Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 129084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
“Forget about the bail money, Noah. Will you let her spend time with Max? She wants a baby, so maybe that will help until she gets pregnant.”
Loch has always been the most uptight of my siblings. He says it’s because he had to be the responsible one. He’s probably right. But this also provides a lot of opportunities to fuck with him. “Babysitting doesn’t actually produce a baby of your own.” God, I love teasing him. “Did Dad never go over the birds and bees with you?”
“I’m hanging up the phone.”
I’d almost forgotten why I called him. “Wait. Loch?”
“I’m busy.”
“I think I was hired to take the fall in a money laundering scheme.”
I hear him sigh heavily, but being the awesome older brother he is, he calls out, “Leisa, reschedule my next call.” There’s a pause, but then he says to me, “We have five minutes. Did you do anything illegal?”
“No.”
“Good,” he replies, his tone turning firm. I imagine it’s the same one he uses in court—all business and no fun. “Send me one thousand dollars electronically. That payment will establish the attorney-client relationship, and you can pay the rest of the retainer when we hang up.”
I send the money, listing what it’s for to document everything. “It’s done.”
“Received. Okay, listen to me. Everything you tell me from this point on is protected by attorney-client privilege. What dirt do they have on you?”
“None. Dirty business belongs in the bedroom, not the boardroom.” Some progress is finally being made with traffic moving again, but not enough to celebrate.
“If found guilty, a money laundering conviction can lead to substantial prison time.”
“Are we talking country club prison or doing hard time?”
“This is serious, Noah. Manhattan district attorneys don’t fuck around with their charges. Not that I can’t beat them, but it’s always better not to end up with the charges in the first place.”
I hear what he’s saying, but levity is necessary when I probably should have quit as soon as I found out. Now, I’m mixed up in this mess. “Look, I’ve known about this for months, but I didn’t quite have all the pieces.”
“Now you do?”
“No, but I have enough to see what’s happening.”
“Who else knows? Liv? She’s in accounting. Does she know, or can she be implicated?”
This isn’t my world, but I’m starting to realize that the associations alone can destroy our lives. Fucking hell. “They’ve circumvented her on these expenses. Her father approved them, but her name is on there as well because she has to enter them into the system.”
“That’s not good.”
Max and I can’t lose her. I won’t let her take the fall. I’ll do anything necessary to keep my family together.
He says, “I need to know what I’m dealing with. Is your name on any of the documents?”
“My name is clean, but I’m expected to sign the contracts I just received. That’s why I called you.”
“Don’t sign anything. And if you have proof, you need to send electronic copies to yourself through email. It’s free protection. That provides a date and time stamp if they go in and alter the documents. Though an x-ray audit can find all the traces of changes made to prove they were doing a cover-up. Your documents add to the evidence.” His sobering tone should worry me, but I know I haven’t done anything to contribute to wrongdoing in this case. “Do you plan to blow the whistle?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“You have a choice. Between right and wrong, saving yourself the trouble and moving on, or even ignoring, though I wouldn’t advise the last one.”
“So you’re saying I don’t?”
“I can’t legally advise you on that aspect as it could blow back on me. An anonymous tip could always be left, a file leaked. Dad is almost retired, but I imagine he’d keep things legally off the record if you want his advice.”
“And you can’t?”
“I have a career ahead of me, a law firm to run, and a family to take care of. As your brother, what I can say is that you don’t owe anybody anything. You can walk today and let it come out another way. Unfortunately, you could also be dragged back into this mess years from now. How the law views what you should report is not the same thing as telling you to go live life without reporting a crime.”
“So I’m fucked?”
“No. You didn’t do anything.” There’s an extended pause before he says, “But Liv needs an attorney. Today.”
I scrub my hand over my face. “I’ve kept her out of the details to spare her from this shit.” I’m mad at myself for even hinting at an issue with her. It may have been earlier on in discovery, but that could infer she was aware.
“If her name is on there, they’ll go after her.”
“We have to protect her, Loch.”