Page 28 of What the Wife Knew

“Is this the same offer where I give her everything and skip town?”

Elias frowned. “What?”

Thought so. “She showed up. She threatened. Told me all the money and property should be hers. I think she called me trash, or something similar.”

“She didn’t mention any of that.”

“Of course not.” Remembering the conversation with Kathryn made whatever residual guilt I’d harbored for upending her life vanish. Her sense of entitlement killed my tolerance for her. “Let’s get this over with so I can say no. What’s her request?”

“Money.”

The Dougherty family’s favorite topic. How to get it. How to hoard it. “She has money.”

Elias hesitated for a second time, which was scary. “She wants to use Richmond’s money. The money that goes to you now that he’s dead. Specifically, she wants you to pay for Portia’s school expenses and for the remainder of Wyatt’s college expenses, including the payment for next semester, which is now due and should have already been paid by Richmond.”

I swiveled the chair back and forth. Not a big swing but enough to signal I didn’t take this conversation seriously. “Okay, I’ll play along. Why does she think I would do any of that?”

“Under the divorce agreement Richmond was to pay those expenses and alimony. You were instrumental in securing those provisions for Kathryn, even though she doesn’t know that.”

“I’m regretting helping her now.” I actually wasn’t. Screwing Richmond didn’t mean I wanted to give him ammunition to financially screw Kathryn and the kids. He was my target, not them.

“She says Richmond promised, outside of their written divorce settlement agreement, to secure his monetary obligations to her by taking out life insurance, payable to Kathryn if anything happened to him.”

“Let me guess. He didn’t.” Once an asshole, always an asshole.

“It was an oral agreement.”

I stopped swiveling. “Did you hear this magical agreement or know about it before now?”

“No. It’s a standard clause but it wasn’t in the signed agreement.”

“So, we’re talking about a top-secret understanding only Kathryn knows about, which benefits Kathryn. Convenient.” I had to give her credit. She knew how to play this game.

“Richmond and Kathryn made a lot of private side deals over the objections of their attorneys. Kathryn’s divorce counsel was furious she consented to the settlement terms after meeting alone with Richmond. The attorney advised her against signing.”

“I bet. How much money are we talking about?” Because I wasn’t a total bitch. I could share for the kids’ sakes.

“Portia’s school, including boarding, costs about seventy thousand dollars a year.”

No fucking way. “Did she switch to one in Paris? Does she get there by private jet?”

“Hackley. It’s in Tarrytown.”

“I’m betting the public schools in Rye are perfectly fine. They’re also free.”

Elias kept going, obviously missing my tone. “With all the fees and his student apartment, the cost for Wyatt to attend Tufts is a little over eighty thousand dollars per year.”

Elias was messing with me. He had to be. “You’re spouting off these numbers like they make sense.”

“And then there’s money for Kathryn.”

“No.”

“She believes—”

“I said no.” After her performance in the kitchen? Absolutely not.

“As the administrator of the estate, I have oversight of all the accounts. You never accessed any of the money in the joint accounts while the two of you were married. The separate account he set up for you, yes, but even then, not much.”

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