“Did he say why?” I say.
“That part he didn’t get into. I swear to you. And I tried to push him on it. No job is worth that kind of stress…”
I look back into Elenor’s office, Elenor still staring at her computer, Bailey pacing back and forth.
“Thanks for letting me know.”
“Wait… there’s something else.”
I can hear him struggle. I can hear him struggle with how to even put the words together.
“There’s something else I need to tell you.”
“Just say it, Carl.”
“We didn’t invest in The Shop, Patty and me,” he says.
I think back to what Patty said to me—how she called Owen a crook, how she accused him of stealing their money.
“I don’t understand.”
“I needed to use that money for something else, something I couldn’t tell Patty about, something to do with Cara,” he says.
Cara. The coworker Carl’s b
een involved with on and off since before Sarah was born.
“What exactly?” I say.
“I’d rather not get into details, but I thought you should know that…” he says.
I can imagine a variety of scenarios that would cost him tens of thousands of dollars—the one percolating to the surface involves another baby, in another BabyBjörn, who also belongs to him. To both of them.
But I’m guessing and I don’t have time to guess. I also don’t particularly care. What I care about is that Owen didn’t do what Patty accused him of doing. It almost feels like a kind of proof—a piece lining up to help me prove it to myself—Owen is still Owen.
“So, even with what’s going on, you’re letting your wife think that Owen took the money from you? That he convinced you to invest your savings in a fraudulent company?”
“I realize it’s messed up,” he says.
“You think?”
“Can I at least get some points for telling the truth?” he says. “This is the last conversation I want to be having.”
I think of Patty, self-righteous Patty, telling her book club, her wine club, her tennis group—telling just about anyone in ladies central who will listen to her that Owen is a crook. Telling everyone the false information her husband has fed her.
“No, Carl, the last conversation you want to be having is the one you are about to have. With your wife. Because either you’re going to tell her the truth or I’ll do it for you.”
This is when I hang up, my heart racing. I don’t give myself time to process the implications of what he’s told me because Bailey is motioning for me to come back in.
I pull myself together and walk back into Elenor’s office. “Sorry about that,” I say.
“That’s quite all right,” Elenor says. “I’m just pulling everything up…”
Bailey starts to move around the desk toward Elenor, but Elenor stops her with her hand.
“Let me just print the records out,” she says. “And you can have a look. But I do need to get to that meeting, so you’re going to have to move quickly for me.”
“We will,” I say.