The Sassy Belles by Beth Albright

Harry sank down on the couch. “I knew it,” he
muttered. “What happened?”
    Lewis explained this new mess he was in. Harry and I had been
married about four years at the time, and this was at least the sixth time that
I’d seen Lewis in trouble.
    “The investment didn’t work.”
    Harry and I looked at each other as if to say, “Duh.”
    “We got that part,” I said. “What happened?”
    “I’m in trouble.” He kept his head down.
    “What now?” Harry said.
    “This time it’s really bad.”
    “Lewis, what the hell happened?” Harry pushed.
    “The company was illegal.”
    “What?” Harry stepped closer to him. “What company? What do you
mean illegal?”
    “It was all fake, Harry, a money-laundering scheme.”
    “How much of it is gone?” Harry asked.
    “All five million. All of mine plus some of Mother’s.”
    Something seemed to break for Harry at that moment. His
practiced stoicism, his perfectly calm and always unruffled demeanor suddenly
cracked. He grabbed Lewis by the front of his shirt. “Tell me everything, you
sorry bastard! Now!”
    “I invested part of Mother’s money and all of mine into a new
radio franchise. A new national network.” Lewis was shaking, his usually clear
voice nearly inaudible.
    “We sold all of this advertising. They were out of Baltimore.
All of the money was coming out of Birmingham. They told us we were on the
satellite and soon every station in the country doing talk would be carrying us
so we sold the advertising.”
    “You sold advertising on a phony network?” Harry broke in.
    “Now the Baltimore group has shut down and disappeared. No
station, no advertising, no money.”
    “That’s an FCC violation, you idiot!”
    “I know, Harry, but eventually the network was going to carry
the advertising. We were sold a bill of goods. But now there’s no network and
all five of us from the Birmingham group will go to jail. Harry, you’ve got to
get us off.”
    “You knew you were selling ads on something that didn’t exist
yet,” Harry shouted, infuriated. He was in shock. We all were. Lewis had outdone
himself. This was by far his biggest mess.
    “Yes, but we’d have millions as soon as we turned on the
satellite. It would be instant. Tuscaloosa would be carrying the new network,
too,” Lewis continued, his voice high and shaky—clearly he was living a
nightmare.
    “Would be, should be—but none of it worked! Why the hell did
you do it, Lewis?” Harry walked away throwing his arms up in the air.
    Lewis stood up. His face went from fearful to pissed off in
less than two seconds. In a clear, low voice, Lewis quietly answered, “Because
of you, Harry. I wanted, for once, to be better. To be right. To show you I
could outdo you.”
    “Well, look at yourself, Lewis. Happy? Mother’s life will never
be the same. Over five million dollars of Dad’s hard-earned money is gone
because of Lewis, the joke. Not only have you hurt Mother, you’ve stolen from
her and lied to both of us. You’ve dragged the family name down in the mud with
you. I hardly know what to say. I’ll defend you, Lewis, but only because you’re
my blood, and I wouldn’t dare disgrace my own family the way you would. After
that you’re on your own. I don’t even want to know you anymore.”
    Lewis stood still, emotionally beaten to a pulp. He was
unsteady on his feet as he moved across the room toward the front door.
    “No, thanks,” he said. “I’m on my own as of now.” And with
that, he slammed the front door and walked out on Harry.
    They hadn’t spoken since that fiasco nearly six years ago.
Lewis and his cronies hired some high-powered Birmingham lawyers who got them
off with some stiff fines and six months’ prison time at some posh, white-collar
camp outside Atlanta. Charged and convicted of investment fraud and some FCC
violations, Lewis eventually returned to Tuscaloosa stronger and even more
determined to make loads of money.
    With that all behind him, Lewis