“Yeah, well, Lee did such a good job forging his signature, there was no way his innocence would’ve held up in a court of law if they’d called in forgery experts. Juan had even paid a private handwriting expert himself, and the result was ambiguous. Nobody was willing to testify a hundred percent that it was fake. Juan even questioned himself it looked so like his own signature, and he’d already signed all sorts of documents before he backed out. The woman was really smart, really scheming. Juan threatened to sue the clinic, but again, it was going to be difficult to prove. And the last thing he wanted, by this point, was to spend years on a complicated lawsuit. Three small kids versus a reluctant, angry father? They’d be on the side of the woman with her babies, obviously. The damage was done, anyway, the triplets born. All he could do was make the best of it.”
“Which was?”
“Juan and Lee made a deal. No monthly alimony, just a one-off payment to set her on her feet before going back to work. No divorce. No obligations for Juan to play father. And in return? Lee would get Cliffside to live in, free and clear until the triplets turned eighteen. Then she’d give the house back. They’d keep this secret from the children. She got what she wanted, which was to be a mother and live with her kids at Cliffside—so they’d have a good home—and Juan got his freedom.”
“But couldn’t Lee have kept the whole house, forever, it being the family residence as it was?” I said.
“Cliffside was always in Juan’s name, even though she designed it. They weren’t married when he purchased the land, and it was all his money. He paid for the house to be built, and I think they had a pre-nup, too. Even so, if they’d gone to court, in all likelihood they would’ve had to sell the house and split the money two ways.”
“True,” I said, trying to take all this in.
“Remember,” Pippa said. “Lee had spent all her expertise and time designing it, so it was complicated. Yet, because she hadn’t put up a cent, she might have lost it because of the pre-nup. She wasn’t willing to risk that. From her twisted point of view, she was doing Juan a huge favor by offering him this deal. She could’ve taken him to the cleaners but chose not to. And he accepted, because he could have ended up with nothing if the courts went in Lee’s favor. They cooked up this mutual deal where both could live at Cliffside at different points in their lives.”
“That doesn’t explain why he didn’t insist upon getting a divorce.”
“He just wanted out. A divorce would’ve wrapped them up in the courts for ages, dividing this and dividing that. You’re a lawyer, you know how it goes. Especially in California. He wanted to be free, above all. I know, it’s a bit ironic, but if you knew Lee, you’d understand.”
“What about them? The triplets. Surely when they turned eighteen, they’d wonder why they were losing—” I stopped myself. Now it all made sense. Somehow, they must have got wind of what was happening. Must have discovered who their real father was, and knowing he had abandoned them had sent them off the rails. A deal robbing them of their heritage, their inheritance, of a house they’d lived in all their lives. Knowing they were unwanted by Juan, and their birth was a mistake (at least on his part), would have made them want to get even. They had certainly kept their discovery very quiet, though. Hadn’t let on to me.
I took a sip of tea. It was tepid. “Pippa, when did the triplets find out about Juan?”
“I don’t know if they ever did. I don’t think they have any idea. You’d know better than I would. Did they mention him?”
I didn’t reply. They had told me their father had died in the line of duty. Lee’s clever lie, no doubt. Perhaps Juan’s too. Lee must have got her hands on a forged dog tag and given it to Dan as a memento. Maybe she even bought it online. There was a backstory there when it came to Cliffside. The triplets blamed me. Questions and answers ricocheted in my brain, trying to piece together the things they’d said—the whispers I’d heard.