Penalty Clause (17 page)

Christmas that year was by far the best holiday Jill had ever had. She and Andrew traveled to her parents’ house for the holiday and spent almost a week with them. Andrew and Jill’s parents hit it off immediately. They had met Andrew in the past, of course, but hadn’t seen him in years. Jill was happy to see her parents
really liked Andrew.

Andrew spent time with Jill’s dad in her father’s garage playing around with a car he was restoring.
She and her mom looked through wedding magazines and Jill was relieved that this visit had come after she and Andrew had acknowledged they loved one another. The thought of facing her parents had seemed daunting when her wedding was more about a contract between two good friends than love.

With Andrew’s love and support behind her, Jill was happy to bury herself in wedding plans and
hopes for future babies.

Andrew had surprised Jill on Christmas morning with an antique box camera he
’d found on Etsy and had restored for Jill. It was by far the most thoughtful present Jill had ever received. Jill had printed several of the shots she’d captured during their trip to Big Bend and had them framed for Andrew’s office.

Jill and Andrew sat on the back swing on her parents’ porch. They snuggled together with mugs of mulled wine to keep their hands warm a
nd they rocked lazily in the crisp evening air. Jill felt completely at peace. Content. It was hard to believe that she had felt so off-kilter just a few months earlier, as if her whole world had been rocked and she would never find her axis again. Now, Jill knew that Andrew
was
her axis. Her whole world hadn’t truly ever been in balance before him.

Jill let out a soft mewl of happiness as she let her hand play up and down Andrew’s stomach, to his chest and back down again. The feel of his strong arms around her and his warm body pressed against hers had Jill almost dozing off to sleep as they rocked.

***

“I think I want six.” Andrew really wanted four kids, but he figured he’d start the conversation at six so Jill would have some room to talk him down.

“Hmm? Six what?” Jill asked. She didn’t raise her head from Andrew’s side.

“Six kids.” Now Jill’s head came up.

“Six! Are you crazy? I’m thirty-five years old, Andrew. When do you think I’m going to pop out these six babies?” Jill sounded indignant. Andrew laughed.

“Five?”
He countered.

“Two,” Jill said.

“Four and a half?” Andrew asked.

“Half?”

“Well, that’s how you negotiate. I gotta have something left to throw away after you make your next bid,” Andrew explained.

“Three. That’s it, mister. Three.” Jill laid her head back down on Andrew’s chest.

Andrew waited a few beats, letting the swing soothe Jill back to her lazy, relaxed state.

“Okay. Four,” Andrew said quietly.

He heard Jill’s soft laugh against his chest. Andrew pulled her tighter and kicked his legs to keep the slow rhythm of the swing going.

Chad walked past Jennie’s desk at noon the first day back at work after Christmas. He paused and leaned down so that only Jennie would hear his words.

“Stay late tonight? We got the go ahead from Jack and Human Resources.”

Jennie nodded at him and he kept walking.

***

Jennie met Chad in his office at the end of the day. She knocked once and opened the door to his answering grunt.

“Hey,” Jennie said, tugging the door shut behind her. “Theresa just left. There are a few people left on the other side of the building but everyone over here has left for the day. If you keep watch while I go through her desk, we should be okay.”

Chad didn’t say anything. He just shut down his computer and stood up, waiting for Jennie to go back through the door to the outer offices.

Jennie walked over to Theresa’s desk while Chad placed himself in a spot that let him see down the hallway to the rest of the offices but also allowed him to watch Jennie. She quickly began opening desk drawers.

“Did you get her computer password in case we need it?” Jennie asked quietly. Everyone had their computers password protected, but the tech department kept the passwords on file and all employees knew their computers could be accessed by the company
without notice.

Chad grimaced. “TWESTON.”

It took Jennie a minute to process that.
Ugh. Not good.

The third drawer Jennie opened got them what they needed. A folder sat underneath the intra-company phone directory. Jennie opened it to scan the contents and gave Chad a nod.

Jennie shut the drawer, file in hand, and both she and Chad slipped back into his office. Jennie spread out the contents of the folder on Chad’s desk.

There were several printouts of email messages that supposedly showed communications from Jill to Kelly
. The emails showed Jill bragging about getting Andrew to sign a prenuptial agreement, then detailed information about Andrew’s accounts and property he owned.

“This isn’t Kelly’s email address and I’m willing to bet this isn’t Jill’s either,” Jennie said.

