Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (Cactus Creek #3)(16)

Pain abraded her voice as she finished, “He and four other men were the only ones unaccounted for when their chopper went down a few months later.”

“How long was he MIA before they found him?” asked Hudson gently, knowing far too well over the years what kinds of thoughts tortured the imagination when it came to reports of MIA soldiers.

“Leo’s remains were never recovered.”

He frowned. “But they found evidence—” There wasn’t really a kind way to say it…

“That he was presumed dead? No. None.” Lia closed her eyes and said softly, “His mother had him legally declared dead last year not long after the seven-year common law mark. And she did it behind my back.”

Hudson hissed in a breath—appalled for her, angered for her husband.

“Leo’s brother Drew and I found out after she got the death certificate. And while Drew actually had quite a bit of information that could have been used to overturn the ruling—existence of evidence to indicate the possibility of survival, Drew didn’t exactly obtain the information…legally.” She glanced around as if the trees might have ears. “Drew’s a hacker. And while he was willing to suffer the consequences the confession would have brought, I wasn’t willing to let him throw his future away.”

“I don’t get it,” Hudson pressed further. “Even without the evidence, couldn’t you get it overturned somehow as his wife?” Instantly, he wished he could call the question back when he saw frustration and anguish mar Lia’s expression.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry—”

“No, it’s okay. Leo’s mother’s lawyer informed me that if I fought the death certificate, they would fight back. Basically, they were prepared to drag in the fact that my marriage was never consummated, and since we’d never cohabitated or shown any other signs of a married couple to any witnesses, they were going to introduce the speculation that perhaps Leo had been persuaded under duress by me to make this rash decision just a few days pre-deployment. I’d only had a few months being married to him and they were prepared to tarnish every day of that short period completely. When Drew found out, he told the lawyers to stop. He vowed then and there he’d find another way. Then he told his mother to never speak to him again.”

Hudson was at a complete loss for words. His parents had never been in the running for any parental awards as far as he was concerned but Leo’s mom made them look like lifetime achievement winners in comparison. “Honey, that’s horrible. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I can’t even imagine why a mother would want to do something like that.”

“That’s the thing. She said she was doing it for Drew. Because he’d been so obsessed all these years with finding his brother that she couldn’t watch him continue to do this to himself. Horrifically misguided as her actions were, I had honestly believed her intentions were honorable, that she was trying to be a mother to him for once. Getting back at me, though probably satisfying, probably wasn’t a factor.”

“What do you mean?”

Lia sighed. “She blames me. For having Drew get taken away from her in the first place. Leo and Drew’s mother was—is—an alcoholic; she had been their entire lives. Leo basically raised Drew. For a while there, he was actually considering not enlisting for another four or five years, until after Drew was at least halfway through high school. But their mom had seemingly turned a new leaf Leo’s senior year. She’d been sober for over ten months, going to her meetings, holding down a job, making them meals every night—the whole nine yards. She knew how important this was to Leo so she told him not to worry about them. So Leo enlisted.”

“According to Drew, the day we found out Leo’s chopper went down was the day their mom started drinking again. It got pretty bad. And since Drew was only twelve at the time, I asked Caine to step in and within a month, Drew was officially the Spencer’s newest foster child, living in my old room all the way until last year, when he graduated from high school with honors.” She smiled. “He received his pick of cyber security undergraduate programs, and ended up in Texas on a full ride scholarship.”

Hudson marveled again at the power of a good family like the Spencers. Drew’s mom could’ve easily ruined Drew’s life with her downward spiral. “You said you ‘had’ believed her intentions were honorable. You don’t believe it anymore?”

“We—and by we, I mean Drew—found out later that she’d apparently had some sort of check-the-box-now-and-figure-it-out-later company life insurance benefit on Leo back when Leo had been an only child and she’d been sober with a good-paying desk job. Even after she’d left the job, this financial advisor guy she’d been dating at the time apparently helped her roll it over somehow. According to her emails—don’t ask—she thought she’d been paying for just her own life insurance this whole time. When she’d tried to cancel it to save some money, evidently, that’s when she found out she could get paid out if she declared Leo dead.”

A flash of bitterness mixed with supreme disappointment darkened her gaze. “She applied for the money the very day the death certificate was issued.”

Even though Lia seemed less than comfortable about Drew’s hacking abilities, Hudson knew how valuable an asset it was. “You mentioned Drew had some evidence that Leo might have possibly survived—did he report his findings to the military liaison in charge of Leo’s case?”