I was proud of him. We were trying to build our lives together, and he was working so hard to make it happen for us.
The door to the office was shut, but it wasn’t locked. I stepped inside and glanced at the desk. The scissors weren’t there. Sifting through the papers piled on top, I still didn’t find them. They had to be there. I didn’t have them, and they weren’t in the kitchen or living room. I opened the first drawer but didn’t find them. The second drawer was files and papers. I was closing it when I noticed a particular file.
I paused. Why would he have that in here?
Taking the file out, I checked the label, just to make sure I was seeing it right. Justin didn’t have an account in that bank. But I did. The account my mother set up for me that held my entire inheritance, everything she had worked so hard to build up for me before she died.
My stomach sank and my hands shook as I flipped the file open. I went through the papers not believing what I was seeing. Rage bubbled up inside me, and my eyes blurred. This couldn’t possibly be what I thought it was. I went back to the first page and read through them again.
He’d stolen my entire inheritance.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream and break things. I wanted to storm back in the kitchen and throw the roast out the window. But before I could do anything, the doors to the office opened and Justin walked in.
“What are you doing in here?” he asked.
I looked at him incredulously. “Are you seriously going to try to be angry with me right now? This is my house. Don’t forget that. I can go anywhere I please. Especially now that I know what’s been happening right under my own roof.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t act dumb,” I said. “Don’t add to how much you’ve been insulting my intelligence and disrespecting me by pretending you don’t know what’s going on. I was in the kitchen acting like an absolute idiot trying to make you a special dinner to show how much I appreciate all the hard work you’ve been doing. But the scissors were missing, yet again. So, I came in here to find them, and look what I found instead.”
I shoved the papers into his chest, and Justin stumbled back a couple of steps before taking them in looking down at them. His eyes widened. “Bryn, let me explain.”
“There’s nothing for you to explain,” I said. “You can’t possibly talk your way out of draining my entire inheritance and then losing it all. You stole from me. You took everything I had. I thought we were trying to build a future together.”
“We are,” he said. “That’s why I did this.”
“Just stop. Stop trying to defend yourself. There’s nothing you could say that could even come close to making this okay.” I let out an exasperated sigh and covered my face with my hands, shaking my head. “I can’t believe I was putting myself through all that hassle to make you dinner because I was so proud of what you were doing. I thought you were working so hard. Turns out all you were doing was stealing from me.”
“I wasn’t stealing,” he said. “I was investing. You had all that money sitting there not doing any good for anyone. All you’ve been talking about for years is wanting more security, a bigger house, more opportunities. But you wouldn’t even touch that money. Investing it could get us there faster. It could make far more money far faster than either of us could working regular jobs.”
“So, you stole it.”
“I invested it. I was going to surprise you when all the profits came in,” he said.
I let out a mirthless laugh and shook my head, putting my hands on my hips and staring at him. This couldn’t possibly be the man I’d been in love with. He couldn’t be the person I thought I might spend the rest of my life with. That man wouldn’t betray me like this. He knew how much that money mattered to me. That it was so much more than just the balance on the account.
“You weren’t going to tell me about it at all. If you had any intention of making me a part of it, you would have included me from the beginning. You wouldn’t have gone behind my back and stolen every dollar I had, then handed it over to some incompetent investor to toss away. How could you do something like that?” I asked.
“This was for us.”
He opened his hands, stepping toward me with hope in his eyes, but I backed away from him.
“No. Don’t even try. How could you do this?”
He let out a breath, his hands falling and his expression shifting to something dull and unaffected. “I thought I could get away with it. Honestly, it didn’t seem like it would be that difficult to get past you. Considering I’ve been doing it for the last six months and you didn’t know, I was on the right track. You’re just so blind, Bryn. So stupid when it comes to money. If you didn’t come in here and find those papers, you never would have found out.”
“I never would have found out? How exactly would you explain to me that all my money had disappeared?” I asked.
“I would have figured it out,” he said.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Get out. Get out of my house,” I said.
“You can’t be serious,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“I am. This is my house. Get out now.”
I pushed past him into the bedroom and started yanking his clothes down off the hangers in the closet and scooping them up from the drawers in the dresser. He stood in the doorway to the office, watching me when I stopped as I passed to the front door. I opened it and threw everything in my arms out onto the front lawn. He let out a shout to protest, but I didn’t care. Stomping back up to him, I snapped the papers from his hands and went back into the bedroom for more.
“Bryn, stop it. You’re being ridiculous,” he said.
“No, I’m done. I am done with all of this and with you. Get out now before I call the cops.”
I felt a measure of glee when I was finally able to kick him out and throw the rest of his stuff out after him. It stayed like a hum buzzing in my head as I watched him at the window plucking his clothes and other belongings up out of the grass. I walked away just before hearing the door slam closed. The amplified feeling drained out of me when I heard the car pull away.
