Page 80 of Making Home with You
“I’m not!”I spit out loudly, my hands up in defense.“It’s the opposite, I promise you.I want him to leave me alone, but…” I stop myself, not certain why I’m even telling her this.I don’t want her to think I’m sleeping with her husband, but the last thing I should be doing is giving her the details of his depravity.I want to be as far removed from all this as possible, especially now that I know he has an irate wife.
“Bullshit,” she snorts, letting out a low chuckle, her arms now crossed over her chest.“Look at you, there’s no way he didn’t come on to you, put his hands on you.”She flips a hand at me now and again laughs.
“He did, but I said no.”I’m trying to reassure her that I’m not the enemy, and I should tell her it’s her husband she should to be after.Not the innocent women he preys on.Why are some women like this?Why does the blame fall on the one being harassed?
She can leave him.She doesn’t have to tolerate this, but maybe she does.I don’t know her situation; I only know that her husband is a horrible person.
She pulls a piece of paper from her pocket and waves it in front of my face.Her neck and face are now bright red, and she’s stepping closer to my desk.
“Is this you?”she asks, seething and slamming the paper she was just holding down on my desk.
I glance down at it but I don’t really look at what it is, and I look back up at her.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I have any idea what you’re talking about.”I’m hoping my confusion and the look I imagine is plastered on my face gives her the indication that I’m telling the truth.
My phone starts ringing and I look down at my purse, but I don’t dare answer it.I don’t want this woman thinking I’m not taking this conversation seriously.
I look a second time at the paper she put on my desk and it’s a bank statement with a gigantic red circle around a withdrawal in the amount of a nine hundred thousand dollars.
That’s a lot of fucking money, not the kind you take out for a weekend trip or to hit the bar with some friends.That’s the kind of money you use to buy someone, to pay them off for something horrible you did.
But before I can respond, Andrew’s door opens and his wife’s head spins toward the sound.I manage to get out, “Give him hell,” before she smiles at me and storms into his office.
I breathe a sigh of relief and silently thank her for that smile she ended with.She knows it’s not me.
I stick around long enough to catch bits and pieces of their conversation, where Andrews shouts that the money shouldn’t have been taken out of their joint account, and that his lawyer fucked up.
His wife keeps demanding to know who the money went to and I try to catch what he says but everything is now muffled; the adjoining door closed.
My phone rings out again, cutting into their conversation and they both fall silent as if they remember I’m in the next room.Not wanting to be any more a part of this than I already am, I silence my phone and hightail it to the elevators.
When the elevator doors close, I fall back against the wall and suck in a deep breath.Maybe now that Andrew’s wife is involved this whole thing will go away quietly on its own.
As I’m exiting the elevator the security guard from the building is entering, but he’s in a hurry, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s been called to my floor to deal with Andrew and his furious wife.
But I don’t give it a ton of thought, because right now I can’t wait to get home and tell Ryan and Finn what just happened.The former detective in Ryan will be thrilled to hear about an attempted cover up, and with Finn, he’ll be just as thrilled to know that the heat is hopefully off me for a bit.
I check my phone as I take my seat on the train, remembering it was going off during the standoff, and I notice Joe called twice.I move to the next train car so I can give him a call back.
I generally sit in the silent car so I can work on things for my side job without distractions, but today, this call is probably more important.I’m even excited to tell him what just happened.
Joe’s phone rings once and goes straight to voicemail, something I recall as commonplace when Ryan was in Joe’s role.I’m sure he’s out working on a case, in a debriefing or interviewing a witness.
I leave him a short message just asking him to call when he gets a chance, because hearing what Joe found out doesn’t seem to be as pressing of an issue as it was before.
I finish up my plans for the pub on the rest of my ride home and by the time I reach the Rockport station, I still haven’t heard from Joe.I exit the train, and just as I’m about to start my walk home, Ryan’s car pulls up.
He rolls down the window and shouts to me, “Get in!”He’s smiling and I know it’s because he wants me to thank him for being such an awesome big brother.He’s all about boosting his ego and giving me a hard time.
“I usually walk home,” I call back, but walk over to his car.The weather is finally getting nice enough that I can walk home from the station, but Finn still usually drives me over in the morning.
When I reach the car door, opening it and climbing in to Ryan’s SUV, he says, “Yeah I know, but Finn told me what happened with Carla last night and neither of us are taking any chances.”
“Thanks.I guess I didn’t really think about that.It was super creepy.”
I’m pretty glad he picked me up because I can tell him all about the office drama that went down today and what he thinks about it.
“So, something crazy happened at work today,” I start and Ryan immediately turns to look at me.
