“And I’m thrilled to death at becoming an uncle again.” I pointed to the computer screen. “But getting back to the trust, what happened to the money? And what is this bullshit investment fund I see you pushing? There’s nothing there. What’s going on? What’re you doing?”
He scooted his chair a little closer. “Don’t worry. We were running a little low in cash to pay for renovations on the new house, so I borrowed it from some of the trusts. I’ll pay you when we get our fee from the Golden account.”
My jaw dropped. “Marty. What the fuck? You can’t do that. It’s embezzlement. Trust funds are untouchable. I’m not even a lawyer and I know that.”
“It’s fine. It’ll be replaced. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry? Are you nuts? You can lose the business and go to jail. I can’t believe Cassie is okay with this.”
His jaw tensed. “Leave her out of this. She doesn’t know anything.”
“Are you fucking crazy? The business is in both your names. I’ve seen your tax returns. She’s as responsible as you are.”
“No one’s going to find out. It’ll all be fine.”
Except it wasn’t. Marty’s investment fund was exposed as the Ponzi scheme it was, and when people started demanding their money, it wasn’t there. The police, SEC, and feds moved in, and then all hell broke loose.
Embarrassed, I rubbed my face, focusing on my feet…the floor…anything but Gabriel’s face after I finished telling him the whole story. “I know you think I’m an idiot, but how could I let her go to jail? They had a little child at home. Cassie was in a high-risk pregnancy and could’ve lost the baby. She’d had so many miscarriages…” I paused, raking my hands through my still wet hair. “But now I think no matter what, they would’ve somehow persuaded me to take the blame for what they did. Because I’d always protected her.”
A glass was pressed in my hands, and I glanced at it. “What’s this?”
“Whiskey. I think you need it.”
I swallowed it, grateful for the burn as it slid down my throat, and acutely aware of his hand resting on my nape. I took another gulp, then set the glass on the table. “Thanks. You were right.” His fingers massaged my neck, and I leaned into his touch.
“Why did they do it?”
The circular movement of his fingertips on my skin both soothed and centered my scattered brain. With Gabriel’s hands on me, I felt able to release all the shame, anger, and pain I’d held inside for over six years.
“Money. Simple as that. In that conversation you listened to, he basically confessed that he only cared about money and that they resented the fact that I received so much money in the settlement and she didn’t.”
Gabriel broke in. “Wait a second. She wasn’t with you when you had the accident, though.”
“No. It was a Sunday, and she was at the movies, hanging out with her friends. One of the girls’ parents brought her to the hospital, and she stayed until I woke up, over twenty hours later.”
His fingers skated over the tattoos covering my arm. “How bad was it?”
“Both my arms were broken in multiple places, along with deep lacerations from the broken glass and pieces of the car that had sliced into my skin.” Gabriel winced. “I’ll spare you the gory details, but I had over ten operations and hundreds of stitches. Months of physical therapy.”
“And you blame yourself.”
I shrugged. No way would I slide back into those black days, so I hoped Gabriel wouldn’t press me on it. It took years of therapy to learn to deal with the survivor’s guilt, and I still had trouble sleeping through the night.
“I mean, yeah. But it was a lot of different things. The horror of waking up, knowing my parents were dead. Cassie was all I had left. Maybe that was why I was so anxious to hold on to her. I looked the other way when she blew through her settlement from the insurance company, and when she and Marty got engaged, I gave her whatever she asked for. In fact, I paid for the entire wedding. The money didn’t mean shit to me. I just wanted to make her happy.”
“Did she keep asking you for money even after she got married?”
I didn’t like the expression in Gabriel’s eyes. “Sometimes. She was young and alone too. I didn’t see it as her using me. It wasn’t a big deal.” But as I spoke, I knew I’d been a fool. All along, Cassie had seen me as her personal ATM, the place she could always run to when she got into trouble.
“She wasn’t alone. She had a husband. You weren’t responsible for her.”
And even now, after our terrible argument, I found it difficult to lay the blame on her. “Even after she married Marty, if she needed something, it didn’t bother me to give it to her. My parents always told us to stick together. That’s what families do.”
But who was there for me now?
“Still, to go to jail for her? That goes way beyond the bond of family. You gave up six years of your life, and for what? To get death threats and have to hire personal security? Does she have any remorse for what she asked you to do?”
It was nice lying here, almost cuddling with Gabriel, his hand stroking along my spine. It made me think of foolish things, like what it would be like to have him here, not as my bodyguard, but as a man.
