“You can trust us,” I reiterate. “We just want to help.”
With more strength than I have given her credit for, she pulls herself together. Accepting a tissue from Jase, she dries her eyes and blows her nose. She clasps her hands on her lap and sits up straighter. Jase returns to sit alongside me. “Jasper ran his own financial investment company, as you are aware,” she says. “One of his clients was a top-secret government organization.”
That perks both our ears.
“He did highly classified work for them for years and was well paid for it. He was told to keep everything off the books, and he did.”
“What kind of work?” Jase asks.
“Setting up offshore investments and hiding money. Sometimes washing cash. He was told when he was recruited never to ask questions and never to talk about it. He had to sign all kinds of confidentiality agreements and make all kinds of promises. He probably wasn’t supposed to have told me, but we were actually very close. We told each other everything.” She looks at the ground. “We had a good marriage except when it came to sex. I lost interest after Tessa came along, and he found other women to satisfy his needs. I didn’t know about it for years. He was always discreet, and I knew none of them were serious. He loved me, but I couldn’t give him what he wanted.”
I lean into Jase, wishing the ground would swallow me. I do not want to be sitting here with Chad’s mom listening to her detailing the problems in her marriage and her sex life. Chad would be mortified if he knew she was telling us all this. But I don’t want to interrupt her. I think she needs to get this off her chest.
She should really see a therapist.
Carole shrugs, lifting her chin, looking a little embarrassed, like she hadn’t meant to divulge all that. “The money was great, and he felt important to be hand-selected to work for this organization, so he never challenged any of the niggling doubts that plagued him from time to time.”
I squirm on my seat. It looks like Ares was correct. This screams Luminary bullshit. It seems obvious now that Jasper was tied up with them.
“We were watching the news one night, and his face paled. A man had been arrested on multiple charges of child rape. He told me he was someone he had dealt with in the past, on several occasions. Someone he gave information to on behalf of the government.”
“Did Jasper know what information he was supplying?” Jase asks.
She shakes her head. “He was given sealed packages to deliver. At first, they were irregular, but by the end, it was every week. He had tasked Chad with delivering them, but after that guy was arrested, he assigned Chad other work, and he started delivering them himself.”
She gets up, heading over to the bookshelf at the back of the room. “Jasper was troubled for months. He tried to terminate his contract with the government organization, but they wouldn’t let him. He realized then he was knee-deep in shady shit and the only way out was to find evidence of wrongdoing and try to use it to prove this organization was corrupt. He suspected it wasn’t the government, that he had been tricked all along.”
Her fingers move along the spines of books before resting on a thick tome. She pulls it out and walks back toward us. “That is when he started actively investigating.” She sits down with a copy ofWar and Peaceon her lap. “I was terrified. I begged him to stop. He wouldn’t tell me anything about his investigation. He said if I was questioned it was better I knew nothing.” She opens the book, revealing a chunk cut out in the middle housing a sealed glass case. She takes it out, opens it, and extracts a thumb drive. “A week before he was arrested, he gave me this book. He told me to hide it someplace it would never be found, and to only give it to someone I trust. He made me promise not to give it to any cops or FBI agents or anyone claiming to be the government or from that organization that had hired him.”
She is crying again. “I wanted to hand it in after he was arrested, but he had made me promise. I knew if he wanted them to have it he would have told the officers or his lawyer or the prison warden to come and ask me for it. No one ever did.”
“Does Chad know about this?” Jase asks.
She shakes her head. “I have tried to keep him out of it. I let him believe I fell apart because of the affair with Hera, but the truth is, that barely even registered.”
“You’ve been living in fear,” I say, seeing it so clearly now.
“I am terrified, Ashley. They killed my husband, and I’m so scared my children and I will be next.”
ChapterTwenty-One
Jase
“Was Hera a spy?” Carole asks, shocking both of us.
“Why would you ask that?” Ash inquires.
“Towards the end of their affair, Jasper thought she was digging for intel. He feared she was a plant from his client. That they were on to him and knew he was trying to gather evidence against them.”
“Did you share that suspicion with Chad?” I ask. It would explain why he loathed Hera with every fiber of his being.
She shakes her head. “Jasper didn’t want Chad to know about his involvement with the client or the part he unwittingly played in helping them to kidnap kids. I didn’t mention anything to my son in case he drew conclusions. Instead, I let him believe Hera was the reason our marriage ended and I fell apart.”
“Hera isn’t a spy,” Ash supplies. “Though shewaslooking for evidence she thought Jasper had.”
Carole’s lips pull into a thin line.
“Her daughter was kidnapped and sold,” Ash adds.
