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Kate
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Kate knew better than to think that things couldn’t get worse. Somehow, they always did.
She went over to the store early with Karyn and Amanda. Leaving Amanda to do her thing in the office, she and Karyn got to work on the shipments that had come in over the last few days. Karyn did most of the heavy lifting while Kate wielded the hand scanner like the seasoned pro she was. Working with Karyn was like slipping into a pair of her favorite shoes—comfortable and familiar. From junior high through high school, they’d spent every afternoon just like this.
Their dad came in later, surprised but beaming when he saw them already there. It was killing him not to take care of things himself, but he was also smart enough not to risk reopening his artery. He’d hired some local boys to come by in the afternoons, but it wasn’t the same as having his girls there.
Luther sauntered in around lunchtime, looking like someone had pissed in his Cheerios. His mood became markedly darker when he saw Amanda coming out of the back office. Kate found out why a short while later when the three women went back to Kate’s house for lunch.
Kate stared at Amanda, certain she’d heard incorrectly. “I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?”
Amanda’s expression was both apologetic and troubled. “The store is operating in the red and has been for months.”
“How is that even possible?”
It didn’t make sense. Handelmann’s didn’t rake in big bucks, but the income was stable and earned a modest profit every month. Or so Kate had thought.
“How do you think?” Karyn said, anger coloring her tone. “Luther’s been cooking the books. I always knew he was a weasel.”
“Are you sure?”
In response, Karyn gave her an irritated duh look, and Kate immediately felt bad. Amanda wouldn’t have said anything unless she was absolutely, one hundred percent sure.
“Sorry. What about Mom and Dad’s retirement fund?”
“From what I could tell, there’s not enough money in there to purchase a flight to Florida, let alone buy a condo there.”
Kate felt sick to her stomach. She didn’t think Luther was the most trustworthy person in the world, but she didn’t want to believe he was capable of doing that to her family, not when they’d been treating him like one of their own.
“How do you want to handle this, Kate?” Karyn asked. “You’re closer to Dad than anyone.”
“He’s going to be devastated.” And not just because their mother wasn’t going to get her Clearwater condo, but also because Luther’s betrayal would cut deep.
“Agreed,” Karyn said somberly, “but we have to tell them. They could lose everything.”
Kate’s nausea intensified.
Handelmann’s was a family business in a small town. Business assets and personal assets were one and the same, which meant that their parents could lose their house, their cars, everything, if the store went under.
“Yeah, I know.” Kate’s heart hurt as she looked out her window at a huge piece of their family’s history across the street. Handelmann’s Hardware had been serving the Sumneyville community for over a hundred years.
“Best to get it over with, I guess. I’ll call Mom and tell her we need to have a family meeting.”
Unsurprisingly, her mother wasn’t particularly receptive to the idea. Family meetings were few and far between, and when one was called, it was never to discuss good things. Their mom suggested they hold off until her father was fully recovered, but based on what Amanda had found, she and Karyn agreed it couldn’t wait.
Karyn got on the phone and used her honed skills of persuasion. Their mother finally relented, and plans were made to stop by their parents’ house later that evening.
Kate called Chris and gave him a brief update. He asked if there was anything he could do, and when she said no, he wished her luck and told her to call him when she got back. Just knowing he was there for her gave her that added bit of strength she needed to get through the next several hours.
~ * ~
She’d expected the evening to be bad, but she could never have prepared for exactly how bad it actually was.
“It was awful,” she ranted to Chris on the phone later that evening. He had become her safe place, her port in a storm. “A total shitshow of epic proportions. Luther was there, and things got ugly.”
“Why was Renninger there? I thought it was supposed to be a family meeting.”
“My question exactly. My mother insisted that Luther was family.”
In their mother’s defense, she hadn’t known why they had called the emergency meeting. If she had, she never would have agreed to listen. What wasn’t clear was whether their mother had invited Luther or if he had invited himself once he got wind of it, either through Kylie or their father. Karyn thought it was the latter, and Kate tended to agree, especially since Luther had seen Amanda coming out of the back office. If only he’d arrived just a few minutes later.
Kate proceeded to tell Chris how the evening had quickly degraded from bad to worse. How Karyn had shared Amanda’s findings and their mother had refused to listen and insisted Amanda had to be wrong.
“‘Luther would never do that to us,’ she said every time Karyn or I opened our mouths,” Kate relayed. It hurt that their mother had more faith and trust in Luther than in her sister, Amanda, and herself. “She said we were unfairly accusing him out of vengeance and that she couldn’t comprehend why we would make up such lies. Of course, Luther grabbed on to that with both hands and twisted everything around to make it sound like he was the victim. He was very convincing.”
