Page 79 of Never Bet Against A Hockey Player

She slipped back out of the room, leaving the three of us staring at the envelope.

August smiled. It was the first real smile I’d seen on any of us since Dhara disappeared from our lives.

“She’s fighting,” he whispered, shaking his head. Emotion choked his words and I felt my own chest tighten in response.

He only hesitated for a moment with a smile on his lips before he tore open the envelope. It was bulky and thick enough I knew something more than papers were inside.

“We have some sort of journal,” he muttered as he pulled out the small leather-bound notebook. He held it out and I took it, opening it as a sense of dread filled me. I already knew I wasn’t going to like whatever was written inside.

“‘I’ll never forgive him for leaving me with these brats,’” I read aloud “‘I didn’t even want children and here I am taking care of them like some glorified nanny. If it wasn’t for the money she brings in, I would’ve sold her a long time ago.’”

“I have a feeling that money pertains to these.” August held up another stack of papers he’d pulled from the envelope. Bank statements.

“Gavin has a trust. She’s listed as the custodian and from the look of these has been siphoning money out for years,” he said as he flipped through the documents. “According to these legal papers, she’s supposed to be using that money for a private school and was supposed to use it for Dhara’s university of choice.”

“So, we’re talking tens of thousands of dollars,” Conrad said quietly. His voice sounded as rough as I felt. Our omega could have had a future and this bitch was keeping her there to keep control of these funds.”

“There’s a ledger here, too,” August said, pulling out a second journal. “I’ll have the lawyers look through this one.”

I barely heard him. My focus was on the journal as I flipped through the entries. Every page was another way she’d manipulated Dhara.

“This is fucking vile.” I glanced at the guys before reading another entry aloud. “‘She’s becoming too independent, getting bolder. I’m going to have to break her.’”

“Fucking bitch,” August growled.

But, I wasn’t done.

“‘I lost my cool tonight. I have to be careful before the town wakes the fuck up and starts asking questions. If anyone other than Chief Daniels finds out, I could lose everything else, too.’”

“What’s ‘everything else?’” Conrad asked. I shrugged and held it out for him, unable to stomach reading anything else. He took the journal from my hands and continued flipping through it.

A folded piece of paper drifted onto the floor as he reached the end. I bent down and picked it up. The handwriting wasn’t the same.

“This is Dhara’s note to us,” I breathed out. “Gavin found drugs in the closet of her room. We left them there. It should be enough to get him away from her. If they raid the house, they’ll find it.”

August let out a sharp laugh. “This is it.”

He immediately pulled out his phone and called our lawyer, switching the call to speaker. I quietly shut the office door. The last thing we needed was for anyone to overhear us.

“Do you have something?” Chris Laurant answered on the first ring. He sounded almost eager.

“Do drugs count as something?” August asked.

He quickly explained everything we’d found. The journal. A secret trust fund. Bank statements. A ledger he’d have to decipher.

When he finished, there was a brief silence.

“Is she safe right now?” Chris finally asked on a sigh.

I frowned. “Why don’t I like that question?”

“As far as I know she hasn’t hit her again,” August answered just as carefully. “But there’s no way to really know.”

“I need to dig through the financial records. The stronger our case, the more likely we win. I don’t want to rush this. The drugs alone will absolutely get us into the house. It might even get us an emergency order. But I’m not pulling those kids out just to risk a judge sending them right back.”

“How long?” Conrad demanded. His voice was edged in a growl but our lawyer didn’t react.

“Two days. Give me just two days and I’ll have an ironclad case. I promise.”