Page 48 of This Time Around (The Can’t Have Hearts Club #3)

A llie clasped her hands together on the battered gray table and looked at her father. “So that’s pretty much it,” she said. “We broke up. Again. I guess I don’t have things figured out after all.”

Her father curled his hands around hers and squeezed tight. The sympathy in his eyes made Allie’s chest feel like someone was standing on it. “Oh, sweetie,” he said. “I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could do.”

Allie felt the tears welling up in her throat again, but she swallowed them back. “Thanks, Daddy. It feels nice to talk about it. To be able to tell someone.”

She tried not to think about the irony of it all.

Telling her secrets, opening her mouth and spilling her guts—that’s what prompted the breakup in the first place.

Maybe Jack hadn’t explicitly meant for her to bare her soul to a parent in a green jumpsuit, but still.

She was capable of opening up, dammit. Able to be honest and forthright.

All right, fine. That wasn’t the whole truth. The fact that she hadn’t been honest before was what obviously bothered Jack. She could understand that. But couldn’t he understand she’d had her reasons for keeping secrets? About the pregnancy, the broken engagements, the money?—

“Speaking of money,” she said, even though they hadn’t been.

Her father blinked in surprise. “What’s that, honey?”

“There’s something else I wanted to ask you about.”

“What’s that, Alliecakes?”

She licked her lips and glanced at the guard, who was standing a good ten feet away eyeing an inmate pressed close to a very pregnant visitor. The guard wasn’t looking at Allie and her father, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t listening.

It didn’t matter, though. Allie had to get this over with. Had to put it out there once and for all and let the chips fall where they may.

Turning back at her dad, she took a deep breath. “Remember last time I was here when we talked about me poking around the attic?”

Her father frowned. “You didn’t get hurt up there, did you?”

“No, that’s not it. I—um—well, I found something up there.”

“Besides those old love letters?” He chuckled. “Boy, I wouldn’t mind getting a look at those again. Your mom and I used to dream about buying a boat together and sailing off to?—”

“No, Daddy—this isn’t about the letters.” She drew a deep breath. “I found a trunk in the attic. The old steamer trunk that used to be in the blue room.”

“Right, you mentioned that before. You said it was locked?”

Was it her imagination, or something shift in her father’s expression? A flash of unease, but it was gone in an instant. It might have been nothing.

“The trunk was locked,” she said, “but I figured out the combination. There was money in it, Daddy. A lot of money. I didn’t know where it came from, so I thought about it for a really long time—longer than I should have, I guess. And then when I went to visit Mom, I?—”

“You talked to your mother about this?”

Her father’s face had gone ashen. Allie stared at him, and it dawned on her he didn’t look surprised at all. Not about the money, anyway. And why was that the first question out of his mouth?

“I, um—yes. Yes, I did.” Allie cleared her throat.

“And Mom said the money was legitimately Grandma’s.

But something didn’t feel right about that.

I don’t mean to disparage Mom, but she was the one who orchestrated the whole Ponzi thing, so it just didn’t add up, you know?

Anyway, I started looking into what I needed to do from a legal standpoint. ”

“Oh, Christ.” Her father dragged his hands down his face like he was trying to erase his features. “You got lawyers involved?”

Allie stared at him. “Daddy?” Her voice cracked a little on the second syllable, so she lowered it to a whisper. “You know something about this?”

Her father glanced at the guard. The guy had his hand on his radio as he leaned down to say something to the heavily tattooed inmate with the pregnant visitor. None of them glanced at Allie and her dad. None of them saw the stricken look on their faces.

When her dad turned back to her, he wore a resigned expression. “Yeah,” he said at last. “I know about the money.”

Part of her didn’t want to ask. Didn’t want to know the truth. A little voice in the back of her mind told her to keep believing the story her mother had told. That her grandma had owned the cash free and clear, and now, so did Allie.

But Allie was done listening to that voice.

“Mom hid it up there, didn’t she?” The question seemed to surprise them both, and Allie wondered where her sudden bluntness had come from. Jack, or maybe Paige.

The thought of never seeing either of them again made Allie’s gut twist, and she pressed on, needing to hear the whole truth.

“It’s okay, Daddy,” she said, reaching for his hand again.