Chad flipped through the pages of emails. There was an invoice from a private investigator. The invoice was written to Jill Walsh and charged $550 for investigative work regarding Andrew Weston’s personal financial records.

There were several newspaper clippings that mentioned or featured Andrew. They dated back as far as a year.

The last item in the folder was a prenuptial agreement between Jill and Andrew. Chad flipped through to the final page of the contract and read the signatures.

“This looks real. It’s Andrew’s signature, at least
. He also told me about the prenup,” Chad said.

“Then she probably
had
just come out of Andrew’s office when I saw her that day. This other stuff all looks fake. She’s setting Jill up, I’d guess. Trying to make it look like Jill is after Andrew’s money?” Jennie voiced what they were both thinking.

“I’ll see if Andrew and Jill can meet us over at Jack’s,” Chad said.

***

Jack and Kelly’s housekeeper, Mrs. Poole showed Jennie and Chad into the living room, where Jack, Kelly, Andrew and Jill waited.

“I’ll have dinner ready in about thirty minutes,” Mrs. Poole said before leaving the room. She obviously loved to mother everyone whenever she had the chance.

Chad handed Andrew the folder Jennie had found and Andrew and Jill sat side by side flipping through the contents. Jill gasped when she saw the emails in the folder, but before she could speak, Andrew did.

“The emails are fakes. I’m guessing the invoice from the private investigator is fake, too. Jill didn’t hire him, but it’s possible Theresa posed as Jill and hired him. The newspaper articles and the prenuptial agreement are real. The prenup was filed in my office,” Andrew said.

Jill smiled up at him, warmth spreading through her at the realization that he hadn’t questioned the veracity of the materials for even a second. There wasn’t a shred of doubt about her loyalty to him anywhere in his voice. There wasn’t a hint of question in his eyes when he leaned in and kissed her gently.

“I called Jarrod and asked him to meet us here. He should be here soon,” Chad said as Andrew passed the folder over so Jack could look through. Jarrod Harmon was a friend of Chad’s on the police force. “When we found this, I had to wonder if Theresa might have had something to do with Debbie’s mysterious mugging and Patty’s hit and run.”

“Oh, My God, do you really think she’d do that?” Jill asked.

“I’ve seen the way she watches Andrew,” Jennie said. “And I saw the way she looked at you at the holiday party. If given the chance, I think she would have torn you apart, Jill. It was scary.”

Before Jill could answer, Mrs. Poole showed
Jarrod into the living room. The tall, lean man’s face looked grim.

“I ran a little check on Theresa Sawyer and her car matches the description of the car that hit your employee last month. I was also able to look a little further back in her record than your typical employee background check goes. It was a long time ago, but she does have some charges against her. There were a couple of trespassing charges and a breaking and entering charge. Those are often charges we see on the records of stalkers,”
Jarrod said.

Andrew handed
Jarrod the folder. Jarrod flipped through the materials, scanning quickly. His eyebrows went up and he looked at Andrew. “You signed this?” Jarrod asked, indicating the prenup.

Andrew laughed and Jill’s cheeks flushed.
Jarrod was looking at the page with the penalty clause. “It was a tactical decision,” Andrew said with a squeeze of Jill’s hand.

“Remind me never to hire you to negotiate for me,”
Jarrod said while the others laughed.

The group sobered as
Jarrod shut the folder and brought them back around to the business at hand.

“Based on this, the make and model of Theresa’s car, and the connection of the victims to Andrew and Theresa, I’m going to see if I can get a warrant to search Theresa’s home. I’m not sure it will be enough, but I’ll see what I can do. I’ll call you guys as soon as I know anything,”
Jarrod said.

Dinner was a little quieter than it normally was with so many friends at the table. Kelly and Jennie worked to keep up chatter about wedding dresses, cakes and caterers but there was a layer of tension beneath the surface that everyone seemed to feel. As they helped Mrs. Poole clear away the plates and cleanup, Chad’s phone rang. He left the room to talk for a few minutes, before returning to report to the group.

“Jarrod convinced a judge to give him a search warrant. Theresa wasn’t around when they executed it. They found a knife that may match the knife used on Debbie and it has some trace blood on it. It’ll take a long time to process through the lab, though. They’re hoping to find her car so they can test for blood on the bumper but so far, Theresa hasn’t turned up,” Chad reported.

“Anything else?” Andrew asked as he wrapped his arms around Jill in a protective shell.

