Ruby nodded. “For Julia Kate. College is expensive.”
“And once the SEC is involved, the assets will be frozen if Scott was taking kickbacks or sharing in the profits. If he mingled the money, even the stuff that is legally yours and untainted could be hung up,” Juke added.
I thought about that. “But isn’t the money safer offshore, then?”
“Yeah. But the account isn’t in your name, so you can’t access it. But I have a plan that might work.” Juke leaned back, his eyes clear, his stubble a thing of the past. He looked much healthier and very interested in making my sleazy husband pay. Which I sort of liked about him. About all of them. They’d been scheming while I had been panicking. My heart did a pitty-pat of pleasure.
The gleam in his eye sparked something in me. “You really have a plan to get the money back?”
“Unless you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that I don’t want the money. I’m not stupid. Scott has cheated on me and cheated on his clients. He will pay for his crimes against his clients, but I guess what you’re saying is that if I don’t try to get the money back, if I don’t demand some justice for me and my daughter, he wins against me.”
Griffin kicked his chair back on two legs. They may have actually groaned. “I don’t want him to win, sunshine.”
“So how do I do this?” I asked, setting my lunch bag at my feet.
“A sting!” Ruby said, her lips curving and a sparkle in her eyes.
I frowned. “A sting? That’s the grand plan?”
Juke held up a hand. “So here’s how we think you can do it. When you go to your attorney today, you need to ask for some paperwork. If you have the pictures of him with Stephanie, you can expedite the divorce, just as you learned. You don’t have to play your cards about knowing about the Donner Walker deal or the SEC investigation. In fact, you don’t want your husband to know you have an inkling about his involvement. You’ll show him the photos that I took. Then you’ll tell him he’s busted. Maybe cry a little. Take the conversation emotional so you make him feel bad. Then you’ll give him some papers to sign. One is a waiver of service. Basically, it says he agrees to not be served the divorce papers, and you’ll file that in court. But we also want to see if your attorney can come up with some other forms and things he has to sign. And in the middle of the papers, we’ll slide in an amendment request for the bank account, adding you as an administrator on the offshore account.”
“Wait . . . why would he sign that?” I asked.
“He won’t know. We’ll slip it in,” Ruby said.
“No.” I shook my head. “No way Scott signs anything without reading. He’s a banker, and he always makes a huge deal about reading what he signs. He once even read the Apple agreement on his phone. Only lunatics do that. Besides, it won’t hold up in court. He’ll say I tricked him.”
The three looked at each other again. I had put a pin in their plan.
“But what if we make him nervous so he’s not interested in reading?” Griffin asked.
“How?” I countered.
He paused, lifting his chocolate eyes to the ceiling in thought. “Do you still have the other photos? The ones of Julia Kate?”
I nodded. I had stuck them in the file with all my paperwork for Jackie.
“Has he seen them yet?”
I shook my head. “I haven’t seen him. He spent the night on a ‘friend’s’ couch.”
Ruby looked furious. Like an electric-blue harpy ready to peck Scott to death.
“Good,” Griffin continued with a nod. “So you’re going to ask for the divorce, shed the tears, lay on a guilt trip. He may balk at the papers. True. But you insist that he owes you that much after having an affair. And then you do a little ‘Oh, and by the way, Julia Kate gave me this envelope this morning’ and slide that envelope over to him. We’re going to guess he’s going to be nosy enough to open it. Or you may have to prompt him in some way. Then I’m going to come in and sit down close by. Just watch him. Nothing unnerves someone like a big guy like me staring them down. Once he sees the pictures and I’m really giving him the eye, he’s going to start sweating. He’ll think the scumbag sent me.”
“That doesn’t mean he’ll sign the papers,” I said.
“No. But you can start pressuring him to sign them,” Juke said, wiping his mouth again and leaning forward to tent his hands. “You know him, and you know what to say to get him to sign the waiver. Maybe we can throw some other things in there. Some accounting of property. Maybe a bogus acknowledgment of insurance, stuff like that. Just filler. We’ll make it almost like a closing on a house. You get tired of signing all that junk, so you go on autopilot. And he’ll be wanting to get out of there because Griff’s making him sweat. It could work.”
“And you don’t have to have it done in a court? Seems like you would need—”
“A notary?” Juke asked.
“Guess who’s a notary?” Ruby said, glancing over at Griff.
Griffin grinned at me. “I’ll bring my stamp. And once it’s over, he’ll realize that I’m not some heavy hired by Donner; I’m the notary witnessing the signing. Dak can probably be the witness.”
I sat there for a few seconds wondering if this was the craziest idea I’d ever heard or if it might actually work. Could be both. Probably both. But what did I have to lose? If Scott discovered that I was trying to sneak—
“Wait! I need to access his offshore account. I’ll need the numbers and stuff.”
Juke nodded. “Yeah, so everything hinges on you being able to get the account number and password.”
“If I can get that, can’t I forge his signature anyway? Just move the money?”
Juke nodded. “Well, you could, but you’d be breaking the law. This way, you do it legal. Or at least legal for the bank. And once Scott and Donner get arrested and await trial, he might actually be glad you have access. Unless he really is a heartless bastard who cares nothing for his own daughter. I’m betting you may have married a weak man, Cricket, but you didn’t marry a monster. Once you’re on the account, you’re on the account.”
“I want nothing to do with any money given to him by Donner,” I said, more to myself than to the others in the room. And that was true. I was deeply angry at Scott for his betrayal, and I could justify taking all the money the way he did. But I wasn’t that person. I didn’t want to be that person. I wanted what was mine, to protect me and my daughter, because that was honest money and belonged to me.
“Fine.” Juke shrugged and spun in his chair.
Ruby reached over and set her hand on my arm. “But only if you want to do this. If it isn’t what you want, no big deal. Like you said, you’ll be okay. But if you want what’s yours, you may have to take it.”
I set my free hand atop hers and gave it a squeeze. “I need to think about it. I need to think about how Scott might react. He’s careful in his business dealings, but if he were rattled, he might give in and sign the papers. Maybe.”