“You know how to clip flowers?”
He chuckled. “No, but I’m sure it’s something I can learn.”
“True. Okay, I’ll let you know if we need your help,” she said.
“Okay.”
“Goodbye, Gary. I’ll see you for lunch.”
“Sure thing, babe.”
As she got out of bed to take her shower and get dressed, she thought the past few days had been great. Gary had been in the best of moods. It was as if some weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
A short while later, she was knocking on her parents’ cottage door. When her dad opened it, she said, “Good morning, Dad,”giving him a peck on the cheek as she breezed by him. When she saw her godmother and Marcus, she smiled. “Good morning, Goddy and Marcus. Did Mom get you up to help her as well?”
Her mother came forward. “No, sweetheart. They are here for you.”
Tiffany looked confused. “Why would I need them to be here for me?”
“There’s something your mother and I need to tell you,” Chance said.
It was then that Tiffany noticed just how serious everyone was. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Please have a seat, Tiffany, and we’ll tell you everything,” her mother said.
Tiffany nodded and went to sit in the spot on the sofa between Marcus and her godmother. She then glanced up expectantly at her parents. “So, Mom, Dad? What’s wrong?”
Chance took a deep breath, let it out, and then said, “Gary Palmer is a fraud.”
**
Tiffany was out of her seat in a flash. “That’s not true, Dad. How can you say such a thing?”
“It is true, sweetheart. York and Quade investigated him.”
“York and Quade? You guys had Gary investigated?” she asked, accusingly.
“No. Your mother and I just found out late last night. York and Quade felt they had sufficient grounds to look into his actions, and they did. What they found was damning. His real name is not Gary Palmer.”
She waved off her father’s words. “I know that, Dad. His name is Garrett Palmer. He goes by Gary.”
“That’s not his real name either. He was born Robert Garrett Devonshire.”
She threw up her hands in exasperation. “So, he changed his name, big deal. That’s not illegal.”
“It’s a big deal if the only reason he became involved with you was to get close to me, so he could hack into my company. And thatisillegal,” Chance said.
“Hack into your company? That’s not true, Dad.”
“Unfortunately, it is.”
“Why would he want to do that?” she asked.
Chance released a deep breath. “I’m going to tell you everything, Tiffany, and I need you to listen and believe that your mother and I would not be telling you this if it were not true. We have recordings of calls Gary made every night from his room, as well as video footage showing him illegally entering this cottage yesterday and hacking my laptop while we were in Gatlinburg.”
“Yesterday?”
“Yes, around eleven.”
