I was surprised to see Oliver waiting for me in the parking lot of Montoya & Sons. I had dropped Iris—who still wasn’t speaking to me—at school this morning, feeling somewhat uneasy about everything that had transpired last night. I knew that Alice breaking my news about New York was a mistake in a moment of passion, and that really I was to blame. I should have told Iris before saying anything to Alice. But Alice should have told us about Elliott. And Julie should have told us about her mother. I knew it was crazy to blame them for keeping secrets when I was keeping my own. I think, most of all, I felt unsteady today knowing that the place that had been my respite was falling apart.

Fortunately, throughout the course of my breakfast meeting with a client, I had managed to put all that behind me. Alice and I would talk it out. She’d told me how crazy her sister made her. It was all fine. We all had things to be embarrassed about.

Oliver walked over to my car, and I moved the book and makeup bag Iris had left so he could climb into the passenger seat.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m going to be really busy for a couple of days.” He sighed. “Discovery came in.”

I felt my face scrunch. “Is everything okay?”

He nodded. “Sure. Fine. They are just burying me in boxes.”

“Can I help?”

He smiled. “That’s nice, but no.” He paused. “I have a couple of interns who will help me.”

Tears filled my eyes. This was it. The moment we had been waiting for. Do or die. Oliver had to find enough holes in the prosecution’s evidence to get this thing dropped once and for all.

“Hey,” I asked, just thinking of something. “Did you invest money with Bill?”

“Well, sure,” he said.

“So you trust him?”

“Sure. Yeah, I trust him. And it’s that trust and confidence that is going to lead me to the exact thing I need to get him out of this mess.”

I desperately, desperately hoped that was true. Oliver’s phone rang, and he looked down, then silenced it. “Hey, I need to run,” he said.

As he opened the door, I said, “Hey, Oliver?”

“Yeah?”

“Could I have a list of the clients who lost money?”

He paused for a moment, and I could see him deciding, so I pressed. “Oliver, Bill and I are married. It’s not like this is confidential from me.”

He nodded. “I guess I don’t really see why not.” He paused. “But, Charlotte, I don’t see how that’s going to do you any good.”