Brigitte stared at him.Her face was soft with confusion, but her eyes were hard.“What?”
“You and Stephen were working together.The money he stole from those people, you got half of it.”
Jem raised a hand like he might scratch his beard, but he winced and lowered his arm again.He opened his mouth and shut it again.
“That’s ridiculous,” Brigitte said.“I wouldn’t do that.I loved Gerald.He provided for our family.I have everything I need.Why would I steal from him?”
It was too many reactions strung together.Too much of a response.She must have realized it because it looked like it took an effort for her to shut her mouth.
“Because you’re smart,” Tean said.“Because you’re a survivor.Because you know that life isn’t always good or easy, so you have a backup plan, just in case.”
She shook her head.Laughed a little.Put her fingers to her temple.“I’m sorry, I can’t believe I’m hearing this.”
“Your name is on the paperwork for the LLC.That was a mistake.You should have left your name off it.Or did Stephen insist?Was that one of the conditions?”
“What paperwork?I don’t know anything about any paperwork.”But she said almost immediately, “I had to sign so many things.You have to understand we trusted Stephen.Our attorney reviewed everything.He told me to sign.”
“No, that’s not going to work.”
“Hold on,” Jem said.“Everybody needs to take a breath.Tean, let me see that.Mom, what do you mean he made you sign a lot of papers?”
“That was his job.”She sounded like she was on the brink of tears, and she touched the corners of her eyes.“Gerald hired him to help with this kind of thing.I had to sign lots of things; I tried to read them, but I didn’t know what they all said.”
“It’s fine,” Jem said.“It’s okay.If that’s all it was, then we’ll figure it out.”
“That’s not what it was,” Tean said.“She’s lying.”
“Can you cool it for five seconds?”To Brigitte, he said, “Mom, what’s the name of the lawyer?”
“She can call whoever she wants because it doesn’t matter.She’s on the paperwork for the LLC.From the LLC, we’ll be able to find the bank accounts.From there, we can track the transfers.And one of those accounts will be in her name.And they’ll have her signature all over the documents.”
“But hemademe sign—”
“And they’ll have more transfers, because she’ll have funneled it into other accounts.”
To Jem, tears running down her cheeks, she said, “I don’t know why he’s doing this to me.”
“Tean, can you cut it out?”
“They’ll have her on camera pulling it out in cash.”
That struck home.For a moment, the weeping, the vulnerability, the frightened woman—they all disappeared.The one who stared out at Tean now was hard, pinched, all claws and bared teeth.
And then she was trying to catch her tears again, sniffling as she said, “Jeremiah, it doesn’t make any sense.Why would I do this?Why would I hurt my own family?”
“Because Gerald believed people needed to earn their way,” Tean said.He realized he was smiling—a nasty razoring expression that cut across his mouth.He wasn’t sure why.“And Gerald believed men should be in charge of the finances.That’s what he told us the first time we met him, remember?”
Jem was staring at Tean.The wind- and snow-burn had left patches of raw skin, but everywhere else he was white.
“But I didn’t even know him,” Brigitte was saying.“Gerald hired him—”
“You had plenty of time together to figure it out,” Tean said.“That was part of it, wasn’t it?You wanted Stephen.You needed Gerald.Wouldn’t it be perfect if you could have both?Stephen is young and handsome.Gerald was old and tired.But Gerald had all the money.It was the perfect plan until Sawyer tipped Gerald off that Stephen wasn’t who he said he was.What happened?Gerald came to you and told you it was over?Did he say you were getting a divorce?And then you decided you didn’t want to lose out on all that money, so you and Stephen had to get rid of Gerald before he could ruin everything.”
“Tean, my God,” Jem barked.
“I wasn’t sleeping with Stephen!”
The words were cold and clear and, Tean thought with a wave of surprise, the first honest thing he thought he’d ever heard from her.
