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“That lady ain’t lying,” said Juanita.

“What lady?” William’s father asked. This part was news to him too.

“Cassidy,” Frank said.

“Cassidy?” William was incredulous. “What are you talking about? What does Cassidy have to do with this?”

Fiona pressed the button again. “Send her in,” she said, and within seconds William’s ex-lover Cassidy walked in.

Joy remembered her from that country club too. She was the one who became angry with William when he introduced Joy as his girlfriend. Joy knew she was his ex-lover.

“Tell them what you told me, dear,” Fiona said.

“I don’t even know this woman,” Joy said.

“Shut up and listen,” Fiona said.

“Don’t you dare talk to my wife that way,” said William. “Don’t you dare, Mother. Don’t you dare.”

Fiona angrily looked at her husband to defend her honor. But he frowned. “What are you looking at me for? Keep me out of it. I told you whatever you was cooking up wouldn’t work. William is his own man. Always has been and always will be. You’re wasting your time, mine, and everybody else’s too.”

“Tell him what you told me, Cassidy,” Fiona said.

Cassidy wasn’t as self-assured as she had been when she first walked in, but she remained confident. “I went to this person,” she said, motioning toward Joy, “and told her I would pay her two hundred thousand dollars if she left you. She accepted my money, apparently just in case you called off the wedding, because she married you anyway. But she kept my money.”

It was so far-fetched to Joy that she couldn’t help but smile. This was insanity to her!

But it seemed to hit a nerve with William. He was accustomed to women using him for money. It was jarring to hear Joy’s name associated with such behavior.

“Ask her about her bank account,” Fiona said.

William frowned. “What bank account?” His accounts were her bank accounts. He didn’t know her to have anything separate.

“Her bank account in Indiana,” said Cassidy. “That’s where she told me to deposit the money. And I did,” she added as she looked accusatorially at Joy.

William didn’t look at Joy. He wasn’t about to play their game. But William’s father looked at her. “You have a bank account in Indiana, young lady?” he asked her. That much concerned him too.

But Joy didn’t see what the problem was. “Yes, I have a bank account. It’s in my name and Gramps name in case something happens to me. I deposit all my pay checks into that account for him.”

“Or for you when it don’t work out with William,” said Juanita.

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking,” said Fiona. Then she looked at Frank. “Does her bank account show a huge deposit?”

“Yes ma’am, it does,” Frank said. “Two-hundred thousand dollars, deposited by Miss Cassidy, just before the wedding.”

William was shocked that Joy had a bank account she never mentioned to him. And equally shocked that she didn’t notice a quarter of a million dollars deposited in an account that couldn’t have too much money in it if it was only her junior executive paycheck being put there. But he still wouldn’t look at her. He still wouldn’t give anybody in that room the satisfaction.

“Show it to William,” Fiona said to Frank.

Frank quickly pulled a bank statement out of a folder he had in his hands and gave it to William. William looked at it, and Joy did too. Remarkably, there was that huge deposit was in her account, and it did happen just before their wedding, and it was deposited by Cassidy.

William looked at Joy. “You knew about this?”

But Joy was crushed. And shaking her head. She couldn’t believe it either. “No. I didn’t know anything about that kind of money being put in my account. It was just supposed to be the few paychecks I made so far and put in there. You take care of me, so I take care of Gramps by making sure he has access to my paycheck if he needs it. He won’t take any money from me now, but if something happens to me it’ll be there for him.” She looked at William. “William, I swear.”

“You don’t have to do that,” William said as he pulled her against him.

“She reneged on our agreement,” said Cassidy, “so I want every dime of it back.”