“Where is she now, Mrs. Renee? How do we get in contact with her?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “She and I are not close. I don’t even know where she lives and I don’t want to know. I want a divorce from Larry. I’m not letting Larry take me down with him.” She took a deep breath. “I suppose it’s my penance for splitting up his first marriage. This is the price I had to pay. That’s how karma goes. You can’t ruin a marriage and expect your marriage to go perfectly.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“It’s not something I publicized.” She laughed bitterly. “Though in that group of friends it didn’t mean much. All of those men were cheats and liars.”
“I’m sorry.” I could see she was near the breaking point. “Do you have anything for me? Larry said that you might have something to give to me.”
She stared at me for a few seconds, her pupils dilating as she turned around. “Come with me quickly.” She walked toward the house, and Jakob and I followed her inside. She walked into the kitchen, grabbed an envelope off the counter, and handed it to me. “Larry said to give this to you. He said you’d know what to do.” I took hold of the envelope, but she held on to it tightly without letting it go. “Think carefully before you make your next step, Bianca. There are people watching everything.”
“I’ll be careful, Mrs. Renee.” I nodded. “I promise.”
“Don’t come back here.” She shook her head. “I don’t want anything to do with any of this anymore.”
“I have one last question for you, please,” I begged as she took a step back.
“What is it?” She looked around suspiciously again.
“Do you know anything about Maxwell, the third partner in Bradley, London, and Maxwell?”
She stared at me for a second, her face twisting as she laughed, an odd, loud sound from her petite body.
I recoiled in shock. “Mrs. Renee?”
“They were all thick as thieves, you know. Thick as thieves and too smart for their own good. Not a one of them was good.” She glanced at me and then at Jakob. “Not a one of them.”
“Not a one of who?” I asked quietly.
“Not Bradley, not London, and not Maxwell.” She shook her head. “What a twisted, twisted web they wove.”
“But what about Maxwell?” I ignored her comments about my father. I didn’t even want to know what she was talking about. She didn’t know my father. My father was a good man. My father had been cheated on. He’d been devastated. He had tried the best that he could.
“Maxwell got the last laugh, didn’t he?” She chuckled. “He screwed us all.”
“What are you talking about?” I could feel my heart racing. “How did he screw us all?”
“What are you talking about, Mrs. Renee?” Jakob took a step forward and grabbed her wrist. “Tell us what you mean.”
“You’re Jakob Bradley.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “How ironic that you’re here with her.” She laughed.
“Mrs. Renee.” Jakob’s voice grated like a knife in the air and his expression was hostile, even arrogant, as he stared at her.
“Mrs. Renee, why did Maxwell’s wife contact you both and threaten you?” My voice cut through the tension in the room. She looked at me blankly. “When I was here last time, you said that Maxwell’s wife had threatened you.” She glanced at me again for a second without speaking, then turned to face Jakob again.
“My husband was the one who decided on the name Mattias,” she said softly. “It wasn’t your father. My husband had a thing about names. He liked to be clever.”
“Mrs. Renee—” Jakob started again.
She squared her shoulders and looked at both of us with sad eyes. “That’s my name.” She nodded her head. “You both need to leave now. Good-bye.” She turned around and walked back to the front of the house.
“Should we—” I started.
Jakob cut me off as we walked down the corridor and through the front door. Mrs. Renee slammed it behind us without another word.
“What’s in the envelope?” He pulled the envelope out of my hands.
“What are you doing?” I frowned and tried to grab it back.
“What’s in the envelope?” He glared at me and ripped it open. “Why didn’t you tell me we were coming here for a purpose?”
“I didn’t know if you would think it was a good idea, what with not trusting Larry at all.”
“I don’t trust Larry, and I don’t think that whatever is in the envelope is there for good intentions.”