Chapter 42

42

Powell stared at the phenomenally beautiful woman sitting across the table from her and waited.

Zoey had a sleeping three-year-old boy on her shoulder, and the other woman was drooping. "I am so exhausted lately."

"You don't look it. You are almost…glowing?"

"Hardly."

"Murdoch told me when he let me in that you are going to be glowing for the next seven months." Because all pregnant women glowed. Well, Powell wasn't so sure of that. She'd been having what she thought were hot flashes. While Zoey was going around glowing , Powell would probably just be sweaty. "I really hope it's glowing, Zo."

"What's up with you, Powell? I know something is."

Powell bit her lip. And then the words came tumbling out. "I'm pregnant."

Zoey just blinked at her. "Okay. I did not expect that to be what you wanted to talk about. First, are you happy about this? Second, who is the father? Third, when? Fourth, our babies get to be besties too?"

"Incredibly happy. Gunnar. Mid-September. And of course."

"Gunnar. Big surprise. Second best man in the world, in my opinion. But he can be best man in the world for you, I am sure. I do love hot, hot blond Viking men, after all."

Well, that description fit both Gunnar and Murdoch, so Powell definitely had to agree.

"We are working things out. But that's not why I am here."

"Okay, let's get whatever has that look in your eyes taken care of, then we can go idea-shopping. The mall has a new baby store. I really want to go look at baby clothes. I never thought I would be the type, but I am going to have a baby …and the furniture…I didn't get to pick for Orion and Oakley. I want to take my time with this one. I think I may actually want to nest or something. Which is insane."

It did sound fun. They would definitely shop together. "It's about the Colesons, really. Some things Cara has said."

"Ariella said she ran into Heather and Cara up in Wyoming."

"Cara was there to watch Heather's girls. She said there was no money, Zo. That people insisted there was and that her mom and aunts said there was. But then there just wasn't. She said Heather looked through her father's papers after the funeral and didn't find any life insurance policies at all."

"Heather was only thirteen then," Zoey said, frowning—and looking just like the aunt in question. Except Heather's cowlick was on the opposite side of her forehead, Powell thought, and a lot wilder. Zoey's hair was a few shades darker and much straighter. There were definite differences, but you had to look close to see them.

"But not stupid. Definitely not stupid—that is one incredibly intelligent woman. Cara said Heather had specifically gotten into the family safe to look for files her father had told her were in there if something ever happened. Cara said Bonnie had thought they were in there too. He'd made Heather memorize the combination and had shown her what to look for. Cara was clear on that—she said Heather still knew that combination too. That man had life insurance policies—he'd be the type."

"So…I'm not sure where to go with that, actually. We found copies of life insurance policies totaling over sixteen million dollars, naming his adult daughters as beneficiaries on half, and his minor daughters on the other half. Even had some with granddaughters' names. And Andrew Coleson was worth upward of twenty million just in fast-liquid assets. And another twenty-to-thirty in real estate. That man had money, Powell. Lots of it. I'm sure of it."

"And his daughters and granddaughters grew up sharing a three-bedroom farmhouse that was falling down around them—with one bathroom? Something doesn't make sense." It didn't. Powell was still trying to work out what could have happened. The most obvious answer—someone was wrong. But which side?

"We have a lot of questions. But none of the Colesons will answer them. Every letter we send—that Luc sends—comes back. It's been a little frustrating, actually. They are being…extremely difficult."

"I can understand why they are sending them back, though. Your brother demanded DNA samples in the last one to confirm a familial relationship with him. From everyone in Cara's family. Everyone, Zo, everyone . From Bonnie all the way down to Heather's baby girl. It was an incredibly unreasonable request. Very insulting too. Luc's lucky Heather didn't come after him with a pitchfork or poisoned fangs." Powell had cornered Mac and asked him point-blank what was going on with Zoey's family. Mac had shared what he could since Powell represented Zoey in all things legal. "Almost like he wanted to set them off or something, just to see what will happen."

