DeLeina, Maya - Veil of Seduction [Ambrose Heights Vampires 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Maya DeLeina Read Free Book Online

and vacation photos were carefully patterned, allowing for expansion. The collage was a dedication and symbol to their love, spirit, and hopes for the future. Now, the pictures staring back at her were soulless, merely pieces of decor to adorn the wall. Glass crunched under her house slippers as she walked past the damaged photographs to the bedroom.
    In the closet, Ryan’s suits had been reduced to scraps of material, decimated by the sheering of sharp knives. The remains of designer shirts were crumbled into balls and stuffed into several garbage bags. The bags were filled, stretched past their capacity, and the contents were beginning to spill out of the top of the drawstring ties. The bags sat under Ryan’s bare hanging system that now only held a few empty hangers.
    Anya stood motionless, sickened with the destruction left in the wake of her wrath. She walked to the master bath and sat her cup on the counter. She stood clutching the counter’s edge as she looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes flowed with heavy tears that clouded her vision. She knew it was time to begin the healing process and move on with her life. Slowly, she slipped off her wedding band and tucked it away in her jewelry box. Her chest went hollow, and she fell to the ground, sobbing wildly.
    The next few weeks turned the pain of Ryan’s abandonment into pure desolation. Living in the house, with so many memories, so many hopes, was insufferable, but she had nowhere else to go.
    Online banking statements showed that their shared banking accounts remained untouched by Ryan, but the investment income that supplied the accounts had been greatly reduced, and her weekly allowance supplied by Ryan’s company had stopped. A trip down to the bank revealed that Ryan had emptied out the emergency cash and jewelry that was in the safe-deposit box as well.
    Ryan managed all their finances, and she was beginning to uncover that much of their assets were in his name, entity names or had been simply transferred from their joint ownership to various accounts slowly over the last couple of months. She had no access rights to any funds. In fact, she had no rights to account inquiries, either, but most of the information she had uncovered had been made inadvertently by inept bank personnel.
    The drive home left her to analyze her finances.
    How could he leave me in this financial state?
    She pounded her palms into the steering wheel.
    This was a thought-out process he was planning for months!
    Questions swirled endlessly in her head as she drove.
    How could I have allowed this to happen? Why didn’t I insist on a more active role in the handling of the finances? Where am I going to get the money to pay for everything?
    She parked the car in the driveway and the recurring thought made its appearance again.
    Why did I mean so little to a man that I pledged my life to?
    She made her way straight to the kitchen as she entered the house. She threw her purse on the kitchen counter and filled a glass with tap water. Taking a hearty gulp of the water, she headed to the kitchen island. Biting down nervously on her pinky that she slipped between her teeth, she leaned against the island and examined the laid-out bills. She sifted through the stacks of papers in an attempt to occupy her thoughts for a bit. As she organized the bills by due dates, the telephone rang.
    “Hello?”
    “Hello. I’m calling for Mrs. Anya Evans,” a woman’s voice spoke on the other line. A faint echo reverberated from the line. The silence had a loud, airy quality. Anya realized she was on a speaker phone.
    “This is she.”
    “Mrs. Evans, this is Detective Doyle from CSPD’s Violent Crimes Unit. I also have Sergeant Stemper with me in the office.”
    “Mrs. Evans,” a male voice greeted.
    “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Mrs. Evans. We have reason to believe that a body that was discovered in a well may be that of your—”
    “Husband? Ryan?” Anya interrupted and began to