"Are you ok, babe? You've been moping around the house all day," Craig asked as he walked into the bedroom.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Lucy said, looking away from the picture of her parents she'd been staring at. With the trial coming up, all of the pain she felt about losing her father was coming back, along with all the bad memories of the things that had happened since his death.
"That must have been some fight you had with Eileen last night."
"Please, don't mention her name. I don't want to think about Eileen. She's just one more person in my life that I thought I could trust, but who kept secrets and lied to me instead."
"You can trust me. I've never kept anything from you."
"You're the only one."
"Who else are you talking about?"
"My dad."
"What did he lie about?"
"You don't know?" They had never talked about her father's money problems. At the time she had been too ashamed and hadn't wanted to talked about it. She assumed Craig had heard about it from the news. "He embezzled money from his company and lost it all in bad investments."
"I heard something about that, but that was just the business, right? He just lost the company's money, didn't he?"
Lucy shook her head and sat down in a nearby chair. "No, he lost most of his own money first and then the company's. I had no idea until after he died when I started looking through his financial records. By then, everything was my responsibility to take care of and I had no idea how little he had left."
"Lucy, I had no idea," Craig said, sitting across from her. "You never let on like you were short of money. Look at the house, your fancy country club parties. Why didn't you say anything?"
"I was ashamed, I didn't want anyone to know, not even you. I've been trying to make everything right . . ." She turned the photograph towards her slightly. "I wonder sometimes how things would have been if he hadn't been killed. We'd probably have nothing left by now. He'd probably be in prison for stealing from the company and we'd have to sell the house. I'd probably still be in medical school . . ." she trailed off, leaving the thought that she probably wouldn't have married Craig unspoken.
"You should have told me. We're married, we need to handle these things together."
"It was my problem, my father's problem. It's something I've been trying to fix before we were married."
"Your problems are my problems. So how bad is it? How much do you have?"
"I have enough in my own savings to keep the household running, but just barely. I've had to cut back a lot." Lucy paused, her mind still on what might have been. "Things could have been much worse though. I could have lost the house and the country club along with the rest of what should have been my inheritance."
Craig leaned forward to take her hands in his own. "I think you need a break from all this. I mean, you've been dealing with all of this on your own for a long time and there's nothing else you can do about it, right?" Lucy shrugged. "Let's get out of here. I think we should go back to our original plan. You and Stuart should come with me to the studio."
Lucy jerked back. "I can't do that. I have to be here for the trial. No matter what my father has done, no matter how angry I get at him sometimes, he's still my father. I have to be here to make sure justice is served."
They sat in silence a moment, both lost in their own thoughts until that silence was interrupted by a cry from Stuart in the nursery. Lucy stood up to go check on him, but paused on the way out to kiss Craig on the cheek. "Thank you for listening. I feel a little better being able to talk about all of this with you."
"No problem," Craig said thoughtfully as Lucy left the room.
Victoria drove slowly up the street, being careful of the television vans and reporters gathered in front of the house. She ignored them and stared forward, her face devoid of expression as she made her way past them and into the driveway.
Once she was safely hidden in the garage, she let out a deep sigh. She didn't need this, not now, not on top of everything else that was going on.
After taking a moment to compose herself and return her face to an expressionless mask, she walked out of the garage and went into the house through the back way to avoid the reporters.
When she entered the house she was greeted by the sound of the ringing telephone. She was about to answer it, when she noticed the answering machine light was flashing. The caller was probably just another reporter trying to reach her for a comment. She let the machine answer.
"Victoria, it's Elizabeth. Where are you? You said you'd be at the committee meeting today, but we've been waiting for twenty minutes. Since you're not home and you're not here, we'll have to carry on without you."
Victoria collapsed in a chair and buried her face in her hands. She couldn't believe she had forgotten about her meeting and was being kicked off another committee. Even if she had remembered, she couldn't have gone. Helping her only child had to come first, but she felt like her efforts weren't doing him any good.
When the phone started to ring again, she was tempted to yell at it to be quiet or throw it across the room, but instead she only turned to give it an annoyed glare. She sat up straighter, suddenly struck with an idea. She knew that she was overwhelmed and that she needed help and now she knew exactly who to call.
"Should you tell them or should I, Zara?" Sheila asked.
"Zara, how could you? You really turned him in?"
"Yes, I did, but I didn't mean for him to get arrested. I didn't agree with what he was doing and I couldn't stand by and do nothing when what he was doing could cause someone to get hurt."
"I don't believe this . . ." Lisa said, turning her back on Zara.
"Forget about her," Sheila said. "Thomas doesn't want us to give up. The guys are already planning a protest on this groundbreaking thing today."
The girls headed towards the door, stopping only when they realized Zara was following them.
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to show up after what you did. Do you really think you'll be welcome?" Sheila asked. "How can we trust you?"
"You're kidding me, right?"
"I think she has a good point," Ellie said. "And while we're at it, I'm not sure it's a good idea for us to share a house anymore either. Maybe you should use this time to think about packing and finding a new place to live."
"You're throwing me out?" Zara asked in disbelief. "You can't do that. My name is on the lease, just like yours."
"Maybe we can't make you go, but do you really want to live in a place where you aren't wanted?" Ellie asked, before turning towards the door. "Think about it."
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