Page 50 of The Billionaire and His Forever

“That’s right, love.” I place my hands gently on her shoulders and look into her eyes. “But even so, the police are checking out every single possibility. They have to make sure that Abbie wasn’t involved. That’s their job.”

Jude frowns. “But they can’t arrest people if they don’t have any proof, right?”

“They can’tkeeppeople without proof. And they did not keep Abbie. There is no proof.”

“Then why isn’t she here? Did she go back to Uncle Ford’s house?”

“No. She’s still in the city. The police want her to stay close by, in case they have to talk to her some more,” I tell her. “But soon they’ll figure out the truth: Abbie absolutely did not hurt your mother. The police are just being very thorough because it’s a very serious situation.”

“Did they want to talk to you, too? You were there that night. So was I.”

I hesitate. We told Jude I was on a business trip while I was locked up. She would have been none the wiser about the entire situation if the police hadn’t crashed my wedding.

“They did talk to me,” I say, leaning on as much truth as I can without spilling my guts. “But I didn’t stay long.” Which is not entirely inaccurate.

“But what if…what if Abbie did hurt Mommy?” Jude asks worriedly.

“She didn’t,” I say firmly. “I don’t think anyone hurt your mother. I think she took too much of her medicine and it made her very sick. That’s all it was. The police will realize this soon, too, and then Abbie will be able to come home. I think it is a very unfortunate situation.”

Jude nods. She doesn’t look at me anymore, just picks at the skin around her thumbnail. I see a tear trickle down her face, but she wipes it away.“When can I see Mommy again? And when is Abbie coming home? This isn’t fair.”

My chest hurts. “I know, love. We’ll visit your mother again soon.”Even though she’s a lying whore, I think to myself bitterly. “Once she’s feeling like herself again, and the doctors say she’s able to have visitors, we’ll go see her. You have my word. And Abbie will be home just as soon as she can. It’s a lot of waiting, I know, but I’m here now. We can wait it out together.”

Jude sighs, her entire demeanor dragging down into the same cesspool I feel myself sinking into. We both can’t be depressed about this. I have to be strong for my daughter.

“Why don’t we go riding?” I say. When in doubt, always rely on horses with Jude. Still, she doesn’t perk up, only shrugs her shoulders, her eyes trained on the marble countertop. “Maybe some fresh air will help clear our heads.”

“I want Abbie.” Jude sniffs. “I want Abbie to come riding with us.”

I encase her hand in mine. “I do, too. But we can go without her, just this once.”

“Maybe we can go stay with her in New York,” Jude suggests.

“I wish we could. But it’s best to stay here right now. There’s a lot going on with her and the police, still—she’s got quite a lot on her plate at the moment. But try not to worry. We have a whole team of lawyers working with the police to help figure this out.” I squeeze her hand again. “We’ll get through this, Jude. For now, let’s get our riding gear on, and I’ll have Cassie get the horses ready. I think we could both use some time in the saddle.”

Jude nods her head and slides off the stool without saying another word. I hate this for her. I hate this for me. I hate this for Abbie. It’s a miserable turn for all of us.

After a quick call to Cassie to ready the horses, I head to my room to change, silently cursing Natasha the whole time. As I’m pulling up my jodhpurs, I get a call from the PI handling my case. I slip into my bathroom, shut the door, and answer it.

“This is quite the goddamn case,” Daniel says by way of greeting. “I’m still working on clearing Miss Montgomery, but I wanted to check in because I’ve discovered something else that needs your immediate attention.”

I scrub my hand over my face and take a deep, steadying breath. I can’t let myself spiral right now. “I’m listening.”

“There’s some money missing from one of your accounts.”

“Okay… How much is ‘some’?”

There’s a pause. “Uh. A significant amount.”

“Daniel.”

He sighs. “Two million dollars. She stole two million dollars from you.”

“What did you just say?” I must have heard him wrong.

“One of your business accounts is short two million dollars, Mr. Ratliff. It was wire transferred to an offshore account in Miss Montgomery’s name.”

“That’s impossible.”

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