"That man-diot. Why does that not surprise me? He might be trying to do just that."

"He's seriously going to trigger Heather, I'm afraid. Why is he being so difficult?" She liked Zoey's brother. He was a good man, and close friends with her cousin Houghton and her brother Mac. But he was being a jerk to Cara's family. She didn't understand his motivation for that either.

More—it wasn't right.

And it was hurting people. Really hurting them. It needed to stop.

"Luc is of the belief that Bonnie probably knew what Denita and Eastman were doing, and Eastman turned on her back in October. And that was the reason Eastman took her. That they were probably lovers all along, and it went sour or something." Zoey's face told Powell exactly what she thought about that. "Since Bonnie hasn't been seriously involved with a man since getting Cashlyn twenty-three years ago. And he vaguely recalls an aunt looking like our mother visiting when he was around eight or so."

" Bonnie ?" Powell just blinked at her as that sank in. "That's insane."

"Luc, and possibly Mac, believe Bonnie knows where the money is, and that is why the Colesons won't answer any questions," Zoey said, shifting little Orion a bit. He was a good-sized kid. He had to be getting heavy.

"The Colesons won't answer any questions because they are all scared to death right now, Zo. Like, beyond afraid of Luc. Cara said as much. She said Cashlyn is terrified of all of you—especially Rafe , Crispin is bitterly angry at all of you for keeping what Eastman was up to secret from her and her mother, Eden is terrified Luc is going to try to take her son away—they are all so afraid. Cara said people like Luc—and Mac, I think—are nothing but big evil bullies, using their money to get what they want from people who can't fight back. No matter who it hurts. That family…they don't have that money, Zo. They just don't. And they definitely should have."

"We really need to just talk to them. But everything has been insane since. I don't know what we are supposed to do to figure this out. Especially if they just won't talk to us."

"They aren't going to. They are barely getting by, as it is. Summer spends hours in their garden daily, just so they have enough vegetables to eat. Cashlyn works every extra shift at the hospital she can get just to buy them groceries until she is working herself into exhaustion at the ripe old age of twenty-three; paying Iagan's tuition to Finley Creek Academy is practically bankrupting Eden; and Heather's even worse off with Frankie needing speech therapy her insurance won't cover now. Bonnie works double shifts just to pay her and Crispin's bills from Eastman. Now Hope has been slammed with ungodly hospital bills the TSP should be paying. That family does not have hidden millions. They just do not. If they have a thousand to spare for an emergency, all of them combined, I'd be shocked to my toes."

Zoey blinked at her, stared at her for a long moment. She really looked like Heather like that. "Then the question is—where exactly is it?"

Powell didn't know. They discussed it for at least another two hours. They couldn't come up with a possible working scenario. They just couldn't.

If Bonnie had hidden that money for twenty years, why ? And where was it now? What on earth would Bonnie be saving it for, with her family having such obvious needs for money now?

It didn't make sense that Luc thought Bonnie was behind this. It just didn't. But she was going to talk to Heather. See if she could convince the other woman to at least talk to Zoey.

Just Zoey. Zoey and Heather had a lot in common and not just because they looked alike . They could relate to each other. And maybe they could fix this. The two of them and Powell together could figure this out once and for all. They were highly intelligent women, after all—keeping Luc and Mac out of it was probably the fastest way to fix it anyway.

Because if the Colesons and Zoey's family waited for their attorneys and Luc to fix this, Heather's little vampire princess baby and Powell's own Viking baby would both be in grad school before anyone found the answers.

After she left Zoey's—once she'd promised they'd go baby shopping together on Saturday—Powell pulled out her phone.

She was going to track down Zoey's look-alike aunt.

It was time she and Heather had a talk.

She was sitting on Alex's front porch, waiting, talking to her long-suffering bodyguard, when she saw the small SUV she knew belonged to Heather pull into the drive.

It was time to get to the bottom of this and make things right.