Justice For Juniper (Tatienne Richard) novel Chapter 2

“Why are you doing this?” she asked suddenly, looking at Phineas.

“I’m not doing fuck all. Don’t you want to know whether or not your husband is double-dipping?”

“You’re not a nice person.”

The words sounded lame and weak as far as insults go but it was all she had as she sat here reeling.

“Tell you what,” he leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers over his chest. “Here’s what we’ll do. Adil will sit outside your building tonight. You observe your husband’s behavior. If you even feel the slightest bit he’s messing with your devotion, send Adil a text and he’ll wait for Kyst to walk out with the bag of garbage. He’ll install the three cameras. Tomorrow, we’ll throw a viewing party right here. If I’m wrong and the reason she is there is to simply rearrange your furniture or he’s planning a surprise interior design for you, then no harm no foul.”

“There is harm and foul if I don’t trust my husband and I put cameras in my house!”

“Wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry.”

“I’d rather not have this conversation at all!” she was starting to feel her patience waning.

“Here,” Adil held his phone out.

“What?” she looked at it like it had three heads.

“Photos of your husband and her at a coffee shop last Friday. This is her entering the building you live in on the Wednesday before. Maybe it is innocent. As you said, he’s a nice man and maybe he’s simply cheering up a sad woman, but wouldn’t you like to be certain?”

There was no mistaking it. The man in the photo sitting across from the blonde bombshell in the café was her husband Kyst. They weren’t touching. They were each holding their own cups of coffee. The photo seemed relaxed, and the lawyer that he was, if she’d stumbled across them in person, she would presume he was simply meeting a client.

Yet, it was also no denying it was the same woman in the other photo entering her apartment block.

“Well, what’s it going to be Juniper? You in? Are we catching dirty cheating liars together or will I need to find another way to catch them?”

She glared at him, but he continued anyway.

“Before you run out of here screaming and crying,” Phineas continued, “I don’t intend to destroy your marriage callously. I know you love this guy. If you want to stay with him after we bust them, I’m sure my parents could recommend a great marital counsellor. After all, my mother has stayed with him after three, four affairs over the last forty years. I’ll pay for it. Discretely of course. However, if you find you want to be as rid of the marriage as I do, for several reasons of course, yours being betrayal, lies and the risk of an STD since she’s allegedly allergic to latex,” he made a face, “another reason I wouldn’t touch her because I’m not impregnating her, then we’re you’re there for you.”

“What?”

“Why do you hate your wife?”

Benicio snickered and Adil leaned back in his own seat kicking his feet straight out.

Adil shot her a look, “I love this story!” he gritted through clenched teeth his eyes bright with excitement.

“Her grandfather and mine were army buddies. Her grandfather saved my grandfather’s life and almost died as a result. He lost half of his leg. My grandfather’s family were wealthy. Hers was not. My grandfather wanted to take care of his buddy, but her grandfather was a proud man, a good man and instead of cash asked for a job when they left the army. Her grandfather worked hard. Eventually he made enough money so he could start his own business. They remained the best of friends until he died. My father and her father are good friends, with their fathers taking them on camping trips and all the manly man things. When we were kids, I was introduced to Denise. My grandfather made jokes about us finally being able to join the family, but I wasn’t interested. She does nothing for me. Regardless, he’s my grandfather. Her grandfather took sick last year. Prostate cancer and he died almost right away. My grandfather said on his deathbed the old man asked him to take care of Denise. My grandfather and father’s version of agreement was to say I’d marry her.”

“Still don’t see why any of this is her fault,” Juniper wrinkled her nose, grateful she’d grown up dirt poor in a single-family household, so she’d never been married off like this.

“The minute the bitch knew what my grandfather was plotting she saw dollar signs. Because her grandfather was such a hardworking man, he believed his children needed to work for themselves. He left most of his money to charity. Her father is the same way. They don’t give to her needlessly. She needs to work. She’s an interior designer. Decent at her job. She found out though that she was going to be hitched to a billionaire, and she was really excited. I, fool that I was, didn’t think she was such a money-grubbing bitch at first and believed she was as good of a human being as her grandfather and father. I thought I could do my grandfather proud; despite the fact I wasn’t attracted to her at all. Family and all that. Then the day of the wedding rolls around and I see her true colors.