“Hey,” I said as I rubbed his thigh. “Are you all right?”
“Not really,” he said, his eyes glued to the freeway ahead of him as we made our way back to Salem.
“Wanna tell me what’s going on in your head?”
He didn’t answer me right away, but I let him think his thoughts through, not in any hurry. “I almost jumped over the table at that defense lawyer. I wanted to punch him right in his assuming face.”
“Whoa. Wait, what?” My head snapped to the side to look at him. His face was scrunched up in anger now. I obviously was not doing a great job of calming him down.
“He was insinuating that you were involved in the embezzlement, Ella.”
I thought back to his question and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. In the moment I had been so surprised by the question I didn’t really process it fully, then they started asking a million other questions and I never gave it much more thought. Sure, Kyle had taken advantage of me and my trust and stolen money from me, but I hadn’t found out until he died. And even then, I really didn’t dig for information about it. It didn’t matter to me anymore. He was dead and the threat was gone. Was it the smartest decision not to investigate how he was able to steal so much money from me? Probably not, but at that moment in my life, I was in self-preservation mode. I was more concerned with not drowning in a pool of darkness having taken a human life, than trying to figure out the logistics of embezzlement. Not once had it occurred to me that someone might think I had been involved.
“Why would I embezzle money out of my own business?” I was shocked by the accusation.
“Tax evasion,” he answered quickly. He was obviously three steps ahead of my in the thought process.
“Tax evasion?”
“Yeah, the less revenue you bring in, the less you have to claim on your taxes and you could fall into a lower tax bracket.”
“Wait, you don’t think . . .”
“No, Ella. Don’t even ask that question.” He interrupted, not even letting me finish.
“You have to know I couldn’t ever pull something like that off.”
“Ella, there are many reasons why I know you weren’t involved in illegal affairs involving your business, but your capability isn’t one of them. You’re a very smart woman and just because you haven’t used your intelligence to commit crimes doesn’t mean you couldn’t.” He gave me a grin. I couldn’t quite figure out if he was giving me a compliment or not, but regardless I was glad his scowl had taken a break.
“Well, capable or not, I still don’t know how he managed to steal the money.”
“Do you want to know how?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t, not in the past, but after today I think maybe I should find out. I don’t want anyone else to think these terrible things about me.” My mind raced, suddenly consumed with questions. How did he get the money from Poppy without me knowing? What did he do with the money? Where is all the money now? I felt a warm, strong hand on my thigh, this time he was trying to comfort me.
“Don’t go slipping away from me again.”
I gave him a little smile. “I’m not. I’m just thinking about it now, wondering how it all happened.”
“We can hire an investigator. We can get those answers.”
I nodded at him. “Ok. I think that would be best, don’t you?”
“If it brings you more peace of mind than stress, then yes, I think it would be a good idea.”
“Ok, let’s do it.” It seemed like even though Kyle was gone and buried, recently, he was being resurrected a little more every day. I took a few deep breaths in, trying to manage the panic before it had a chance to get out of hand. Panic, for me, was funny because half the anxiety came from the fear of the events, but the other half came from the fear of living my life this way for the rest of eternity. The panic was triggered by thinking about what had happened, but then it continued because I didn’t want to live my life this way.
I knew high blood pressure was not good for the baby, and I could tell the stress was affecting the little person in my belly because I felt a foot poke out right by my ribcage. I took a few more calming breaths and rubbed my belly, trying my best to comfort the baby I couldn’t hold yet.
“You ok? Baby ok?” He split his focus between the freeway and my face, giving me worried looks.
“I’m fine, Babe. We’re fine, just a big kick. I’ve been sitting for too long.” I squirmed in my seat, trying to relieve some of the pressure off my tailbone.
“Want me to drop you off at Dahlia? I could pick you up for dinner later.”
“That would be great. Can I opt out of cooking tonight? Maybe we can go out?”