showed up saying he wanted to do the right thing. So when he opened an account in Holly’s name to help pay for diapers and formula, I didn’t ask questions.”
“It was a Swiss account,” Marc accused. “Who the hell opens a Swiss account?”
“It had less than a thousand dollars in it. And he’s Italian,” she defended. “I had no idea what he was doing until I got a call from the bank asking why I had closed out the account. I assumed Abby had finally kicked him out and he’d taken back the money. But when I got the statement showing that twelve million dollars had been deposited and withdrawn only minutes apart, I knew that Richard had played me.”
“Then why didn’t you tell anyone?” Abby accused.
“When the police showed up asking questions about him, I told them everything. At first they saw exactly what Richard had hoped for: the daughter of an illegal immigrant and a teen mother with no job. Thankfully they were smart enough to actually check with Interpol and verify that I hadn’t made the transaction.” She shot a look at Gabe.
“They cut us out of the investigation. I only knew that the money was gone and Abby was a suspect. I had no idea who they had talked to or who they cleared,” Gabe said.
“Yeah, well, neither did I. I didn’t know whose money it was until recently.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the other day...” In my bed, when I was holding you and spilling my guts about how I’d let down my family.
“You mean confide in the guy who ruined six years of my life for accidently sleeping with his brother-in-law?” She laughed mercilessly.
“Finding this account has changed the entire direction of our investigation,” Gabe said, needing her to understand just what this meant to his family. “It actually led us to another account Richard had set up for Holly in the Cayman Islands. Now we have a lead, a real chance at catching the bastard.”
“You people really can’t see past your family, can you?” Regan choked out. “All I want is to keep my daughter safe.”
He took a step forward, needing to touch her, make this right. “Regan, I wouldn’t have—”
This time she stopped him. “Don’t go there, Gabe. You already did and you’d do it again. You would do anything to protect your family.” Her eyes went wide and her lips parted on a breath. “Oh, my God.”
She took a step back.
Then another.
“You were asking Holly about Richard.” Her hand covered her mouth and his chest hollowed out as he saw her put everything together. “You came to my house to ask me about Richard, not to help me move. From day one you’ve been asking about Richard. Even when we were...”
She glanced around, as if suddenly remembering that his entire family and a few PTA parents were in the hall, listening to everything. Her face flushed with humiliation.
She dropped her head, and Gabe for the first time saw a glimmer of that little girl who had been teased and discarded and forced to stand on her own—apart from everyone else. Except that when she looked up, he realized that she no longer had a floor to stand on, he’d ripped it out from under her.
“I’m such an idiot,” she said heartbreakingly soft. “You slept with me because...” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “I let you in my house, around Holly, trusted you with my heart, and the whole time...”
Now it was his turn to explain. Only this time he was guilty of everything she had accused him of.
“It started out that way.” He took a step closer, and she backed farther away. “But then I got to know you, and in the end—”
“In the end”—her big blue eyes darkened with sorrow—“you were a jerk just like everyone else. And you want to know the worst part?”
No, he didn’t want to know anything else.
“I really thought this year”—her breath caught—“that this year was going to be a perfect Christmas.”
“Regan, wait.” He grabbed her arm when she turned to leave. “I’m sorry. I am so fucking sorry.”
She looked at him for a long time, the tears finally spilling over her pretty lashes. She opened her mouth and took a thorough inventory of his family. Holly came out of the dressing room then, dragging an apologetic ChiChi with her.
Regan looked back at Gabe and shook her head, sad and slow. “It’s not enough this time.”
With an angry swipe at her cheeks, she