Liam was right about one thing—reputation mattered. It was how people judged you. And sometimes, you could use it to help them misjudge you.
* * *
DONALDSON SEEMED LIKE a nice enough guy when he came into her office. Held out his hand. Gripped hers firmly. And took the seat that she waved him toward.
Gabrielle didn’t care if the guy was likable or not.
She cared about what information he could give her.
Liam hadn’t been out of his apartment since the night he’d been served with the restraining order. He’d finished his article. Was working on a second.
And had made travel arrangements for another trip to Florida. He was going to see Tamara, to make certain that she had a chance to get to know him, in case their time together was going to be short. But he’d promised not to leave town until Gabrielle had come up with a defense for him in the event that his father tried to hang him out to dry. He knew the inner workings of his father’s company. And his mind. Gabrielle needed his help.
She wished she’d found the answers already. She wanted him out of the state. Away from the evil that seemed to be lurking just beyond their doors.
Liam was a good man. He didn’t deserve what his father was doing to him.
Filled with a desperation she couldn’t entirely contain, she faced Kyle Donaldson as though her life depended on the knowledge he could give her.
While she had the entire file of paperwork on the account that Liam had finalized in Donaldson’s absence all those years ago, she didn’t ask him about it.
“When you knew you were going to lose your home in foreclosure, even before that, when the housing market collapsed and you knew the home you’d purchased wasn’t going to hold its value, why didn’t you go to Walter Connelly and ask him for help?” she asked instead. “I understand the company had a one-time buyback program for its top executives.”
She’d done her homework. And couldn’t afford to be played for a fool. Donaldson’s response would tell her something about him. And perhaps about Walter, too.
Liam was counting on her to get this right. And she had to succeed. More than with any other client. She was in love with the man. There was no getting around the fact anymore.
Just as she knew, with every fiber of her being, that she’d never be in a romantic relationship with him. He’d hurt her. And live with the guilt for the rest of his life.
Besides, she’d made a very clear personal decision over the past few days. She’d rather live with unrequited love than see her love for Liam turn to hate. As it would if she gave in to her feelings for him and it didn’t work out.
She’d rather live with unrequited love than hurt Marie and lose the family the three of them had formed.
“I did go to the company.” Donaldson brought her firmly back to the conversation at hand. She hadn’t expected that response. “I applied for the buyback. I was told there were no funds left in the program.”
Interesting. She made a note. So had whoever had been running the Ponzi scheme been short of cash before? And had this person been siphoning off from other viable Connelly accounts?
“I was also told that if I took the matter any further, I could expect my walking papers.” He then proceeded to tell her about the Schlotsky deal. Gabrielle sat and listened to the entire story as though she’d never heard it before. Donaldson told it exactly as Liam had. “While I hadn’t fudged those figures—I’d kept my own copy of the paperwork, even though that was against company policy, so I couldn’t provide them or I’d be fired—I had been preoccupied and failing to keep my mind on my work. I’d completely forgotten the appointment with the Schlotsky brothers.”
“So what does this have to do with the buyback request being turned down and you being warned not to take the matter any further?”
She only asked the question for confirmation of what she’d already surmised.
The tall, suited man with short gray hair shrugged, wearing an expression similar to the one Gabrielle had seen on Liam’s face the other night at the table. An expression she didn’t want to see on Liam’s face ever again. It broke her heart.
Donaldson looked beaten.
As had Liam.
“I’d been forgiven for my lapse in the Schlotsky deal, but the paperwork was there, ready to support my dismissal, if I wanted to push things.”
The man had spent the past several years living under a gauntlet.
“I just have one more question.”
He nodded.
“Who made this threat?”