“And you liked this idea.”

Harvey’s expression was rueful. “I can’t overstate how impossible it was not to get swept up in his ideas. He was there every time I turned around. So I did it. I paid for an initial shipment. Immediately, Charles suggested I not tell the staff; let it be a surprise. Since they made jokes about my mascot, he told me I didn’t need to hear any negativity about my new project.”

“Staff would ask too many questions,” Felicity deduced. “Raise doubts about how you were spending the donation?”

“I think so. I shrugged and went with it. I also managed all my transactions in a way Mrs. Brooks wouldn’t notice, at least for a while.”

“How could you hide all this from her?”

“Mrs. Brooks might be a decent self-taught office manager, but I’m an experienced bookkeeper and know more than a few tricks. Tricks such as shifting office payments around in ways that aren’t immediately obvious to the untrained eye. I did that to maintain the surprise.” He rolled his eyes. “I do know how this sounds, by the way. I feel so stupid.”

Felicity gave him a sympathetic look. “Go on.”

“Then Charles talked me into ordering a few more animals. And a few more. Then it was, ‘Have you thought of trying to start a collectible craze? People passionate about a breed would love to have exactly that animal.’ He reminded me often he was a merchandising expert. He was so convincing. And any time I had concerns, he’d take me to lunch.” Harvey’s face fell.

“What is it?”

“I came to hate those lunches. By the third drink, he’d remind me who my wife was. How successful. How sought after. How lucky I was she’d even looked in my direction. Me, a lowly man of no social standing and limited worth. He chipped away at my self-confidence for months until I started to really wonder what Rosalind sees in me at all.” He slumped. “You have to understand, I used to wonder that in the first place before I realized it didn’t matter. But Charles pulled me back into that dark place and had me really dwell on my doubts.”

“Why?” Felicity asked, aghast.

“Because he’s rat cunning.” Harvey’s eyes were wet with tears. “My Rosalind is incredible. Beautiful and smart, and she always tells these clever little jokes she tailors just for me. She brings my dog into bed with us if she senses I’m feeling down. On top of that, she gave me our beautiful daughter. I used to think I was the luckiest man alive to have her. Thanks to Charles, I started to feel like the unworthiest man alive.”

Harvey wrung his hands. “I know the way people look at me when they find out who Rosalind married. The surprise, the amusement. They can’t work it out. And I feel so ashamed I’m not more for her.”

“What an awful feeling that must be,” Felicity murmured, appalled.

“It’s horrible.” His reddened eyes met hers. “These past two months, Charles has been reminding me constantly that he’s very close to his sister and knows what impresses her. He made me feel desperate to prove I could be worthy of her. He made me believe that if I created a huge fundraising hit for Living Ruff, she’d be impressed. I just wanted her to look at me with pride.”

“What makes you believe she doesn’t already?” Felicity asked. “Harvey, I’ve heard Rosalind talk about you. She loves you completely.”

“A man sees only his reflection,” Harvey mused, and gave her a long, sad look. “In other words, we see what we expect to.”

Felicity nodded. Very true.

“So after the landslide happened and Charles was in my ear about ordering big to get Shenzhen back up and running sooner, I thought this was it. I’d make a grand play and pray it paid off. Charles said I wouldn’t regret it.” His shoulders sank. “I did almost immediately. It just felt…not smart, but I also kept trying to push aside my doubts.”

“And so by then, Charles had gotten all of Elena’s money.”

Harvey’s head snapped up. “Oh, Charles didn’t get a cent. I’m not a complete idiot, although I do feel it. When I did my first transfer, I had my bank confirm that the financial account details Charles gave me really were for Shenzhen Industries.”

“Then how did Charles benefit?” Felicity asked, lost. “Does he have someone working for him over there? Someone to funnel the money back to him?”

“No.” Harvey sighed. “He didn’t need to. The scam never involved him getting money. His bank balance would be the same today as it was six months ago.”

Score one for Saul. “I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t either at first. I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to work out what he was up to if it weren’t for Darlene. We talk whenever I’m in Charles’s store. She’s great.” His eyes glazed over in blissful wonder for a moment before he said, “I think I’m in love with her Pembroke Welsh corgi. It’s the most adorable thing. Darlene puts Sammy in shows. He’s won ribbons. Corgis are so overlooked—”

“Can we please focus?” Felicity cut in, sensing he was warming up for a long, meaningless story.

