Betrayal by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online Page A

was insatiable in her demands and need for money. It was why she had married him in the first place. That was finally coming clear even to him now, with her demand for a postnup.
    “I’ll have to discuss it with my lawyer and let you know,” she said with something very hard in her eyes. “Think about it, Victor. You don’t have any choice.” She was making her position clear, and he felt desperation clutch his throat. He was sixty-five years old and he didn’t want to lose her. And despite her ulterior motives with him, he had grown attached to her. And how many more women who looked like her were there going to be for him? He felt suddenly tired, defeated, and old.
    He sat in his study alone that night, thinking about what she’d said, and he drank too much Johnnie Walker. Brianna went out with her girlfriends and came home at two o’clock in the morning. Victor was passed out on the couch in his study. She looked at him from the doorway and went to bed alone. She didn’t wake him or try to get him into bed. She was sure he would give her what she was asking for. He had no choice if he didn’t want to lose her, and she knew he didn’t. She had him by the throat, or worse.
    She heard him in the shower the next morning and left for the gym. And by the time she got back, Victor had left for the office. The independent auditors were still in his conference room, and he was using the opportunity to go over Tallie’s accounts himself. It never hurt to double-check things. And late that afternoon, he came across several entries that confused him. Brigitte paid all of Tallie’s bills, and she was always very organized and careful about it. She recorded the entries in the general ledger, and then turned over the accounts to him. Brigitte signed the checks, and had been doing it for years. What was puzzling him were regular stays at several hotels. It was none of his business what Tallie did and how she spent her money, but he wasn’t aware of why she was staying at various hotels in L.A. And if they were business related, he wanted to take them as deductions.
    There were a few stays at the Bel-Air, and quite a number at the Chateau Marmont and the Sunset Marquis. The same hotels appeared in Hunt’s accounts as well. Brigitte didn’t pay his bills—he had a bookkeeper he’d had for years. And Victor wondered if they spent romantic nights at hotels, or used the hotels for meetings, but he just wanted to confirm that with Tallie, as long as he was going over her books. He was sure it was nothing important. He also noticed that she was spending a considerable amount of cash, which he didn’t like, because whatever she spent it on, he couldn’t use as a deduction for her taxes, and he wanted to tell her that too. He wanted her to use her credit cards instead of cash.
    Victor tried not to think of Brianna as he went over Tallie’s books. What she had said about the postnup was very upsetting. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to give her large amounts, and he was afraid that what he could give her right now wouldn’t impress her. And her request for a postnup had sounded like an ultimatum to him. His personal life was in turmoil. But he had to get this audit taken care of for Tallie and Hunt. He didn’t want to hold up their next picture, or frustrate their very precise Japanese investor. Tallie was counting on him to do it promptly, but it was hard to concentrate while he worried about Brianna.
    Victor carefully went over Tallie’s accounts for two weeks and made a list of questions. There were expenditures relating to her daughter, some of which the IRS could have viewed as gifts, in which case Tallie had to pay taxes on them. He didn’t think they could take the Paris apartment as a business-related deduction since she never went there anymore, and up until then they had been. She hadn’t made a film in France in years. And he had a list of other expenditures that he wanted clarification on. The independent