“Which is why you should listen to me. What happened had nothing to do with Baines being despondent or suicidal. We both know that’s true. He compartmentalized. Kept his emotions separate from the business.” He hadn’t always been that way. He’d been driven. Determined to give Kennedy the financial stability he’d lacked growing up, but at some point a switch clicked and he changed. “Not sure when he learned that skill, but he’d refined it by the time we divorced.”

“I’m talking about you, Gabby.” Liam’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. “The alimony stops.”

The words sat there, heavy and damning. She hadn’t read the support or other financial provisions in the divorce agreement in months, but she knew some of them would matter now. She just hadn’t had time to figure out how they worked together or what they mean for her now. “You can’t think—”

“The insurance policy he bought to protect the alimony in case something happened to him, a provision your attorney insisted on, has a self-injury clause for the first two years.” He hesitated before continuing. “The clause was in effect for forty-one more days. His suicide means you don’t get ongoing support. No alimony. No insurance that protected the alimony.”

Her brain scrambled. The reality of that loss ran right up against her frustration that he thought she cared about the money right now. “And because of that you think I’m making up the story about the intruder?”

“Honestly? It would be better for you financially if someone had killed Baines.”

Chapter Nine
Jessa

Jessa wasn’t sure why she’d been pulled into an emergency meeting with a few of her bosses. She’d hoped, after being an associate for an embarrassing number of years, and on a hamster wheel of obscene billable hours, that they’d called her in to talk about finally making partner—a position she should have achieved at least five years ago, but switching firms had temporarily derailed her.

Looking around, she saw a group of people, all at the top of their field. None of them smiling. Nothing telegraphed congratulations.

Shit.

She mentally ran through her caseload and never-ending to-do list. Exhaustion pulled at her because she’d stayed in the office until almost midnight last night, finishing discovery responses and documents before they were sent to opposing counsel this morning. Messing up and missing an important filing deadline was more than unforgivable. It amounted to malpractice and likely a one-way ticket out of the profession.

She thought about the agreements she needed to write and the draft order a judge wanted to review tomorrow. Every t had been crossed, as far as she knew, but just barely. “Is something wrong?”