Sinking down to the floor, I clutched the papers harder in my hands, and the tears came.
It was gone. All of it. My entire inheritance, gone. All the money my mother had worked so hard for her entire life, gone. One of the very few links I had left to her, gone.
Now I had to deal with the reality that I had to figure out what to do next. It wasn’t just about the money being gone. This was an upheaval of my whole existence, and I had to figure out how to rework my life.
I had never relied on it. That was my nest egg, my safety net that protected me in case things went completely wrong.
I dropped my head back against the door and let out a breath. Maybe there was a way I could get it back.
2
Nick
I was just coming back into my office after lunch when my phone alerted me to a new text message. I sat down behind my desk and got myself situated before I checked it. It was from Lindsey, and before I even read it, I had a feeling I knew what was coming.
Come over for dinner tonight? The message read.
I let out a groan, happy nobody was in the office with me to hear my reaction. My best friend had been hounding me for more than a week to go over to her place for dinner. Actually, it wasn’t even her place. It was my older brother Vince’s place. She had started spending a lot more time over there recently, which was exactly where my issue lay.
I don’t know, I messaged back. I have a lot going on with work and everything. I might be working late.
Her answer came almost instantly, and I could almost see her leaned against her bar, holding her phone and waiting for my response.
Just something quick. Nothing big and elaborate. If you have to work late, we’ll eat late.
It wasn’t that I had a problem with Lindsey and Vince being together. The idea of my best friend and my b
ig brother being involved might seem strange for some people, but I thought it was great. They fit together perfectly.
It didn’t even bother me that they were going so fast in their relationship. I figured there wasn’t much point in delaying too long or dragging their feet. It wasn’t like they were teenagers. They were old enough to make their own choices, and once they knew, they knew. It didn’t make sense to slow things down and move through the stages of a relationship gradually just because it was what was expected of them.
And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to see them. I enjoyed spending time with both of them, and it had been a while since we’d spent any time together. I loved Lindsey and her son. Remy was a fairly new addition to my life, at least in terms of spending time with him. Up until recently, Lindsey had been keeping him a secret from everyone but me. I was the only person who even knew she had a son but didn’t spend any time with him. It wasn’t until a nasty custody battle with her ex that she let other people in, and he started spending more time with his mother, and, by extension, the rest of us.
Getting a chance to hang out with them, and with my brother, was appealing. Which was the only reason I was considering taking her up on her offer for dinner. The truth was, as much as I wanted to spend time with them, watching them play out their new role as a happy little family was a bit difficult for me. In fact, it had gotten sickly sweet enough to make it hard to be around them for long.
My label as the last of the Freeman brothers to remain single didn’t exactly help the situation.
First Merry came along. A young, driven social media consultant and marketing expert, she burst onto the scene of Freeman Racing and instantly clashed with company owner and oldest brother, Quentin. The friction didn’t last long. Somewhere between overhauling the company’s social media presence and establishing events that took the fans by storm, she and Quentin fell in love. A baby and wedding quickly followed, and now they reigned over the compound together.
While all that was going on, our youngest brother, Darren, shocked the family by falling in love with a woman who already held his heart. Kelly, a brilliant mechanic, showed up from Canada looking for a new life… and the father of her toddler daughter, Willa. She found both at the complex and now had another Freeman wedding in her near future.
But it was Vince that really surprised us all. His head was always buried in work. As the CEO of Freeman Racing in addition to owning several businesses throughout Charlotte, there was plenty of it for him to do all the time. But Lindsey needing help made him come up for air and he never turned back. The girl he always thought of as his kid brother’s friend suddenly looked different to him, and the rest was, very recent, history.
It left me. The only brother not to stick with the family and work at the complex, and now the only brother not to be linked up with a woman. My parents actually handled me wanting to find my own path in my career and go into investments well. They understood I needed to do what was right for me and find what would make me happy. Just like my father did when he built Freeman Racing.
Mom most certainly took it better than she had been taking me staying single. Up to her eyeballs in babies, weddings, and new daughters, she was in her element and gleefully happy. All she needed was the full grand slam. And she wasn’t being subtle about it. She’d been making plenty of noises about me following my brothers’ examples. According to her, it was time for me to settle down.
I didn’t understand the push. In my mind, she should be happy. Three out of four was a good record, especially for such a short time. She should be enjoying the outcome. Even if she wasn’t happy about it, she should find a way to accept it and stop prodding me about it. I wasn’t ready for the whole family thing. There was plenty of time ahead of me. If, and it was a big if, I ever decided to jump into domesticity, I would do it when it was right for me.
But I couldn’t really avoid everybody until then. Puffing out a breath, I picked my phone up and read Lindsey’s messages again. I sighed and answered.
I’ll be there after work. But I’m not going to be able to stay for long.
Yay! The answer came seconds later. That’s fine. You don’t have to. We’ll just be happy to see you.
