Page 31

Chapter Thirty-One

E mily put down her phone after another fruitless attempt to get in touch with her daughter. Jetta had promised to call as soon as the shareholder meeting broke up, but other than a text saying the votes had gone in favor of Maxwell Technology’s takeover bid, she’d heard nothing for more than an hour.

A knock at the door had her turning with a smile, sure it was Jetta, but an aide poked her head inside. “Visitor for you, Ms. Ainsley.” The aide ushered in a woman about Emily’s age.

Emily frowned at the unfamiliar face. “Do I know you?”

The woman shook her head. “I’m Dolores Green. May I sit down?”

“Okay.” Emily’s curiosity heightened as the woman pulled the chair closer to her bed.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m here.” Dolores ploughed ahead without waiting for a response. “Your daughter and a friend, Seth something, visited me earlier this week.”

Now Emily placed the woman’s name. “You altered invoices from SafeSense to Topher Robotics.”

“That’s what the paper trail indicated.” Tears filled the other woman’s eyes. “But I didn’t. I had no idea about the bank account in the Cayman Islands in my name with thousands of dollars. I never opened the account. Yes, I worked in accounting but as an administrative assistant. I was never a CPA. I wouldn’t know the first thing about altering invoices and embezzling money.”

Dolores’s grief appeared genuine. As tears spilled down her cheeks, Emily handed Dolores a box of tissues. She suspected there was more for the other woman to share, so she waited quietly while Dolores regained control.

“Sorry about that.” Dolores blew her nose, then wadded up the tissues. “I’ve racked my brain trying to figure out who could have set me up. I’m a simple woman. I live alone with my dogs. I can’t imagine who I could have harmed so much they’d do such a thing. I lost my job and can never work in finance again. It’s been very difficult to find a job.”

When Dolores didn’t immediately continue, Emily said, “It might not have been personal.”

That brought a fresh round of tears. “That makes it even more terrible, doesn’t it? That someone picked my name out of a hat and said, ‘I think I’ll destroy this woman’s life for the fun of it!’”

While Dolores sobbed, Emily patted her shoulder as she thought about everything the woman had said. Once she’d quieted, Emily put her theory into words. “I think someone was in a very desperate situation. They needed to shift the blame from themselves to someone else, but who? They picked my husband because he was the only person outside the Topher family who held a C-suite position at the company. They picked you because you’re unassuming and unappreciated or overlooked at work.”

“Yes, that’s true. My contributions were always ignored or downplayed. I was a nobody. One of my dogs, a darling little shiatzu named Holly, was sick, and I was trying to raise money for her treatment through a local animal rescue organization. She’d been a rescue dog. Someone anonymously donated a large sum of money that paid for her care.” Dolores blew her nose. “Of course, that was right before I was accused, and my SafeSense bosses assumed I had been the anonymous donor, using the money I had taken.”

Emily listened as Dolores recounted more details. With each word, she believed someone had scapegoated Dolores much as they had done her husband. Another innocent victim because of someone’s greed. “Someone stole millions from Topher Robotics, millions that have never been recovered. If Jay had lived, I think the case against him would have fallen apart. But he didn’t, so they swept it under the rug after a cursory internal investigation that snagged you in its net.” The more she talked, the more the scenario made sense to Emily. “I doubt the person responsible for all of this has stopped. They would have felt emboldened to continue embezzling money, especially after getting away with it.”

“That might be true, but how can we prove it after all these years?” The hope in Dolores’s eyes tugged at Emily’s heart. “I tried to contact Seth and Jetta to see if they’ve learned anything but received no reply. Then I remembered Jetta mentioning your accident and that you were in a rehab facility in Reston. I thought I’d come see you in person to make sure you understand I didn’t have anything to do with what happened to your husband.”

“I believe you. I know my daughter and Seth are trying their best to find out.”

Dolores blotted her cheeks with a fresh tissue. “You still don’t know the identity of the person who stole all that money?”

“Not yet.” Emily’s cell rang, and she picked it up, hoping it was Jetta. But an unfamiliar number flashed on the screen, sending her pulse skyrocketing. “I’m sorry, I need to get this.”

“I’ll leave. Thank you for seeing me. If you find out anything, please let me know.”

“Will do.” Emily waved goodbye as she swiped to answer. “Hello?”

“Ms. Ainsley, this is Officer Brody. Is your daughter with you?”

“Jetta? No, she’s not, and I’ve been trying to reach her for more than an hour.” Emily gripped the phone tighter.

“We found your daughter’s phone on the sidewalk outside of Topher Robotics but no sign of her.”

Emily pushed herself to an upright position in the bed. “Is Seth Whitman around?”

“Was he on the Topher campus too?”

“He was. He went with Jetta to the shareholders meeting, although he couldn’t attend since he doesn’t own shares. Please, you must find my daughter. She’s close to nine months pregnant and under a lot of stress.”

“We will do everything we can to find her, ma’am. We’ll be in touch as soon as we know something. If you hear from her, please call this number.”

Emily thanked the officer and disconnected. Hugging the phone to her chest, she prayed for Jetta’s safety, for her unborn baby, and for Seth. That young man would do everything in his power to keep her daughter safe. She prayed her daughter would give her fear about making a mistake with Seth over to God and see what a fine man Seth was, one who Emily believed was very suited to be Jetta’s helpmate. Seth would love Jetta’s baby as his own and never hold its conception against the child or her daughter. Please God, help Jetta to see Seth for the man he is, and keep them both safe.

After praying, she reviewed her conversation with Dolores. Something had jogged a memory of Jay muttering to himself a few weeks before he died. What was it? Then it came to her in the proverbial flash of remembrance. They’ve been discounting her for years. She’s flown right under their radar.

