Page 39 of Earned Husband

“Alex isn’t a Thayer,” I said. “It’s none of his business whether or not I want a beautiful woman to feel trapped into a marriage with me.”

“I hear you, but technically, it’s very much his busi?—”

The office door suddenly opened again, without any warning this time, and Jane walked in, her jaw tight and her cheeks pale. “We’ve got a problem. Come with me.”

She didn’t say another word, simply turning and walking toward the conference room. Isaac and I shared a glance, but both of us rose without another word and followed her. When we walked in, the head of our legal team was already on the screen.

Like Jane, Richard Howell looked like he hadn’t slept properly since the previous presidential administration, but to be fair, he’d been handling our family’s legal disasters for years. I suspected we were responsible for any stress-related health issues he might wind up suffering from.

“Richard,” Jane said, taking a seat. “Tell them.”

“Boys, I have some big news,” he said without hesitating. “It’s just not necessarily good.”

Isaac dropped into the chair next to Jane, but I remained standing, my arms folded and my entire being bracing for whatever the hell had gone wrong this time. Richard leaned forward, closer to his laptop, his elbows flat against his desk.

“As you know, the Feds have spent the last few years investigating where all the money went your father was accused of funneling away,” he said. “They’ve finally found something. An offshore account they believe contains a substantial amount of Thayer funds.”

I stiffened. “How substantial?”

“Potentially hundreds of millions,” Jane answered on Richard’s behalf. “We don’t know yet, but if it’s all there, it’s a lot.”

Isaac swore under his breath while I just stared at the screen. What they were talking about was the possibility that finally, after all these years, they’d found it. All of it. Hundreds of millions that’d vanished years ago.

The investigation Richard was referring to was the reason why none of our family’s assets—our trust funds included—had ever been released. If this account they’d found contained allthat money, then that meant that this was it. This could finally be the end.

Except…

“Whose name is on the account?” I asked.

Richard grimaced. “That’s the problem. It’s not a name any of us recognize.”

Jane frowned. “So it’s a shell identity?”

He shrugged. “Possibly.”

She was quiet for a moment, clearly thinking it over before I saw realization cross her features. “Mallory. It’s got to be her. Is there any way to tie her to it?”

“We don’t know,” he replied. “At this point, the investigation is entirely in federal hands and Mallory Foundry is still missing.”

My lips tightened into a hard line.That fucking woman.

They’dhadher. She’d beenhere. They’d arrested her. Her trial was coming up.

That had been the first time I’d thought it was really, finally almost over, but then a judge had decided that there hadn’t been enough evidence to hold her. All along, I’d thought it was bullshit, but even our own lawyers had agreed that we needed more evidence. We’d found some, but nothing like this.

Nothing like an offshore account that could contain every remaining penny she’d taken. I just didn’t get how we could still be playing international hide-and-seek with my father’s former mistress.

“Her last known location places her somewhere in the Mediterranean in the company of a shipping magnate’s son.”

Isaac snorted. “That sounds like her.”

“When he was interviewed, he claimed he had no idea who Mallory is,” Richard said dryly. “We still don’t know what happened to the man she claimed to Alex was her husband. We just don’t know much of anything about what she’s been up to.”

Jane sighed. “What about the kid, Court Junior?”

“I still think it’s ridiculous that he’s named that when DNA tests have proven Dad isn’t the kid’s father,” I muttered. “God, this woman is messy.”

My sister nodded but waved me off. “Could we somehow use him to track her down?”