The Ex(71)

“I’ve been busy.”

“Nice. Well, now I know why Jack’s wondering if he needs a different lawyer for this bail thing. What’s going on, Olivia?”

So when Jack first got arrested, he only wanted me. Now that I saw the truth, he was ready for someone else. “Maybe he should switch counsel. He could probably get an adjournment. Buy himself some more time.”

“You’re really going to drop him? Are you even allowed to do that after what I’ve paid you?”

“Really, Charlotte, this is about your money? Remember why you guys pushed me to take this case from the beginning? Because I knew Jack, so I’d believe him and work harder for him. Well, I don’t believe him anymore.”

“Will you just tell me what’s going on? Jack said he messed up and lied to you about someone coming to the apartment, but you’ve got him so trained only to talk to his lawyers that he clammed up after that. Did someone mess up his bail by coming over? Jack can’t control that.”

“Do you remember Ross Connor? Owen’s old partner?”

“Drunk gropey Irish boy who tried jamming his sloppy tongue down my throat at Bowery Bar?”

“That’d be the one. I tried to get him to vouch for Jack at his bail hearing, and it led to this whole conversation about Ross thinking Jack has a secret side to him. He said that when he went to tell Jack that Molly was killed, Jack dropped his book bag and condoms fell out. But now Ross has found out that Molly couldn’t even have children anymore. He went to Jack’s apartment hoping he’d say something incriminating.”

“Because of a suspected affair? I hear some people cheat, and it doesn’t make them murderers.”

“The point is, Jack lied to me, and not just about Ross’s little social visit. It’s bad, Charlotte. Seriously bad.”

She rose from my desk and sat next to me at the conference table.

“I’ve had some girlfriends over the years, a couple of them who were really pretty great. But I’m not sure I’ve ever loved anyone the way I love Jack. The way I loved Owen.”

“You guys are like siblings.”

“Not like siblings. We are family. Except better—truly connected. But Jack’s not perfect. No one is. We both know that Owen wasn’t.”

I turned and caught her intense gaze. She knew. I had never told anyone except Melissa the complete story of what happened that night.

That Seiko Jack found on our bed? If he’d looked a little closer, he would have recognized it. The watch belonged to his brother, Owen.

Owen had been with me. Only once, and not for very long. There had always been a silent recognition that we were more alike than Jack and I. Jack even mentioned once that his brother and I had the same kind of energy in the way we talked and moved. We may have looked at each other too long across the table a few times, but neither of us had ever even mentioned the possibility of an attraction.

He stopped by unexpectedly after testifying at the courthouse. I’d just gotten the final rejection letter on my applications for a federal judicial clerkship. It was a plum job, practically a requirement in some circles. It also would have been a reason to bump the wedding for another year. I let Owen console me, and then made it very difficult for him to stop. Like I had convinced myself about Gregg, it just happened.

That’s how Owen was able to meet Jack so quickly after his distraught phone call. Had he come clean with Jack? Or had he just nodded along as the two of them drank into the night?

I still had no idea. All I knew was that six hours after Owen ran out of our apartment saying he couldn’t believe what we had done, he died in a car accident. For the next month, I would sleep on the sofa because I couldn’t bring myself to climb back into that bed.

“How did you know?”

“Owen came to my apartment that night, after you guys—ugh. He was frantic, completely out of his mind. I was pissed as hell, screaming at him for letting himself become yet another notch in your very busy belt. Jesus, Olivia, what the f*ck were you thinking? I always had a feeling you were messing around on Jack, but his brother?”

“I know.” I had nothing else to say for myself.

“And then Jack called Owen’s cell phone, needing someone to talk to. I should have stopped Owen from going. He’d already had three drinks at my place, plus whatever he had with you—and I knew Jack was going to want to drink, too. Owen would have been drunk as a skunk by the time he was driving home. The police somehow managed to leave that out of the reports.”

“Does Jack know?”

She shook her head. “At least, not from me. I’ve never told him, and I never will.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s not for you. It’s for him. That’s not something he needs to learn about his only brother. You know why I never liked you with Jack?”

“Because you and I are so much alike?” I gave her a small smile, which she actually returned.

“You never really understood him. You treated him like a one-dimensional character—the sweet, preppy guy who loved you more than anything. But Jack’s always been more complex than you realized. He loved his parents, but they did a f*cking number on him, because that’s what all parents do. His dad was always angry—resentful that he didn’t have more to give his family. And his mom was always trying to keep the peace. It made Jack learn how to be passive. It’s why he’s always got to play the good guy. It’s not healthy. Everyone’s got to be bad on occasion. Don’t you realize that he was drawn to you because you let him be a little bit naughty? The condoms Ross Connor saw? Jack had affairs. Multiple.”