when she’d walked into that bank to close the account. She left the fries in the puddle of ketchup and looked up into Baby’s green eyes.
“I’d forgotten that Peter was a co-signer on the account. He’d taken all the money out, leaving a couple hundred dollars, enough that I wouldn’t get a notification.”
Baby’s beautiful mouth turned down in a sneer. “What a prick.”
She was relieved to find she could actually smile. “That’s what Boy Riley and Girl Riley call him, Peter the prick.”
“Rightfully so. What did you do?”
“I went and confronted him and ended up being escorted off campus by security.”
“Security escorted you out because your bastard of an ex had stolen from you and you decided to let him know how you felt about that?”
Now her smile was authentic. “You’re amazing, do you know that?”
He rolled his eyes. “Right now, I’m being logical. He stole your money.”
“Technically, some of it was his, although if you pressed him—”
“I’d like to press him,” he snarled.
“—Peter knows what he did was wrong, but he had pretty firmly justified his actions in his own mind, so it was difficult to convince him of that.”
“So you found out he’d taken the money, and then you went to confront him...”
“I probably shouldn’t have done that at work, but at that point, I was hoping he’d be able to write me a check for the money he’d withdrawn.”
Baby shook his head slowly. “But the bastard had already spent it.”
“Yes.” She stabbed the fry in the ketchup. “I walked into his office, and he smiled at me. Said he was glad I’d come in because he’d been asked to talk with me about my situation. Evidently there had been some money stolen from the petty cash can.”
“Is that what it sounds like?” he asked.
“Exactly what it sounds like. A literal can that contains money that the department uses for non-official activities and parties—fancy coffee, birthday cake, get well soon cards, etc.”
He shook his head. “I’m terribly afraid I already know where this is going.”
“Harvard loves its traditions. In today’s world of Venmo and PayPal, why would an office need something like a literal can with money in it? But no, they had to keep it because it was tradition. At the beginning of every month, faculty members dropped a few dollars into the can. We had a couple hundred dollars in there.”
“He accused you of stealing from the can right after he had stolen out of your account. Unfuckingbelievable.”
She set down what was left of the fry. “There was a video. He seemed so proud to show it to me on his computer. And granted, the person in the footage did look a little like me—same basic size and hair color, face conveniently not shown. I pointed that out to him.”
Of it all, this part had been the hardest to swallow. “Peter said that after all the poor choices I’d been making the past few months, my self-sabotage, he called it, he had no choice but to go to the department with the footage when he’d found it. Ten years of marriage, and he hadn’t had the respect to come and talk to me personally. He’d gone and tattled because he thought it would get him brownie points.”
That had always been Peter’s end game: moving up the academic ladder. When Quinn hadn’t helped him enough in that goal, he’d decided their marriage was over.
“Please say this is the point in the story when you tell me you jumped across his desk and beat him into the ground? That you got off a few good shots before security reluctantly came and removed you.”
She couldn’t help but smile. Given everything, it probably wouldn’t have done any more harm to have taken a couple swings at him. “That’s when I brought up the account. I accused him of being a hypocrite—saying I was stealing when he’d done the exact same, but with a lot more money.”
She shook her head. “He didn’t show an ounce of remorse. Said his name was still legally on the account, so he hadn’t done anything wrong. He claimed he was saving me from myself and the bad decisions I’d been making. I demanded the money back, of course.”
“But he’d already spent it.”
“But he’d already spent it,” she agreed. “He’d bought a ring for Nancy. Not an engagement ring, just a ring to make sure I couldn’t get the money.”