Gilded Craving - Olivia Jaymes Page 0,40

doesn't mean that he wasn't sad or upset."

The sound of Ted barking interrupted whatever Caroline had been about to say. The back door opened and Dan and Ryan walked out of the house and into the backyard, the beagle at their heels.

"Honey, Ryan is here to talk to us," Dan said taking a seat at the round table.

Ryan sat in the empty chair next to Mariah. Today he was wearing casual blue jeans and a light blue button-down shirt, the sleeves rolled up. He didn't look like a man on a mission, but she knew for a fact that he wasn't here to socialize. He'd told her last night that he was going to try and talk to everyone in their friend group today, if at all possible.

Ryan greeted them briefly, but basically got right down to business.

"I'm talking to everyone that was at the bar that night to try and get a better picture of the evening and what might have been going on in Brad's life. Yesterday, I spoke with Carl and this morning I talked to Theo."

Daphne checked her watch. "Wow, you were up early then. It's barely ten o'clock."

"I didn't want to waste any time." He shifted his focus to Caroline. "I also just spoke with Dan so I do need to ask you some questions. Can you talk to me about that night?"

Dan reached for Caroline's hand as she took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders as if bracing for a blow.

"I can. I want to help find out what happened to Brad."

"Great, then let's start at the beginning. Tell me about that night, even details that don't seem important. Take your time. There's no rush."

Caroline took another deep breath. "Brad wanted to go out and party, which as you know wasn't unusual. I was a little worried about getting up early to catch our flight but he said that it would be fine and that I could go home early if I wanted to. He never really needed all that much sleep so I didn't think it would be a big deal. We went to the bar and met Theo, who was already there. Everybody else started showing up. You and Mariah got there last. We'd already had a few cocktails and had been dancing. Well, I was dancing. Brad hated to dance."

"Was he in a good mood that night? Was anything bothering him?"

Frowning, Caroline shook her head. "He was fine, just like always. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He had been a little moody since he got home from school a few weeks before but he said he was just stressed out and he needed to have some fun."

Ryan didn't follow up right away, appearing to be struggling with his next question. After Mariah's conversation with him last night she had an inkling of what he wanted to ask but was afraid to.

Caroline and Dan exchanged a glance and then Dan nodded to his wife.

"It's okay, honey. We don't have anything to hide."

Returning her gaze to Ryan, Caroline smiled weakly. "I knew about Brad's other girls if that's what you were trying to ask me about. For the first few years that we dated, he tried to hide all of that from me but that last year...he didn't bother as much. Sometimes I think he wanted me to find out. He wanted us to argue, yell, and scream. Brad loved a good fight. He always said it cleared the air. He was always in a better mood after we'd argued. I, on the other hand, despised confrontation and avoided it until he pushed me into it. So yes, Ryan, I knew about Brad's extracurricular activities, and at that point I didn't care. I was planning to end things with Brad after Hawaii."

Mariah hadn't been expecting that declaration. Not at all.

Had Brad known? Did he care?

It was beginning to look like the past that Mariah had known had never really actually existed.

What other surprises were there?

So Caroline had known pretty much the whole time?

Ryan couldn't help but ask the next question. "You knew he was cheating but you stayed with him?"

The couple exchanged another glance and Dan patted his wife's hand in a comforting gesture.

"I'm not sure I can explain, but I'll try," Caroline said. "I was brought up to think that men would sow their wild oats when they were young and then later they would settle down. When I complained to my mom that Brad was cheating, she'd