And with that memory, Emily knew who had taken the money. She had no proof, but FinCEN had the authority to dig deep into the person’s finances. She found the FinCEN contact and dialed, praying her hunch would pay off and this nightmare would soon be over.

* * *

Jetta shifted in her seat as the pain built in her belly. She huffed out small breaths, willing the fake contractions to go away. Her doctor had said stress could bring them on, and she’d certainly had a stressful day. But the contractions lasted longer than they had previously and seemed at regular intervals.

Wetness dampened her jeans. She peed her pants? Then realization struck. It wasn’t urine but amniotic fluid. Her water had broken.

She was in labor.

In a car in the middle of nowhere.

Alone.

“Jetta?”

Not totally alone.

Seth touched her arm. She sucked in a breath as another contraction hit her, this one stronger and longer. How many minutes had passed since the last one? She struggled to remember but couldn’t seem to catch hold of a thought as the pain ripped through her body.

“You’re in labor. I’m pulling over.”

She wanted to argue, but the tightening of her stomach yanked her attention back to the baby, who apparently was ready to come several weeks early. She most certainly wasn’t ready, not when she hadn’t decided what to do once baby arrived.

Then managing the indescribable pain of the contraction took all of her concentration. She bit back screams while scrambling to remember what the nurse had said during the online birth classes she’d taken. Short breaths? No breaths? How could she breathe anyway?

When her muscles relaxed, she noticed Seth had stopped. Panic clawed at her throat. She couldn’t give birth in some stranger’s SUV in the middle of nothing. “Where are we?” An inane question, given she really didn’t care, but she needed to talk about anything other than what was happening inside her body.

“The Loudoun County Fairgrounds.”

This being late September and evening, no one would be around. It was just her and this baby she wasn’t sure she wanted, and Seth, the man she did want but kept pushing away for his own good.

Jetta yelped as a contraction shuddered through her body, doubling her over. She clutched her stomach, the pain all she could think about, all she could experience. As the contraction lessened its hold on her, Seth’s voice registered.

“Breathe with me.” He met her gaze, his steady and calm. He held out his hand, and she slipped hers inside. Her own breathing slowed in time with his. In, out. In, out.

Then the pain began to build again. She squeezed his hand as hard as she could and threw her head back against the seat. Her feet plowed into the floorboards, lifting her bottom off the seat. A guttural cry escaped her lips. She could not do this. She did not want to do this.

“Breathe, sweetheart, breathe. Short, panting breaths when the contraction hits.”

Seth walked her through the breaths until the contraction eased. “I don’t think the baby is going to wait until we can flag down help.”

“No…way…to…call?” Please, let him find a way to get help. She would not do this in a car, she would not do this from afar. Good grief, she must be addled if she was making nonsensical Dr. Suess rhymes.

“We’re on our own unless someone sees our hazards and stops.”

His voice held no hope of that happening, as much as she prayed for it. Tears spilled over and down her cheeks as fear and panic jostled for dominance inside her. “I don’t want to do this.” Her body refused to listen as it built momentum designed to expel the baby she had been harboring for so many months.

“I know.” He laid his hand alongside her cheek for a split second, the warmth of his touch easing her panic a fraction. Then Seth opened his door as a sharper, stronger contraction nearly overwhelmed her, wrenching a scream from her that echoed in the enclosed space. He was leaving her to do this alone?

Through the haze of pain, she made out his figure as he jogged around the hood to her side. She barely kept up with his movements as he opened the passenger back door, then hers. “We need to get you into the back seat.”

“No.” She shook her head, sending strands of hair whipping back and forth. “I can’t.” The need to push saturated every nerve, but she clamped her legs together, not willing to give in, not here, not now.

“Yes, you can. We can do it together. We have too.” He leaned his forehead against hers, the compassion and love in his eyes stealing the final shred of her resolve.

“Okay.”

At her agreement, he eased her legs out of the car, then supported her body as she tumbled out of the vehicle and into him. He absorbed her weight with ease. She screamed as a contraction drove her to her knees. Only Seth’s strong arms kept her upright. He lifted her up onto the back seat, swinging her legs around so her back was to the passenger side door.

“Don’t move. I’ll be right there.”

A brief pressure on the top of her head, then he closed the door. As she struggled to manage another contraction, she focused on that moment. On the expression in his eyes. On what she’d learned over these months of being around Seth. He was an honorable man. He wasn’t at all like her ex. He would never knowingly hurt her.

God had brought him into her life, allowing her to see what true servanthood looked like on this fallen planet. If Seth had lived while Jesus walked the earth, he would have been first in line to wash someone else’s feet. He would have served the lepers, given hope to the hopeless. His love of Christ shone through all his actions, especially in his gentle treatment of her. Her mother had been right.

She could trust him with her life.

She could trust him with her baby’s life.

A peace stole over her, washing into the nooks and crannies of her mind, overflowing the pain and fear of this baby’s conception. A blast of cool air from the shattered hatch window hit her at the same time as another contraction. Seth climbed into the back seat, crowding her space as he closed the door. He rubbed his hands together, the smell of something sharp and citrusy filling the space. “I found some hand sanitizer in the console.”

She bit back another yell as the pain built and built and built, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the man opposite her. “Seth.”

She must have whispered the name because he didn’t pause in leaning over the backseat and rummaging in the hatch area. He plopped back on the seat, something in his hands. “I found a couple of sweatshirts. I think they’re clean.”

“Seth.”

He shifted closer, his hand capturing hers. “Yes?”

“Help me.” She whimpered through the contraction as the urge to push increased. “I…trust…you.”

“Thank you.” Seth squeezed her hand, as a tear rolled down his cheek. He was crying. Not because he was sad, but because her words had made him so happy. Of that, she was sure. With a groan, she surrendered to the birthing process, thanking God for bringing this man into her life for such a time as this.