“The firm has decided these court appointments take up too much billable time. We will no longer be accepting them,” he said.

“That’s fine for next time, but not this case.” She could hear her voice getting tighter and louder, matching his. After a few deep breaths, she tried again. “We need to send a message to people like the Bartholomews that we do not fold. Then, in the future, when their friends want tough and determined lawyers, they’ll come to us.”

He grabbed the draft motion and crumpled it in his fist. “That is wildly naïve.”

But she sensed she’d gotten through, if only a little. “I’ve been called worse.”

“You better have a very clean house. Like it or not, this custody case may turn on your believability.”

“I shouldn’t be in the spotlight. This is about Curtis’s best interests.”

He shoved the wadded-up paper in his pocket. “Talk like that makes me doubt your ability to make it in this profession.”

Chapter Twenty
Gabby

Gabby sat at Liam’s dining room table and looked through financial documents. These belonged to Fielding Enterprises, the family business. She pretended to be interested, but the work wasn’t exactly sexy. Lucrative, yes, and that’s what Baines had focused on. Building an empire. Guaranteeing financial security for the family for generations to come. He used to talk about those dreams, but none of them hinted at stealing money.

“Here.” Liam set down a fresh pot of coffee on the table between them.

“This will be my fourth cup.”

He winked. “My third pot, so I have you beat.”

This wasn’t how she intended to spend her Saturday, but when she came over to ask Liam a few questions about the bombshell he’d dropped, she found him plowing through paperwork. Boxes and boxes of it.

He said he’d grabbed copies of everything he gave to the auditors and brought it all home for a personal look. She dove in with him. Between them they had a law degree and a business degree and years of street savvy. Hers had dulled with age, but she hoped it still lingered somewhere in the background.

She looked at the list of vendors and saw debits to the accounts. Some of the checks didn’t line up with Fielding Enterprises’ actual bills. The deducted money went somewhere, and she feared the answer was into Baines’s pocket.

Tension swirled around the quiet room. Liam’s shoulders stiffened as he traced payments. Today, he stayed casual, jeans and a T-shirt. Every now and then he would wince or swear under his breath.

She tried to lighten the weight pressing down on the room. “Some of these are the documents Baines insisted didn’t exist during the divorce.”