really wasn’t much of a department. Lucy was the only staff member with a law degree. She was the one who would help women obtain orders of protection or act as a legal advocate when needed.
“We’re going to figure this out,” she said to Paige before following Hannah out. “I promise.”
“I know better than to argue with you. You always win.”
Lucy winked. “Exactly.”
A woman fidgeted in the chair outside Paige’s office. Her designer clothes weren’t part of the usual wardrobe of an Open Arms’s client. Wealth didn’t make anyone immune from abuse, but it could keep some women from accepting aid. The woman sported rings on several fingers, except the ring finger on her left hand. That one was empty, and the woman kept staring at it as if something was missing. Her face lifted at the sound of Paige’s opening door.
Lucy recognized her as soon as their eyes met. Nora had been here a few months back, spent no more than a week at Safe Haven before disappearing. The angry red mark on her cheek spoke volumes about where she’d been since she left.
“Nora, right?”
Nora’s gaze fell to her feet, as if she was ashamed of being recognized. “I’m really sorry to bother you.”
“You’re not bothering me. Come on, let’s go talk in my office.” Lucy often amazed herself with how calm she could sound at moments like this, even though all she wanted to do was find the man who had put his hands on this woman and give him a taste of his own medicine.
Lucy’s office was really more like a glorified closet with one small window that provided an excellent view of a parking lot. The cramped space left little room for more than a desk and two chairs, but it had a door and provided them with some needed privacy. She invited Nora to sit and took her own seat behind the desk. Unlike Paige, Lucy had an almost obsessive need to keep her things orderly.
“As sorry as I am that you’ve found yourself in need of our assistance, I’m happy you’re allowing us to be here for you. How can I help?”
Nora bit her bottom lip and lifted her purse into her lap. “I’m not sure anyone can help me.” She began to dig through the seemingly bottomless bag. “I wasn’t going to come, but there was nowhere else to go.”
“I hear that a lot, actually.” Most of the women who came to Open Arms had a million reasons why they shouldn’t be there. They had lived with the shame and the fear so long, it prevented them from believing they could escape. “I’m more helpful than people think.”
The woman set a manila folder on Lucy’s desk. “I’m pretty sure my husband has something in these files that can get me in trouble, but I don’t know what it is.”
Lucy often helped women obtain an order of protection or explained the confusing language lawyers and courts loved to throw at the layman. This was the first time someone had come to her about something a bit more complicated.
The folder was filled with bank statements, spreadsheets, invoices and other financial documents. As Lucy perused the paperwork, Nora told her story. She and her husband had met at work when she was hired as his personal assistant seven years ago. He had climbed the corporate ladder quickly. The more money he made, the bigger his ego—and temper—grew. They had still just been dating the first time he hit her, but she’d believed him when he remorsefully pleaded for her forgiveness and promised it would never happen again.
He had lied.
Instead of breaking things off, Nora had believed she could change Wade by proving her love and married him six months into their relationship. The only one who changed, however, was Nora. Wade quickly had her cut ties with everyone in her life. She’d been “encouraged” to stop talking to her parents, her brother and her friends. Wade had told her they didn’t care about her the way he did, weren’t responsible for her the way he was.
As she became more isolated, he became more controlling. He picked out all her clothes, told her when to get her hair cut, had rules about how she should clean the house. When she didn’t comply, she was punished. If he left marks, he made her stay home, and since he was her boss, no one questioned it.
Wade soon left his job to start his own wealth management corporation with a couple of other guys, taking Nora with him. It had been his way of removing all her social connections outside of him.
Alone and unable to meet her husband’s unreasonable standards, Nora had considered several means of escape. Some were more desperate than others. There was no telling what she would have done if she hadn’t seen a flyer for Open Arms tacked on a bulletin board at the coffee shop where she bought Wade’s morning latte.
“I’m grateful for everything Open Arms did for me, but when I left him the first time, he sent me a warning via my mother. He said if I didn’t come home, he would have no choice but to tell the world about what I had done. I hadn’t done anything, but that didn’t mean he had nothing to tell. Wade doesn’t make idle threats.”
“I see you have several accounts in your name—that was smart,” Lucy said, paging through the other files. It would take time to make sense of all this.
“I thought about opening up an account a couple of years ago. I figured if I ever wanted to leave, I was going to need some cash. The only problem was Wade watched every penny and nickel I spent—my checks from work were deposited directly into our joint account. There was no way for me to funnel money into anything.”
Lucy was confused. The statements in the folder were for three separate bank accounts, all in Nora’s name. “You didn’t open these?”
Nora shook her head. “I came across all that by accident. He was hiding it in a drawer in his office at home.” She pulled out a flash drive. “This, too. I don’t know what’s on it, but I have a feeling it’s all connected.”
“You need a lawyer.” Lucy had heard some crazy things working here, but this was the wildest of them all.
“That’s why I’m here. You’re a lawyer, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“I have no credit cards, no access to the money in our joint account, nothing. All I have is this.” She pulled out an envelope with several hundred-dollar bills in it. “I pawned my wedding ring this morning. You can have it all if you’ll help me.”
Lucy knew better than to take this case. It had trouble written all over it. Yet, if there was one thing Lucy couldn’t resist, it was putting someone in their place.
“That’s your money. My services are free.”
Nora sighed with relief. “Thank you.” Her teeth dug into her bottom lip again. “One more thing—he’s going to kill me when he finds out I took all of these files.”
“Not if I can help it,” Lucy said with a sure smile. She wasn’t afraid of anyone.
* * *
PAIGE HAD SET UP a meeting with the board a few days later, and with Lucy’s help she’d convinced them to hold off on accepting any offers before they put forth their best efforts to save Safe Haven. However, the board also thought it was important to meet with the prospective buyers to hear them out, at least.
Lucy
