Elude [H.S.]

FORTY-THREE

With my hands in my pockets, I lean against the building beside me as my eyes wander around the street. I took a half day from work today so that I could spend the entire afternoon with Maeve. It was the Wednesday after I saw her at Grey and Lyn's, and Conrad wouldn't be back until late Friday evening. Maeve had been using the phone I had given her actively since he wasn't home, and we had FaceTimed every night except for Saturday night. I had finally finished reading "Wuthering Heights" to her Monday evening, and we agreed that we were going to wait to start another book until we were living together.

She suggested it first, and my stomach swirled with excitement to hear her talk about our future in such a way. Even though our situation was the most complicated it had ever been, I knew I made the best decision ever by buying her that phone. The fact I was able to hear her voice anytime I wanted to again, at least until Conrad came home again, was the motivation I needed to keep pushing. I started pushing harder than I had before when it came to closing in on Conrad.

I was so close to getting him. There is one file that I need to be completely finalized, and it's the last piece of evidence I've been waiting on. From what I'm told, it should be done by early next week, and the only thing I need to do is just plug in all the numbers. Every single file I had against Conrad showed that his investment didn't match the investment he had promised the partner on the contract. Somewhere, somehow, he was embezzling money - hoarding it for himself.

Grey had already gotten me in contact with a lawyer in the area whose expertise was business fraud, and I actually met with him over zoom last week to discuss the case. He told me I had a very promising case from the evidence I had prepared to offer him. One thing that I made him guarantee me was that I didn't have to appear in court, and he agreed to that. Although I'm the one that found the evidence, that evidence is going to be forwarded to the partners on the contract via email with the information to contact the lawyer I had hired. If those partners choose to create a case, that would be on them. I wouldn't have to be involved at all.

I did that for two reasons mostly. One reason was the fact that I couldn't bear to sit in a courtroom and stare at that shitty excuse of a man, but the main reason was Maeve. The less we have to encounter Conrad once she's out of that house, the better. I didn't want her to have to be in the same room as him again and feel his eyes on her. I know she'd insist on coming with me, and I know he'd stare her down to intimidate her as much as he could.

Although we wouldn't be in attendance, Grey would be. He assured me he would keep me updated on everything that was happening. Based on the evidence I had already handed over, we were already looking at least twenty years based off of New York law since he was close to embezzling a million dollars. I'm hoping that this last contract will get us a little over the million mark - that would have him going away for at least twenty four years.

I pull my phone out of my pocket to check the time for what seems like the hundredth time, and I see that there's still five minutes until the time Maeve and I had agreed upon. We were going to be grabbing lunch together, and then we'd be walking around the shops downtown. The location we decided on was about thirty minutes outside of the main city, but I didn't mind. It made us feel more safe to be out in the open together - made us feel like we didn't need to hide.