“Look, the courts already know Mom was the one pulling all the financial strings. Maybe this will help with your appeal. Maybe when you tell them you had nothing to do with the money or with?—”

“Allie, honey.” Her father shook his head, a little sadly, it seemed. “You’ve got the story all wrong, Alliecakes.”

She blinked. “What do you mean?”

Her father gave a heavy sigh and leaned forward with his elbows on the table. “I guess I’m not surprised. This is the way Priscilla wanted it. I told her it was a bad idea, but then everything got complicated and?—”

“What are you talking about?”

He clasped his hands together and brought them down like a slow hammer. “Your mother didn’t hide that money up there, Allie. And she wasn’t the mastermind behind the investment scam.”

“Who was?”

“Me.”

She stared at him, pretty sure she’d heard wrong. “What?”

He unclasped his hands and put them over hers again. “The funds, the investments, the plan to skim a little off the top—that was all my doing. When I got in over my head, your mother caught on. She tried to help me fix things, but by then it was too late.”

“I don’t understand.” Allie swallowed hard, her throat making a funny click. “So you hid the money up there?”

“No. That was your grandmother.”

“She was in on it ?”

Her voice came out louder than she meant it to, but the guard didn’t turn. A frantic feeling swelled in her chest, like something with sharp claws scrambling to get out.

“No, baby. Your mom was telling the truth. Your grandma tucked that money away for you.”

Tears filled her eyes, though Allie had no idea why. For her grandmother’s sacrifice? For not believing her mom? For the evaporation of the image of her father as the kindly, unlucky victim in her mother’s crime?

She stared at the Ficus tree in the corner, at the trio of dead leaves on the floor beside it. A heating vent switched on, sending the brittle carcasses tumbling into the wall.

Allie looked back at her father. “You mean the money’s legitimate?”

He looked down at his hands. “It started out that way. Grandma tucked it away for years and years. She never really trusted banks or investors or lawyers.” He gave a hollow little laugh. “Considering the way things turned out with me, it seems her fears were justified.”

“So what happened?”

“I knew she’d been socking money away for you, so when things went south with the investments, I tried to get my hands on it.

I thought if I just had a fresh infusion of cash, I could course correct.

Launder it through the system, pay off the people who needed to be paid off, and eventually restock the coffer. ”

“But grandma found out?”

“No. Your mother did.” He sighed. “She was mad as hell, but by then I was in too deep. She didn’t want me to go to prison, of course. She tried to get the money back out, but it was too late. We got caught.”

“You mean you got caught.” She was looking at her father differently now, seeing someone she hardly recognized.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right there.” He scrubbed his hands down his face again, looking incredibly tired. “The whole thing was my deal from the start. Your mom was just trying to help me get out of it.”

“So—so—mom took the fall? To help take pressure off you?”

Allie’s brain felt like it was spinning inside her skull, and it occurred to her she had more in common with her mother than she’d realized. Misjudging a man, making self-destructive decisions when it came to love—Allie hadn’t sucked that out of her thumb.

“It was something like that,” her father was saying “Anyway, I’ve been trying to make it right. That’s what all these meetings with the lawyer have been about. Not an appeal. An attempt to turn it around, maybe negotiate a lighter sentence for your mom.”

Allie frowned, still trying to make sense of it all. “But I told you about finding the chest the last time I was here,” she said. “You didn’t seem to know anything about it.”

He shrugged and gave a guilty look. “I was hoping you’d take my advice and stay out of there. Figured if the money was still there when I got out, I could help you invest it or something.”

A sick feeling throbbed in the pit of her stomach. She stared at her father, then shook her head. “This can’t be real.”

“We all make mistakes, Alliecakes. Some of us just do a better job than others at covering it up.”

Allie swallowed hard. “I guess that’s true.”

“I’m sorry.” He started to reach for her hand, then stopped himself. He placed his palms on the table and sighed. “I’m sorry you believed in me and I let you down.”

Allie nodded. Her arms prickled with gooseflesh. She stared at her father and felt a rush of anger and confusion and guilt and fury and sadness all mixed together in one big, salty, powerful wave.

“I love you,” she told him. “But I’m not sure I like you very much right now.”

“That’s understandable.”

Her throat felt raw and there was a good chance she was going to lose her lunch. She scrubbed her damp palms down her thighs and stood up. Her knees were wobbly, but her legs still held her.

“I have to go,” she said.