“Uh. Yeah.” Chad looked uncomfortable as he glanced at Jill before continuing. “They found a lot of stuff about Andrew. Newspaper clippings. Pictures. Some from around the office and some taken around your condo. A few pictures of you at Nora’s house. There are pictures of Jill, too. A journal with a whole bunch of bizarre ramblings. Uh, stuff about you and Theresa being made for each other, signs you send to her to let her know you love her even though you have to be with Jill. Weird shit.”

Andrew was quiet for a minute.

“I think we should get out of here for the weekend. We can all go up to the cabin. If the police haven’t found Theresa by Monday, we can figure something else out, but let’s just get out of harm’s way for the weekend?” Andrew said.

“Works for me. Work for you guys?” Chad asked as he looked around the room to nods and murmurs of agreement.

After making plans to leave the following morning, Jill and Andrew returned to her house for a tense night that provided very little sleep.

Theresa seethed as she let her car roll to a stop outside her office building. Luckily for her, she
’d spotted the police in her apartment last night when she got home. She’d been able to sneak back to her car and leave before they saw her. She wasn’t sure yet if it would be safe for her to go to work, but her doubts were confirmed when she saw the police car in front of the building.

That fucking
slut. What did Andrew’s little whore do now? This had to be linked to her. Andrew would never betray me. Our love is too strong for that. This could only be his fucking whore at work.

Theresa drove around to the back of the building and entered the parking garage. She drove past Andrew’s reserved parking spot.

Empty.

So were the spots reserved for Chad Thompson and Jack
Sutton.
The cabin.
They must have all gone up to the ski cabin together.

Well, I’ll just go to the ski house, too.

It was time to take care of the fiancé, Theresa’s way. No more waiting for Andrew to see the bitch for what she was. For all his wonderful qualities, Theresa had to admit, Andrew was a bit weak when it came to whatever hold his little whore had on him. He was weak and blind and, apparently, unable to act on his own. But that was all right. That’s what Andrew had Theresa for. It was why they were so good together. They complemented one another so well. What Andrew couldn’t bring himself to do, Theresa could. For Andrew, she could do it. She would take care of the damn whore.

***

Missy listened to Jake’s voice through the phone but had a hard time believing what he said.

How could he do this to me after what we’ve shared? I just don’t understand this.

“You can’t mean that, Jake,” Missy said, pleading with him again.

“I do mean it, Missy. It’s over. I’m working on getting my marriage back on track. I’m getting back together with Jill,” came Jake’s answer.

“But, you divorced her, Jake. It’s not like it was just a separation. The divorce is final. You divorced her for me. For us. So we could be together.”

“I’m sorry, Missy. I made a mistake. You need to understand that. I can’t be with you anymore,” Jake said.

Missy heard the line go dead and knew Jake had hung up. She just stared at the phone. This conversation hadn’t gone any differently than the last ten times she had called him over the past few weeks. She tried to go on without him and she would do well for a few days, but then she lose her resolve and call again. She knew she needed to keep trying. She had to think about her baby. Their baby.

Jake
had broken things off with her as soon as he found out she was pregnant. She’d been stunned. Numb for weeks.

Was it really possible he could be so cruel? So brutally cold as to leave her and try to work things out with his
ex-wife just when Missy found out she was pregnant with his child? How had she miscalculated so severely? How could she have been so wrong about the kind of person he was? About his love for her?

Missy slipped her phone in her pocket. She would need to go talk to Jill. If she told Jill about the baby and asked Jill to step aside, to let Missy and Jake be together for the sake of the
ir baby, maybe she could convince Jake to come back to her. To his family.

Missy drove almost blindly to the address she had for Jill. She had seen the
directions written on a notepad in Jake’s office one day. When she asked why he needed Jill’s address, he’d told her he had to take over some paperwork related to the divorce to Jill. Now Missy wondered if he’d been visiting Jill all along.

Missy parked a block away and walked over. She needed to gather her courage to do this. She knew Jill would see her as a
homewrecker. As the mistress. But that wasn’t what Missy was. Not really. She had never intended to fall for Jake. He was just so convincing. Before she knew it, she had fallen in love and there wasn’t any turning back.

But turn back was what Missy wanted to do now. She stood across from Jill’s house, hands in her pockets watching, thinking, trying to muster up the courage to walk up the driveway and ask Jill to let go of the man Missy loved.