“Oh. Yes. Sorry. I was bemoaning to Darlene about the landslide and wondering how long we’d have to wait to get our orders. She gave me the blankest look and said, ‘What do you mean, wait? What delays?’”

“Uh-oh.”

“Exactly. Long story short, she took me into the storeroom, and it was lined with boxes from Shenzhen. She pointed out one batch. ‘Last month.’ Another batch. ‘Two months ago.’ And… ‘Yesterday.’”

“And the con was exposed just like that.”

“You’d think so.” He gave her a look of dismay. “But my confused brain couldn’t put the pieces together immediately because I kept rejecting the idea that a man I trusted—family—would betray me.”

“When did you realize?”

“That night I pulled out the handful of prototypes he’d given me. I found the stickers, pulled one off, and realized I’d been had. The next day, on a hunch, I went into the toy store closest to where Charles works. I found shelves of animals made by Hasbro that matched my prototypes. They were characters from some obscure children’s show I’d never heard of. I stood there holding these chunks of plastic and realized I’d been conned out of $1.4 million using props totaling the grand sum of three bucks sixty.”

Oh, hell. “What did you do?” Felicity asked quietly.

“I bought a couple of them from the store and marched right around to see him. I showed him the receipt, threw the toys at him, and demanded he explain.”

“What did he do?”

“First he laughed and told me it took me long enough. That’s when he gloated about what he’d been doing. I’d give my orders to Charles, and I’d pay Shenzhen Industries direct. He would then email his business contact at Shenzhen to say his new associate was sending them some money and to put it toward his current orders. So every time I paid for my orders, I was actually paying for baseball collectibles or whatever else he wanted for his store.”

“He was using you for store credit. Well, factory credit.” No wonder his bottom line at the bank was unchanged.

“Yes. I threatened him with going to the police.”

“How did he take that?”

“He pointed out how there was not one thing linking anything he’s done back to him. Just once he handed me a piece of paper with Shenzhen’s banking details, and his name wasn’t anywhere on it. Every deal we did was talked out over those lunches, and he’d make notes about what I wanted. At the end of the meal, he’d show me his list and have me confirm my order. I don’t have so much as an email from him asking for a dime. Whenever I was ready to pay for a new order, Charles always took me to lunch and gave me a piece of paper that had an invoice number and an amount payable on it, nothing else.”

“Even without evidence, you could make a complaint. Tell everyone what he’s done.”

“I threatened to make a noise. Smooth as honey, like it was nothing, he said if I reported the scam or named him at the center of it to a single person, he’d take away the thing I loved most.”

“What’s that?”

“Not what. Who. My Rosalind.”

“How could he possibly do that?” Felicity asked in surprise.

“He said he knew exactly what to whisper in her ear to make her doubt her husband’s integrity in the same way he’d made me doubt my own worth. He’d gradually over months make Rosalind believe I’d married her for money because that’s her biggest fear in dealing with people: gold diggers. And after that, when Rosalind saw me for the monster Charles had painted me as, she’d get the best lawyer in town, divorce me, and take my daughter, too.” Harvey looked sick to his stomach.

“But she’s your wife, Harvey,” Felicity said, incredulously. “She loves you. Surely she knows you well enough not to believe some campaign of lies, no matter who’s doing it.”

“You have no idea how much I want to believe that,” Harvey said, his voice rising uncertainly. “I desperately do. But by that time, I had all these doubts. Charles has been reminding me for six months that I’m nothing. And he’s right. Rosalind Stone, brilliant businesswoman, and Harvey Nothing Clifford.”

He shook his head. “Her family initially opposed us marrying, you know, for exactly that reason. It wouldn’t take much for them to take Charles’s side if he ramped up his campaign against me. I truly hope she’d stand by me, but my worst fears now hound me all the damned time. Even if she doesn’t buy the gold digger lie, what if she sees Charles is right about the rest? What if she realizes I’m just so blindingly average?”