“It— No, it’s probably nothing. Even the thought is ridiculous—”
“Please.” My grip tightened on her hand. “She was my mother. Your friend. We have to do everything we can to find her killer—even if it’s ridiculous.”
She looked at me, eyes filling. “Sweet child, you say you want to know this... but I don’t think you do.”
“I do,” I replied before she finished the sentence. “Tell me.”
Sighing, she pressed her lips tight together—looking at me like she wasn’t going to budge.
“Okay,” she said, making me release a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “First, you must understand that I was only doing what she asked of me. I even told her that she should talk to you and get your permission first, but she claimed a mother didn’t need permission.”
“Permission to do what?”
She trapped my gaze. “Permission to investigate her sons-in-law.”
“Investigate?” I blew back, eyes darting around. “Investigate what?”
Mrs. Choi flapped her hand, gesturing for me to lean back in. Just because she loved telling everyone’s business, didn’t mean she wanted it shouted in public. “It was last year—around June,” she said softly. “Apparently, you were in a bad spot in your marriages at the time, and it was looking like a divorce—or three—was inevitable. She said they’d already struck the first blow by canceling all of your credit cards and removing your access to the joint accounts.” She gave me a look. “And you know what comes after that.”
“Of course. Large cash withdrawals, secret Cayman bank accounts, opening trusts in your cousin’s name, undervaluing assets, overvaluing debts, stashing money in the corporate accounts, and suddenly catching the urge to invest in gold and safe-deposit boxes,” I rattled off easily. “All from theRich Douchebag’s Guide to Cheating Your Spouse Out of Their Earned Divorce Settlement.”
“Precisely.”
Hey, I grew up in the land of the rich with the rest of the Lantanans. I learned how to cheat taxes and hide assets before I learned fractions.
“You’ve devoted years of your life to not one, but three men. You have a child with them,” she cried. “Your mother wasn’t going to see you cheated out of a single cent that you deserve, so at the first sign, she asked me to put her in touch with a private investigator and forensic accountant.
“I’m entrusted with millions and millions of dollars meant for poor and needy people. Ha-eun knew I was fanatical about every dollar being accounted for,” she said. “I gave her what she asked, but I made her promise that if they found something, she’d take it to you first. Let you take it to your attorney, so they’d be prepared to spring it on your husbands the minute they walked into the mediation room. If she tipped your hand to them, they’d be forearmed and ready, and it’d just drag out the fight that much longer.”
I almost laughed. Of course, Mrs. Choi’s only concern was to see Sue with all the weapons she needed to drain her rich husbands dry. She wasn’t at all concerned about her and my mother poking their noses into someone else’s marriages.
“And did the investigators find something?” I asked, and even as the question came out of my mouth, I hoped the answer wouldn’t be—
“Yes,” she stated. “Almost a month later, I was driving your mother to chemo when she just came right out with it. She told me they found out something about one of your husbands—something big. So big that itwouldn’t just get you half, it’d get you everything and more. The money, the assets, the house, the cars, and Nari. You would even own his freedom.”
My brows crumpled. “His freedom? That’s what she said? That I’d own his freedom.”
“That’s correct.”
“What does that mean? Like— Like— Like jail?” I screeched. “Was she saying she found something that would put one of my husbands in jail?”
“That was my assumption, yes.”
I goggled at her. “What was it? What did they find?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
I was out of my seat and almost in hers, leaning over the flower centerpiece. “Did she at least tell you who it was?”
“She didn’t name him, but”—discomfort crawled over her face—“she did tell me, rather inappropriately even I must say, that it wasthe one you’d expect.” She gave me another meaningful look. “If you take my meaning.”
“I do,” I croaked, feeling that pit grow until it stole all the air from me. “Unfortunately, I do.”
Chapter Sixteen
That night, I stood just outside the kitchen—watching Lily and Rhodes from the shadows.
“Do you think Mommy will like these?” Lily stood on the stepstool, frosting her batch of the cookies and her corner of the countertop to go with it.
