Love notes by Avis Exley Read Free Book Online

million, just like he’d said.
    “How can it be mine?” she asked,
still laughing. “It’s not even in my name.”
    “Marty formed Dalvyn four years
ago and has been making regular deposits ever since. Following the
paper trail backwards, the payments come from money you’ve earned
since your career took off.”
    At the risk of sounding dense,
Erika asked what he meant by paper trail.
    “Very cleverly, Marty diverts
your money through shell companies, false charity projects and
Swiss bank accounts until it ends up here. By the time it’s gone
through three sets of hands, the American tax authorities have lost
sight of it. As have you.”
    Erika still found this
impossible to believe. “Marty’s loud and brash but he’s no
financial mastermind. How would he know to do all this?”
    “He pays people to do it for him
– the best in the business.”
    “So how did you find out?”
    “Because I paid people too.” He
gave her a hard stare. “And like Marty’s, they didn’t exactly stay
the right side of the law.”
    “You mean you’ve hacked into my
bank account?”
    “Yours wasn’t worth the effort,”
he told her with a significant stare. “A couple of million invested
here and there, all above board. But Marty’s accounts got really
interesting.”
    Luckily the waitress arrived
with coffee, forcing Erika to take a breath as she struggled to
make sense of the information. Before she had chance to leap in
with questions, Aiden pressed on.
    “Adding everything together, my
people found around four million dollars in your name. Marty has
something approaching forty million.”
    “In which case, your people made
a mistake.” Erika’s heartbeat returned to normal when she heard
these figures. “My house in Bel Air is worth three times that. Then
there’s my apartment in New York and the beach house in The
Hamptons.”
    Something about Aiden’s
expression warned her to stop. Her blood chilled as it dawned on
her that he might actually be telling the truth. She swallowed
hard.
    “All of your properties are
owned by a real estate company which, in turn, is owned by one of
Marty’s bogus investment firms,” Aiden went on, pulling up another
document to show a chain of companies leading back to Dalvyn
Investments.
    “Maybe you’re wrong. It could be
a perfectly legitimate way of investing.”
    “So why did Marty let you
believe they were in your name?”
    “I…” There was no simple answer
and Erika searched for excuses. “Perhaps I misunderstood. Or you
might not have all the information.”
    “Trust me – I know
everything.”
    Erika knew instantly that the
problem lay right there.
    Trust.
    “How do I know you’re not
lying?” she asked, starting to panic. “You might have made all this
up to cause trouble between Marty and me.” Fear made her irrational
and she hit him unfairly below the belt. “You don’t exactly have a
great track record with the truth.”
    To his credit, Aiden kept his
patience. “Then ask yourself when was the last time you saw a bank
statement? Or why did your tour lose money and you had to add on
extra dates? Why does Marty surround himself with an increasing
number of advisors?” He looked at her expectantly, waiting for an
answer but, when she couldn’t come up with one, he gave it for her.
“Erika Fenn Incorporated is a multi-million dollar, worldwide
business and Marty Cooper is systematically stripping you of every
asset.”
    “You’re lying,” her mouth said
but her mind was telling her something else.
    Erika couldn’t bring herself to
believe Aiden’s terrifying version of events but so much of it made
sense. Marty’s refusal to let her out of his sight. Her increasing
separation from the world. The arduous work schedule that allowed
her less and less downtime until she’d reached the point of
collapse.
    And for what? She hadn’t paid a
bill or signed a cheque in three years and had been too exhausted
to worry where her money went. The world