four suits sitting in a row, around a table with room for at least twenty. They all stood at once to greet her. Jess shook their hands one by one. Myles pulled out her chair. She took a seat and the suits followed.
“How’s your father, dear?” James Horowitz asked, being the first to speak.
“He’s fine, I hear. Mom says he still recognizes her occasionally. Actually, I haven’t been to see him in a while. I need to get by there...” Jess replied unsure of why she offered up so much information and attributed it to nerves.
The older man nodded in understanding and glanced down at the documents in front of him. “Your father was a brilliant man, Jessica. I am very proud to have had the opportunity to call him a friend for so many years. It’s such a shame, you know, but… the good news is that he set his family up very well. We did a seamless job at setting things up initially, from the beginning, so that your husband couldn’t touch your fortune.”
Jess swallowed. “Spencer had my father sign some papers about a year ago, giving him control. I remember him talking about it…”
“First off, your husband, even with those documents, was only able to access very little of your inheritance. Secondly, we can prove that your father, given the Alzheimer’s diagnosis, was in no condition to sign that paperwork. This provides significant protection.”
Jess exhaled. “How much was he able to get?”
“Three and a half million,” a younger man answered, pointing at one of the documents on the table. “And it does appear that he squandered, or at the very least has hidden, your marital assets very well. We are still getting information in on several of the accounts.”
“But my father’s money and my inheritance are both intact?”
