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“Maybe he didn’t want to tell you he was spending money on the cottage when you disliked it.”
That didn’t sit well with her. “I wouldn’t have argued against it. Eric spent a lot of time here. He never once complained about the state of the place.” She glanced around. “Though they are small, inexpensive updates. Paint and a new counter don’t cost much.” The worst part of it wasn’t the money—it was that he’d most likely done it to make Kelly happy.
Dread congealed in her belly as she turned and went to the main bedroom. She yanked open the drawers in the chest, and just as she’d feared, two of the drawers held female underwear and tees.
They weren’t hers.
Lucas’s broad shoulders loomed in the doorway, but he said nothing as she examined the rest of the room. The closet held more women’s clothing, and the bathroom drawer contained makeup. None of it was hers.
Her eyes burned, and a boulder formed in her throat. Kellyhadn’t been a careless fling that had resulted in a baby—she’d been having a full-fledged affair with Eric. How long had it gone on?
Noah sucked at his fists and kicked his feet, and Lucas stepped to her side to take him. “I’m sorry, Carly.”
No one had to tell him what all this meant. She swallowed and gave a stiff nod. Words wouldn’t make it out of her throat just yet.
Lucas’s phone vibrated, and his footsteps faded as he went down the hall. His voice was faint, and she was thankful for the alone time to try to process all she’d learned today. She never would have dreamed Eric would be a cheater. Had he been planning to file for divorce? Kelly had told Lucas that Eric knew about her pregnancy.
How would he have reacted if he’d known both of the women in his life were pregnant at the same time? Would he have chosen her or Kelly? She’d never know now.
Lucas’s footsteps came back toward her, and she swiped the moisture from her face and turned to face the door. This was something she would have to live with. She held out her arms. “I can take Noah. Thanks for the space.”
He handed the baby back to her, and she inhaled the scent of Noah’s soft head. If nothing else good had come from her marriage, her baby was here in her arms. That was enough.
“I had some interesting news,” he said once the baby was situated. “I had my partner take a look at Kelly’s finances. A deposit of a hundred thousand dollars went into her bank account two days before Eric’s death and another one of the same amount just last week. We traced both deposits back to a shell company affiliated with an official high up the food chain in Russia.”
“Part of the Russian mafia?”
He shook his head. “A businessman named Ivan Bury. He lives in Moscow. We’ve found no connection with organized crime. But get this—he’s put out a bounty on finding any of the Fabergé eggs.”
“Why would he give Kelly money?”
“I suspect Eric asked for it to be that way to hide it from you. He wouldn’t want to put it in your joint account because you’d ask questions. This way the two of them could use it for whatever they wanted.” His hazel eyes narrowed, and he ran a hand through his short, dark hair. “Has she ever asked you about your flea market finds and what Eric was working on for you?”
She thought back over the past few weeks and winced. “I mentioned going through Gramma Helen’s things. Maybe she asked or maybe I volunteered the information. I can’t remember, but I think I mentioned finding an old egg. That was before I stripped off the paint.”
“She’s a police officer. We’re good at steering conversations in the right direction. I suspect she took those calls all right. I’ll bet she called him herself and negotiated that second payment because she’d found out about the egg.”
Carly shifted Noah to the other shoulder. “What do you make of it?”
“The egg was stolen from the Kremlin. I’m not sure how it came to be in the hands of Mary’s birth mother, but we know about the looting that went on during the Russian Revolution. Maybe Ivan is a collector. There’s no way of knowing. I did some research, and there are some who believe the egg was sold to get money for the new government. It supposedlymade it to the Kremlin, so it seems a logical possibility. If he’s a collector, maybe he got a whiff that it was out there.”
It was a good premise for her novel, and she tucked it away in her head. “I wish I knew how it ended up in the chest.”
“I intend to find out.”
Staring at his determined face, she felt a glimmer of hope that he’d be able to do just that. “We’d better get back.”
***
His house held more people than Lucas could ever remember.
When they got back from the trip to the lake cottage, he heard the sound of the piano floating from the music room, and he spotted Amelia in there with Isabelle. Emily was moving cushions around in the living room, and though he didn’t mind if she wanted to mess with the decor, it seemed a bold move for a guest to make.
Carly went straight up the steps to change Noah’s diaper, and Lucas went to the kitchen. Mary was always a good person to talk to when his thoughts were a jumble. The aroma of Italian sauce made his mouth water. They hadn’t eaten since breakfast other than a couple of handfuls of nuts and a granola bar Carly had brought for snacks.
“Lasagna?” he asked.
Mary adjusted the apron around the waist of her red-and-black paisley skirt. “I hear that hope in your voice, and yes, it’s lasagna. And cheesy garlic bread with salad. I even made chocolate cake for dessert.”
