It would make sense that he’d buy low and sell high.

If Wade’s worth had dropped substantially since his accumulation of the twenty-one percent of the stock, it meant that Van bought high and the price was dropping. Van was losing money as well as my family.

Why would he want to do that?

Did he know this would happen?

I must have been lost in my thoughts and taken a wrong turn. Still on the first level in the south wing, I came to a tall set of double doors.

Is it snooping if I accidentally find it?

For a moment, I stood and listened for Margaret and Paula. I should have gone to the kitchen to see if they were done for the day. Instead, I turned the large doorknob and pushed one of the two doors inward.

My eyes widened as I took in the splendor of the room.

I hadn’t found Van’s bedroom suite.

I’d found his home office.

I was drawn to a table near his desk.

My stomach sank as I picked up one picture in a silver frame. I knew the man in the tuxedo. It was the woman in the white dress that I didn’t know. “What the hell? You’re married?”

19. Julia

Julia

After saying goodbye to Paula and Margaret, I wandered around Van’s home, searching for more mementos, something to make sense of the picture in his office. I’d been through all the possibilities in my head.

Van was married at one time.

I could live with that fact; after all, he was forty-one years old. What I couldn’t fathom was why he’d kept his wedding picture up if he was divorced. And then another possibility came to me. Maybe Van was a widower. That would make sense, considering how much of a loner he claimed to be. Even Mr. Fields said Van was a private person.

The sun moved closer to the horizon and still no word from Van.

In the library, I’d begun to organize some of the things Van had accumulated. While there were flash drives with folders and folders of documents, it was the old-fashioned paper items, such as older magazines with Donovan Sherman on the cover that I perused. The headlines caught my attention.

Up and coming.

Man of the year.

Most eligible bachelor.

I checked the dates.

The most eligible bachelor magazine was from ten years ago.

If I wasn’t feeling young before, I was now. Ten years ago, I was fourteen and Van was the most eligible bachelor. I flipped open the cover to the article inside. Staring down at the glossy pages, I compared the man he was then to the one I’d gotten to know now. If I were to be honest, I found him more attractive now.