Page 98 of Earned Husband

CHAPTER 41

COLIN

Three days after I’d left what certainly felt like the love of my life in Luxor, I was back in Chicago, sitting in a conference room listening to an update from our legal team. On every inhale, I caught the scent of coffee instead of tea, walnut furniture polish instead of roasted nuts on a sidewalk.

Right now, I honestly missed getting yelled at in Arabic. Even Nanna’s most brutal scoldings had been better than this.

“Unfortunately, it looks like Mallory might just walk away from all this a free woman,” Richard, our lead attorney, was saying. “The federal case against her is much weaker than we’d hoped and her legal team is already pushing it to be dismissed for a lack of evidence.”

My teeth ground as I stared at him. This was the worst possible case scenario, learning that they didn’t have even close to what they needed to put her away. After so long, it seemed almost impossible that it could be true, but the look on Richard’s face told me everything I needed to know.

“How?” I asked instead of ranting and raving the way I wanted to, yelling like Nanna about why no one seemed to be capable of doing their fucking jobs. “They’ve had years to buildthis case against her. When we last spoke, everyone was fairly confident that the evidence was solid.”

“That’s because at the time, it looked like it was,” he said somberly. “The issue is that they have no concrete evidence. As things stand, they simply can’t tie her directly to the majority of the crimes we’re trying to pin on her.”

I scoffed. “Excuse me? We’re not trying to pin anything on her. She did it.”

“Youthinkshe did it,” another attorney stressed lightly. “There’s no proof that she is responsible, regardless of what you or the authorities believe.”

I almost snorted. “I appreciate the legal distinction. Thank you. But if there’s no concrete proof, then why the hell did they arrest her in the first place? What has everyone been doing, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for a signed confession to fall in their laps?”

Richard drew in a deep breath. “The prosecution has circumstantial evidence. There are financial irregularities that can be tied to her and they’ve got witness statements that put her in your father’s office at several key moments, but none of it conclusively places her in control of the transactions that were made.”

Jane sighed, gesturing vaguely at the mountain of documents on the table between us all. “So after all this, she could just leave? They might’ve extradited her and brought her back here only for her to be able to get another plane out as soon as the charges are dismissed?”

“It’s possible,” Richard said.

I groaned.Possible. God, I hate that word when it’s coming out of his mouth. It’s just his way of saying that he doesn’t have a fucking clue what’s going to happen.

“The federal government still intends to proceed,” he said after giving the implications of that stupid word a minute tosink in. “However, unless additional evidence surfaces, there is a substantial risk that they will not succeed against her.”

“What does that mean for Court?” Jane asked. “We were counting on her conviction for him to be acquitted of the crimes she committed.”

“Yes, we were,” Richard said. “With things the way they are at the moment, the likelihood of her being convicted and your father being acquitted as a result is low.”

“How low?” I folded my arms. “Is there any chance at all?”

“It’s essentially impossible, Colin.”

My eyes slammed shut. After all these years we’d spent trying to untangle the mess he’d made, he wasn’t going to walk away from this after all. Because if it hadn’t been Mallory, then he’d done it. That was the only possible conclusion.

No matter what we’d thought or how stupidly he’d gone about it, we couldn’t rewrite history. With no evidence tying her to those crimes, it could only have been him.

I didn’t want to believe it, but maybe it was time to start making room for that as a possibility. Maybe the great Court Thayer was, in fact, the criminal everyone thought he was and he’d simply fucked up when he’d been so stupid about it.

“If the criminal case falls apart,” Jane said. “Is it possible for the Thayers to sue Mallory directly?”

Richard nodded. “Of course, but our civil position is significantly weaker. Especially without a criminal conviction.”

Jane frowned. “How so?”

“The vast majority of your evidence against Ms. Foundry concerns personal misconduct,” he said carefully. “She conducted a very public affair with your father, but personal relationships don’t establish financial liability.”

I blew out a heavy breath through my nostrils, utterly incapable of believing this. “Just give it to us straight, Richard. What are you really saying?”

To his credit, this time, he looked right into my eyes when he answered. “What I’m saying is that we’d be left with ahe said, she saidsituation. While her affair with your father might’ve been terribly embarrassing for the family and damaging to your business, we can’t prove that it resulted in direct financial losses.”

“So we could sue her, win, and still not get any money?”