“Carl didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him. He was a good man. I can’t say the same about you.”
“I don’t know what to say for myself,” he admitted quietly.
“Why don’t you start by telling us who is FedUp?” I suggested. I wanted to hear him confess that he’d posted the ad on the forum. That he was responsible for all these attempts on Steven’s life. That Ted scheduled this meeting to lure Steven here so EasyClean could finish the job. “Start with the fire at the farm and go from there.”
His head snapped up. “You know about that?”
Vero crossed her arms over her chest, drumming her nails. “We know a whole lot of things.”
Ted swallowed hard. “Please understand, my wife never meant to hurt anyone when she set that fire. Melissa was just angry with me. She’d been pestering me to cut ties with Steven for a long time, but Steven and I had a deal, and I’m a man of my word.”
I shook my head, confused. “Your wife set Steven’s trailer on fire? Why?”
Ted’s cheeks flushed, and he looked down at the table. “Last spring, I asked Steven to hire my daughter to work in the office a few days per week as part of our agreement. Only, Bree developed a bit of a crush, and Steven … well, you know Steven.” Ted’s eyes lifted apologetically to mine.
“Hello! I’m right here.” Theresa waved her hands at me and Ted. “Does anyone care that he was engaged to me at the time?”
Vero grabbed the open wine bottle and thrust it in Theresa’s hand. “No. But have a consolation prize. You,” she said to Ted, “keep talking.”
He drew a breath and continued. “Melissa was livid when she figured out Steven and Bree were romantically involved. She insisted we tell Bree she couldn’t work for him anymore, but my daughter’s a grown woman, and I didn’t think it was our place to dictate her relationships.”
Vero made a sound of disgust. “More like the farm was making money, so you decided to overlook the fact that a philandering creep was taking advantage of your daughter.”
Ted admitted his guilt with a tight nod. “Melissa called him incessantly. She hounded him all summer, demanding he terminate Bree’s employment. She wanted an end to whatever relationship they had. Melissa finally got her way after that whole mess in October, when Steven had an excuse to lay Bree off.
“Bree was miserable. She stayed in bed for days crying, and the farm was losing money hand over fist, but Melissa was finally happy. That lasted for about a month, until Steven had a few drinks one night—Thanksgiving, I think it was—and he called our house at an indecent hour, looking for Bree.” That must have been the booty call I’d seen on his call log when I’d snooped through his phone. The call he’d made to Bree’s home number, not her cell.
“Bree had already gone to bed,” Ted continued. “Melissa saw his number on the caller ID and didn’t bother answering the phone, so Steven left a voicemail message, telling Bree he missed her and he’d made a mistake. He said he had a new place of his own and he wanted to see her.” Vero looked at me, her eyebrow raised. That was the night Steven had shown up in my driveway and caught me making out with Julian. When he’d told me that his new house didn’t feel like home because me and the kids weren’t in it.
“Go on,” I said to Ted.
“Melissa was furious. She demanded that I terminate the partnership. She said the farm was losing money after the scandal anyway, and since Bree wasn’t working there anymore, there was no reason to maintain a relationship with Steven, business or otherwise. When I refused, she got angry with me. She set fire to the trailer to make a point, that she would lay waste to that farm—and our business—before she would let that man destroy our daughter. Family over profit. It was only a trailer, she’d said. Our daughter’s future was far more important than a lost investment.”
“She could have killed someone,” I said, remembering the ravenous speed with which the fire had devoured Steven’s couch.
“No,” Ted insisted with a vehement shake of his head. “She knew that trailer was empty. Steven’s truck wasn’t even there. Melissa knew he was living someplace else. She would never have set the fire if she thought someone would get hurt. This was just her way of putting her foot down and reminding me of my priorities.”
“So she hired someone else to do her dirty work,” Vero said skeptically.