“But you had proof, right?”
“We did. Amanda had downloaded information onto a thumb drive as a precaution, but it didn’t matter. Luther demanded to know how Amanda had gotten the information, even going so far as to accuse her of illegally hacking into my parents’ accounts. I told them that Amanda hadn’t hacked anything, that I’d given her my passwords, and they looked at me as if I were Judas or something.”
“Oh, baby, I’m sorry.”
“Wait, it gets worse. When we pulled up my parents’ account on their computer, it showed a substantial balance that hadn’t been there earlier in the day. Amanda said later that Luther probably keeps an emergency stash he can transfer around when people get suspicious or start asking questions.”
“And the store?”
“Fake ledgers, we think. It’s easy enough to set up dummy accounts in the accounting software and make it look real. He’d convinced my father that paperless was the way to go, so he handled everything online. Those warnings and past-due notices Amanda had found never made it to the house or the store. Karyn is livid. Amanda’s calling some of her contacts to see what, if anything, we can do at this point.”
“How are you doing?”
“Honestly, I’m feeling pretty wrecked right now,” she told him, tears welling in her eyes again. “When we left, my mother was crying, Kylie was pissed, and my father looked terribly disappointed in all of us. The worst was when my father walked us to the door and quietly suggested we not show up at the store tomorrow.”
“Want company?”
Losing herself in Chris for a few hours sounded like heaven, but she had to deal with this. “Thanks, but we need to figure out what to do now.”
“Okay, baby. I’m here if you need me.”
“You have no idea how much that means to me. Thanks for listening.”
“Anytime. I’m here for you—always.”
That was the best thing she’d heard all day. “Give the dogs a pet for me, okay?”
“I will.”
Kate hung up the phone and exhaled heavily.
“You didn’t ask him.” Karyn leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, eyes accusing.
Kate scowled at her. “No, I didn’t.”
“Why not?”
Because I don’t want it to be true. It can’t be. Aloud, she said, “There was no reason to.”
“So, you don’t think it’s important to tell Chris that Luther said Chris and his friends are behind the accusations? Or that they’re the ones hacking the system and planting evidence and manipulating you in an attempt to turn you against your friends and family?”
“No,” Kate repeated, rubbing at the ache that had started up between her eyes. “Because it’s complete and utter bullshit.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.” Kate knew there was unexplained animosity there between the Freeds and the Winstons—everyone did—but she didn’t believe Chris or anyone else she’d met up there would do something so underhanded.
“And you don’t think your boyfriend knows more about the situation than he’s letting on?”
Kate couldn’t answer that question with the same level of conviction because she did have the feeling Chris knew more than he was letting on. However, she wanted to believe that if Chris had known something that would negatively affect her or her family, he would have shared that.
“Just ask him, Kate. If you don’t, it’ll just continue to prey on your mind.”
Karyn was right, of course. It was time for Kate to put her money where her faith was. She took her phone up to her bedroom for privacy and made the call. Chris answered immediately.
“Hey, baby. What’s up? Did you change your mind?”
Kate closed her eyes and gathered her courage. “Did you know what Luther was doing?”
The immediate and resounding, No, of course not, she’d been expecting didn’t come. What she got was a significant pause and her name spoken in a way that sent her hopes crashing.
“Kate ...”
“Did you know?”
Another pause.
“Not for certain, no.”
“But you suspected,” she pushed.
“Yes.”
Disappointment warred with anger. “And you didn’t think to mention it? You couldn’t have said, Hey, Kate. Luther might be stealing from your family. You might want to check into that?”
He exhaled. “It’s not that simple.”
“Bullshit.” She felt betrayed for the second time that evening. The difference was, it hadn’t been completely unexpected coming from her mother. But Chris ... “What else have you been keeping from me?”
The seconds ticked by in deafening silence.
“Oh my God.” For the first time, she considered the possibility that some of that vitriol Luther had been spewing might actually have some truth to it. “Is it true then? You’ve been using me?”
“What? No!” This time, his denial was instant and powerfully spoken.
That made Kate feel just a tiny bit better, but her trust had been shaken.
“Everything between us is real, Kate,” he said emphatically. “You have to know that.”
She wanted to believe that. So badly. But wanting something wasn’t enough to make it so.
“I need to think about this,” she said quietly.
“Think about what exactly?” he growled.
“You. Me. Us.”
“Kate ...”
“It’s been a really long day, okay? I’m turning my phone off and going to bed.”
Then, she did exactly that. But sleep didn’t come.