Once Upon a Friendship

“He had file folders with these same labels in both desks back in Denver,” she told the room at large. Missy was at her sewing machine table, going through a midsize moving box of things. Presumably Walter’s.

Liam had left to clear out his father’s side of the closet he’d shared with Missy. She’d asked him to do so.

Gabrielle had watched Liam all morning, her heart aching for him, the need to hold him growing stronger with every hour that passed.

“It would have been hard to keep track of everything if he had different filing systems everywhere.” Tamara interrupted her thoughts.

“I’m surprised he didn’t just use the computer,” Missy added. “I kept telling him that he could keep things in the cloud and have access to them wherever he was.”

“People who are doing illegal things aren’t going to put their stuff out on a cloud, Mom. Everyone knows clouds can be hacked.”

“We don’t know for sure he’s guilty.” Gabrielle felt oddly compelled to remind the girl. “He swore to me that he’s innocent.”

Tamara looked up, a sweet, vulnerable expression in her gaze. “Do you think he’s being framed?”

“I don’t think so,” Liam said softly, coming into the room carrying a large suitcase, which he put down as he crossed over to Tamara. “You and I are proof of his duplicity. All these years, I’ve had a sister, and he didn’t tell me. If he can rob us of a relationship, he’s certainly capable of robbing investors...”

With one hand on her shoulder, he looked over at Missy, who’d stopped what she was doing. A small pile of mementos: ticket stubs, photographs, brochures, even a room key, lay beside her. “You said I could speak freely?” Liam asked.

“Of course. I’d prefer that we hear things from you rather than on the news. Some of Tamara’s friends have met Walter. They might recognize him if his picture gets out there.”

“They’ll recognize his name, won’t they?” Gabrielle asked.

Missy shook her head. “When Walter was with us he was just... Walter,” she said.

“He said he could just be himself when he was home with us,” Tamara explained, looking from Liam to Gabrielle.

“It seemed really important to him.”

Gabrielle had wondered about the nice, obviously costly but quite small cottage that Walter had called home when he’d visited Florida. She’d assumed, until that morning, that he’d stayed in the hotel suite he’d rented every time he came to Florida. She’d seen the bills...

“Yet he wouldn’t let me have a normal life,” Liam said. “He took away my car for a year because I wanted to live in a dorm.”

“You were his golden boy, Liam,” Missy said. “You were everything he was not. You’d been born to money. Raised to know nothing but the good life.”

He looked at Gabrielle. She’d never needed so badly to wrap her arms around him. And pushed the sensation away. Far away. “It makes sense,” she told him. “He left his harsh beginnings behind when he had you.”

“Except for Buckus,” Liam said.

Gabrielle picked up the Florida file she’d found on the man, eager to get a look inside. Based on what she’d seen in the Colorado file the night before...

“I think they were closer than you realized,” she said, getting ready to tell him more when Missy interrupted.

“Ray Buckus?”

“You know him?” Liam’s gaze was sharp as he glanced at the other woman.

“Who’s that?” Tamara looked between her mother and newfound brother. At just five feet and in skinny jeans and a T-shirt, the blonde looked vulnerable enough to be blown over in a big storm.

“He works for your father,” Missy said.

“He grew up with him.” That was from Liam.

Missy’s hands were trembling. “I didn’t know that.”

“So who is this Buckus guy?” Tamara asked, her tone giving no indication of the obvious nervousness in her gaze as she looked at her mother.

“Have you ever met him?” Gabrielle asked Missy.