long. “His guy shot videos of me lounging at the pool while the soundtrack had Chris screaming inside. Forget the fact that the drink I held was an iced espresso because I needed the caffeine because we’d been at one of those godawful boring events the night before and Chris had woken up when we came in and hadn’t wanted to go back to sleep, so he was overtired, too, and was screaming because I’d just put him in for a nap. There were videos of me laughing on the phone while, behind me, Chris was in a little floaty thing drifting toward the deep end of the pool.”
“He was alone?” Jay asked in alarm.
Her head whipped his way. “No, he was not alone. The fucking nanny was in the water with him, only she was edited out.”
“Experts can detect editing.”
“I’m sure they can,” she said slowly, as if Jay were the child here, “but when you have the judge and everyone else in your pocket, experts don’t count. Did I mention,” she added sweetly, “that every employee of his has to sign a confidentiality agreement? Did I mention that if any one of them breaks it, he or she becomes unemployable in the state? Did I mention that Carter makes that happen enough, so it’s a lesson for the rest?”
“Well, someone’s speaking up now,” Edward said, reminding us why we were there in the first place.
“Our cook.” Briefly, her voice softened. “She always thought Carter was a bully. She quit after I left.”
“And you know this how?” Jay asked.
“Facebook.”
“So thirteen years later she’s suddenly not afraid of Brandt?”
“Oh, I’m sure she is. But she got her citizenship, and the family she’s with are artists. They’re politically active and not on Carter’s side of the aisle, so if he goes after her, they’ll go after him right back. But she has a special-needs child who must be a special-needs adult by now. I’m sure she needs the money, and I feel bad for her, really I do.” Her eyes went to Ben, voice rising. “But if she talks with someone about this, I’m toast. If word gets back to Carter, it’s all over. I was charged with kidnapping.”
Jay was making rewind motions with his hand. “You’re running away with this, Grace—”
“Well, wouldn’t you?” she cried, starting to get up until I pulled her back. “Kidnapping means prison, with no hope of bail because I’d be a flight risk for sure, and what would happen to my son then, Jay? If my son isn’t locked up himself—big if right now—he would be returned to his so-called rightful guardian, who lies and cheats and steals and is about as transparent as quicksand, all of which is what that asshole would teach my son”—her glazed eyes went to Ben—“my son, who made a gross mistake and needs to pay for it in a way that teaches him right from wrong. His father would teach him that his only mistake was getting caught. Is that what you want him to learn?” she asked Ben, then Jay, “Is it?”
Jay crouched at her side again. His voice was as gentle as I’d ever heard it. “We do not want that, none of us, which is why we need to know more. I’m trying to get a picture here, so I need you to go back to the divorce. When did you find out about the photos and videos?”
Like a balloon losing air, she sank back into the sofa. “When he told me we were getting divorced. He didn’t ask. He told. He said I’d been cheating on him, said I was a lush, said I was a lousy mother, and he showed me enough of the pictures to let me know what I was up against. So I’m standing there in shock, and he hands me an agreement to sign. I would leave the marriage with nothing more than what I’d brought into it, meaning the clothes on my back.”
“Did you sign it?” Jay asked.
“Hell, no. Chris was included in what I would leave behind, no visitation rights at all. Carter wanted me totally erased from their lives. I said no.”
“What did Brandt say to that?” Jay asked.
“That he’d see me in court. He moved out of our house and into the new one he’d bought for his girlfriend, who, p.s., was pregnant. Impregnating women is his specialty. I think it’s his way of controlling a woman, like once she’s pregnant, she’ll do whatever he asks.