She rubbed her hand tiredly over her face.
“How did you do that?” Jake asked.
“Well, I had some help, thankfully. Pop-Pop lived in Austin a long time ago and his old friend’s granddaughter owned a bakery. So she let me use it for my cakes after hours. And I started doing content creation. That really started to take off. I was close to being in a place where I could support both me and Pop-Pop when my father told me that I was now engaged.”
“Who the fuck does this shit?” Eli asked. “Did he think it’s the middle ages? Where he can just decide who you are going to marry?”
“My father saw me as chattel. Something to be used for his advancement. Nothing more. There was no affection. No love. I’m just ashamed I went along with everything without fighting back.”
“Who was it that he wanted you to marry?” Jake asked, leaning forward.
“A guy called Lee Newsome,” she said. “You probably won’t have heard of him, but he’s been an associate of my father’s since . . . well, I think since before we moved. I don’t know . . . I almost feel like maybe he was financially backing him?”
“Do you know where Lee might have made his money then?” Jake asked.
“No, I overheard my father once on the phone talking to him about money and thanking him for the donation. It was a bit odd. I asked him what Lee did for a job. He said he was an entrepreneur. That he had a big interest in politics and saw something in my father worth backing.”
“And when did he tell you that you were going to marry him?” Jake asked. “Had Lee ever shown any indication that he liked you?”
“No, nothing. I mean, I barely knew the guy. Not that that mattered to my father. He didn’t care about my feelings or desires. Like I said before, I was purely chattel to him. But I don’t get what Lee got out of it. With Cole it was business and I understood that. A merger that would have benefited both parties. But this was weird.”
“How long ago was this?” Jake asked.
She noticed that Eli and Kellan had fallen silent. But Kellan kept rubbing her back while Eli massaged her feet. They were tense, listening to what she had to say.
“A few months before my father’s death. After he died, I got out of Austin as quickly as I could. I wanted Pop-Pop to come with me, but he loves his nursing home there. He’s got two girlfriends.”
“Two?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. They’re all really happy together. The nursing home wasn’t that happy, but didn’t want to lose three residents.”
“I say good on Pop-Pop,” Eli told her.
She smiled at him. “Anyway, we were living in the governor’s mansion and I needed to leave anyway so I figured why bother moving twice? I got rid of anything that belonged to my father and found a place to rent here. I put my father’s will into probate and I’m still waiting to hear about that, but I had enough of my own money to pay for Pop-Pop for the rest of the year and rent a house here. It drained my savings, but I’m sure I can get them back into a healthy state. So all I had left to do was talk to Lee.”
“How did he take it?” Eli asked.
“That’s the thing, I couldn’t get hold of him. He didn’t answer any of my calls. I wasn’t sure what to do. So I left him a message on his voicemail. I know that’s terrible, but I didn’t even know where he lived and he never turned up to my father’s funeral. Although it was a big affair because he was the governor, so perhaps I just missed seeing him. I don’t know.”
“He was your fiancé,” Eli said. “Even if it was fake, wouldn’t he have contacted you? Tried to put in some sort of appearance?”
“It’s like as soon as your father died, you became of little interest to him,” Jake said.
“Either that or something happened to him as well,” Kellan added.
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Why did you say ‘as well’? My father jumped off that bridge.”
“Did he ever show signs of being suicidal?” Eli asked her.
“Well, no. I never thought he would do something like that. He always thought he would come out on top. Why?”
“Are you trying to say that something else happened to her father?” Jake asked.
“It can’t have. There were two witnesses that said the same thing,” she said. “That he jumped. And that no one else was there. Also, he left a note saying that he was under tremendous pressure and couldn’t take it anymore.”
“And he wasn’t acting strange before his death?” Eli asked. “He hadn’t given any sign that he was taking anything?”
She straightened. “Like drugs, you mean?”
