Page 196 of Buried Too Deep

“Let me check.” There was the sound of typing in the background. “Well, sir, it appears that your wife came in at three o’clock and withdrew everything from your joint account. She said she was opening an account elsewhere.”

Your wife.

Your joint account.

Lexy, what have you done? And why? The PI’s reports showed a godly, submissive wife who didn’t cheat.

What’s happening?

“Sir? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, thank you.” He ended the call.

He was not fine.

He called Lexy, breathing angrily as he waited for her to pick up. “What the hell have you done?” he shouted when she answered.

“I’m leaving you, Alan. You shouldn’t have hired a PI to follow me. For years. I’m so angry. You haven’t trusted me since day one. You’ve had me followed to make sure I’m not cheating, yet you have a secret family. Another child, Alan. How dare you!” She was shouting, too.

He’d never heard Lexy shout.

“Secret child? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the photos of a girl in your secret safe behind your secret bookshelf, Alan. I’m talking about stacks of PI reports detailing every move I’ve made for years. Don’t you even try to be the aggrieved party here. I’m leaving. And I’m telling everyone what a fraud you are.”

My secret safe? Behind my secret bookshelf?

How…?

Then he knew. Sage.

He ended the call with Lexy and redialed Sage.

“Grandfather. How are you?”

There was a lot of noise in the background. Car doors slamming and traffic. “Are you coming in or not?”

“I said I would,” Sage said, but there was a hint of mocking in his tone.

“What have you done, Sage?”

“Become like you, Grandfather,” Sage said coldly. “Are you satisfied now?”

The call abruptly ended and Alan closed his eyes. What was happening?

This couldn’t be real. None of this could be real.

Cora Winslow knew about Jenny. Which meant that she knew about him, too. And somehow had found out about Ashley.

She’d probably already told the police.

Then again, maybe she hadn’t. That would mean telling the cops that her precious father’s business was on the wrong side of legal.

Maybe they could come to an agreement. She’d keep her mouth shut and he’d pay her…

What? He couldn’t pay her anything. Lexy had taken his money. The only money left was in the church’s treasury, and he didn’t have access to that account. Not for lack of trying, but the board of deacons had created a system of checks and balances that allowed no one person to have control of church funds. So money was not going to help him deal with Cora Winslow.

She would have to be silenced. He should have done so two weeks ago. I was soft. I was afraid.

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