Ugh. There it was. “We.” There was no longer a distinction between Lindsey and Vince, apparently.
It was both convenient and inconvenient for them that I played dual roles in their lives. As Lindsey’s best friend and Vince’s brother, I was a built-in third wheel. Remy made that easier, rounding everything out and turning visits into family gatherings rather than just a couple and an extra. But when he was spending time with his father rather than with Lindsey, I was on the third wheel. They could both have one of their closest people with them by extending just one invitation.
But her best friend and his brother being only one person did have a certain drawback to them. They couldn’t hook me up with myself. She couldn’t tell her best friend that her boyfriend had a single brother, and he couldn’t tell his lingering single brother his girlfriend’s best friend was single. I came all in one package.
Setting my phone aside, I noticed a headache beginning behind my eyes. I reached for my coffee mug, but it was empty, so I got up for a refill before diving back into my work for the afternoon. It included a couple of meetings and a nearly endless stream of emails, calls, and paperwork.
Nothing but glamor was coming from over here.
I was headed for the promise of fresh coffee when my office door opened. I paused and watched a woman step in. She was beautiful but looked sad and worried.
“I’m sorry to just come in,” she said.
Shaking my head, I set my mug down and crossed the room to shake her hand. “It’s alright. Nick Freeman. What can I do for you?”
Her expression twisted, her eyes darted to the side, and she let out a short exhale as she seemed to wrestle with some sort of internal debate. She wriggled her shoulders and stood up a bit straighter before meeting my eyes again with a determined look.
“I need you to help me find a way to undo what my ex did and get my money back,” she said.
It was firm, straightforward, and unflinching. But it told me just about nothing. I had so many questions and thoughts of what I was going to do after getting the nagging need for coffee out of my mind.
“Come on in,” I said. “Can I get you a cup of coffee?”
She nodded and closed the door behind her before stepping further into the office. “That sounds good. Thank you.”
I went back to the coffee bar and pulled open the cabinet lined with bags of coffee. “Do you have a favorite flavor?”
She looked at it and lifted her eyebrows. “Wow. That’s some serious commitment.”
There were few things in my life that word could apply to, but apparently coffee was one of them.
“Everybody is entitled to a vice.”
“What are you having?” she asked.
“A limited-edition grind from my favorite roaster. S’mores flavored.”
She shrugged, the sad expression on her face not changing. “What the heck. I was a Girl Scout. Lay it on me.”
I scooped the fragrant grounds into the machine and dispensed two cups. Augmenting hers with her requested cream and sugar, I carried the mugs over to the desk, handed her one, and invited her to sit down.
“So, tell me your story.”
3
Bryn
The cup of hot coffee held between my hands was comforting, but I still shook with anger, frustration, and sadness. Coming here wasn’t something I’d planned all the way out. It was a sudden decision made after Trish recommended it to me. I hadn’t gone into all the details of the situation with her but told her enough for her to give me Nick Freeman’s name and tell me to go see him.
I probably should have called and made an appointment. That was what people did when they needed to speak to professionals about sticky, potentially catastrophic financial issues. And yet, there I was, sitting across the desk from him aft
er just letting myself into his office. Not a great look. But there was no receptionist or secretary acting as gatekeeper, and my brain was too full of churning emotions and tangled thoughts to think through my behavior all the way.
At least he reacted well. He could have tossed me out and told me to make an appointment. Instead, Mr. Freeman, who was not the silver-haired, stern-faced man I was anticipating and rather a perfect vision of a Greek god with dark kempt hair and captivating eyes of the same color, made me coffee and gave me the floor to tell him what was going on.
I took a deep breath and dove in.
“When my mother died a few years ago, she left me an inheritance. It wasn’t a massive fortune or anything, but it was her entire life savings. She had been putting it aside for me throughout my entire life. I was her only child, and we spent most of my life just the two of us. She worked extremely hard to provide for me, and she made the account to make sure I would have something to build a future on,” I said.
“I’m sorry to hear about your mother,” Nick said, catching me off guard with his compassion.
“Thank you,” I said, stumbling slightly over the words. “After I got the account, I made the decision not to touch it. I didn’t want to live off that money or use it on anything frivolous. I wanted to keep it aside as a nest egg so I could use it for a house, a big important expense, or emergencies. Something other than just siphoning off of it when I wanted extra money.”
“That’s a very wise decision. Did you ever consider investing it?” he asked.
“Well,” I said, “that’s actually what I’m getting to. Since I had no intention of using it, I didn’t check on it regularly. I didn’t think I needed to. But then I found out my ex had somehow gotten a hold of the account and drained all the money out of it. He invested it without telling me and managed to lose it all. I spoke with some other investors, but they all told me the same thing. Essentially, there is nothing I can do short of reporting my ex and getting him arrested. But that’s not going to get me my money back. So, that’s why I came to you, Mr. Freeman.”
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