Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 99748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
This whole debacle is going to be lighter fluid on an already burning fire, making the entire town angry with not just Jed and Chrissy, but Francine on top of it.
“Afraid so. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jed is hiding money, and with construction ongoing, he could easily hide more, so I can understand where Chrissy’s coming from. But hitting pause is going to hurt. Badly.” Letting that sink in, I tap my fingers on my notes. “There’s more, and all that’s not even the weirdest part.”
“Money stashes and letting construction sit idle because Jed couldn’t keep it in his pants isn’t the weird part?” Ben asks. “What else could there be?”
I look at him wryly. “Remember, you asked.” Francine swats at the air as though backhanding Ben for jinxing us. It’s not his fault, though, so I drop the bomb. “Chrissy wants the construction company in the divorce.”
Francine laughs as though I told a hilarious joke, sounding like Muttley as she runs out of oxygen. “She hasn’t worked a day in her life! I don’t begrudge her that, seeing as I could happily spend my days in a lounge chair with a good book and a margarita. But now she wants to start working?”
That’s not it at all. Chrissy’s reasoning is all about hurting Jed the way he’s hurt her, and taking away something that means everything to him. But the “why” really doesn’t matter in the scope of what we need to focus on.
“What’s our move?” Ben goes straight to the point, only concerned with one thing . . . what can we do to help mitigate the impact of this on our town?
“I’ve got a call in to the property tax assessor’s office requesting a full list of properties owned by Jed, Chrissy, and joint holdings. Both lawyers are going to want that, so we might as well speed the process up a bit, given that they’re public records.” I wait for Ben and Francine to nod their agreement. “And Oliver is requesting a forensic accounting of their bank and business accounts. We can’t do anything to speed that up, unfortunately. That’s totally out of our hands, but I could try filing an amicus brief with the court to see if they’ll urge things along a bit—”
Francine interrupts to ask, “Can we have the bank pull records on properties too? We know where the loan is held for Township at least.”
I shake my head. “Against banking laws. They can’t share any of that without a court order or consent, so it’ll have to come from Oliver. Which leads me to the other thing worrying me . . . I still haven’t heard a peep from Jed’s lawyer. Not even a name, and we all know Jed’s making plans. Ones that will serve him best, and fuck all the rest.”
Ben offers to call a few old friends and see if he can figure out which firm is representing Jed. “There’s not many of that caliber, and even less of the style he’d go for.”
“Expensive, cutthroat devil,” Francine summarizes.
I look through my notes. “I think that’s all we can do for now, but we need to stay on top of this. This has the potential to go bad really fast, especially with Jed involved.”
We’re all thinking about the myriad of ways Jed always looks out for himself, no matter the cost to anyone else. Cold Springs has paid the price before, and I won’t let that happen again.
“Agreed. I’d really like to hit that man where it hurts,” Francine adds, doing a few air punches for good measure. There’s a bang beneath her desk, and I realize she must’ve been doing some knee strikes and kicks, too, with her air-fighting moves. “Ouch!” she hisses. Frowning, she glares at the desk like it attacked her instead of the other way around. “This isn’t over, Mr. Ford.”
I kinda wonder if she thinks the desk is actually Jed, or if she’s simply pretending. With Francine, there’s no telling for sure.
“Good job, Wren.”
I dip my chin in acknowledgment of Ben speaking, but don’t truly accept his approval. His praise usually reassures me, giving me a boost to keep at whatever I’m doing. This time, despite my proactivity this morning, the compliment doesn’t feel earned, not after the Oliver fiasco. That’s another thing I figured out during my midnight moment of clarity. Ben would never pull some legal-spread-eagle shit during a case. Now is not the time to play attorney privileges with Oliver.
I’ll stick to professional, focused, and politely civil. That’s it, nothing more.
The same holds true for Jesse. I know what I want, and I’m not going to settle for less. I don’t want a casual, uncommitted man who’s only after sex, no matter how amazing that sex might be. And not someone who wants me only when he thinks someone else might.