"I paid Natasha so she could take the attention off of you."
"I don’t follow.”
"Marlon Holloway started blackmailing me.”
“What? Why?”
“He told me he was a photographer and he had dirt on Mum—”
"You mentioned that when we were at Ilis’ place. You said you had a sneaky impression he worked for Archer and Cormac."
"You remember," he smiles.
"Of course. I was shocked."
"Marlon did work for those two ass-wipes. Relating to those photos, it turns out there was more.” Barrett pauses. The dread I see in his eyes makes me shiver.
“What more?” I press.
“Marlon had dirt on you too."
My eyes widen. "What exactly does that mean?"
"Let me answer that in a minute. My plan was for Marlon to forget all about you and focus on Natasha and I—" He pauses.
“It didn't work," I conclude.
"Just like Octavia, Marlon was a conniving weasel from the beginning. The scumbag had nude photos of Mum in her youth—”
My hands fly to my mouth. "Oh my God."
"We weren’t sure if he had anything else on her or not.”
“And?”
“He didn't. But he had something else up his sleeve. He told me he had photos of you.”
“What? Photos? Of me?”
“Yeah. He never produced anything. It was all empty threats. But all that changed when we were in Athens."
Over the next few minutes, Barrett shares everything about the photos and how they were mysteriously dropped on his secretary’s desk. When he finishes, I'm too shocked to even speak.
“Those photos nearly destroyed me," he growls.
"Do you have them here with you?” He nods. “Can I see them?" He nods again.
Barrett gets up, walks to the refrigerator, pulls something from the top of it and returns to the table. "Here you go," he says.
With shaky hands I open the envelope he just handed me and pull out the photos.
"Jesus Christ," I gasp. "That's Owen and me,” I shout. I flip through a few photos and shout again. “And that’s Jonathan and me. Jesus." Anger rushes through me at the sight of my naked body with the two men.
“That’s you and that football star you were dating during the #NatBar days and the other one is with that big-time music producer.”
“But how?” I’m baffled.
“Throughout the investigation we found out that the evil Ascotts bought a few staff members in Owen’s and Jonathan’s entourage. They were greedy lackeys too eager to turn on their bosses at the drop of a hat. A few unsuspecting cameras here and there is all it took.”
“I feel so violated and exposed. This happened without my consent,” I protest.
"Owen and Jonathan were as much in the dark as you were.”
"You met with them?"
He nods. "I needed to know if they were behind this or not."
"I think I’m going to be sick.”
Barrett grips my chin and brings my attention back to him. His piercing green eyes are veiled with so much warmth. "It's over now."
“Really?”
“I give you my word.”
"Thank God."
We smile at each other.
“Let’s go back to that video Octavia showed you and the missing money.”
“Okay.”
“A year ago, I did a massive staff cleanup after I fired Archer and Cormac.”
“I remember.”
“Right after, I hired Toby Chapman—a promising and talented lawyer. I didn’t know at the time that for the right price, Toby could be bought.”
“He’s behind this?”
“He’s been working with the evil Ascotts and with Marlon for a year.”
“My God.” I can’t believe all the shit those people put Barrett through. “That’s a long time.”
“As Marlon became more and more insistent and annoying, I turned to Tyler for help.”
Barrett tells me all about the plan to get Marlon out of the country and the raid at his place.
“What a twisted story,” I say.
“I was so close to getting my hands on those photos,” he pinches his lips in frustration. “Because of Marlon’s moonlighting job as a prescription drug pusher, the police came in and took everything. It took two months before they were willing to release the other photos, hard drives and memory cards we had nabbed. We had to plead our case in front of a judge on how Marlon was blackmailing me so that we could at least see what the idiot had.”
“Did he have a lot?” I’m afraid of the answer.
“He did.”
“Shit.” I choke on a cough.
“Mostly of you and Owen. A lot of racy things.” Barrett’s eyes harden. “Things I didn’t need to see.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, blushing with embarrassment.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Charlotte.”
“We weren’t together...” I let my words trail.
“I know, butterfly. I know.”
We remain silent, our eyes boring into each other for a few long seconds until I break the spell. “Where are those photos now?”
“The police destroyed all of them, along with a lot of Marlon’s possessions. Tyler and I were witnesses.”
“Thank God,” I exhale.
“I’m suing Marlon and he’s facing jail time for drug possession and drug trafficking.”
“What a fucking mess.”
“It’s Archer and Cormac's trademark."
"I guess you're right," I concede.
"So, the enigma was who the hell was dropping those photos on Felicity’s desk if Marlon was in LA, then Argentina and then in custody?”
“Toby,” I say.
“Precisely.”
“Thanks to Tyler’s investigators, we beefed up security. I had cameras everywhere. That’s how we caught him the last time he tried to fool me. The investigators also placed more traps on our computer systems. That’s also how we figured out that Toby was conning me. Armed with irrefutable evidence, the police walked in and arrested his ass.”
“Good Lord.”
“During his interrogation, he squealed like a little bitch. He admitted to hacking our computer systems. He also admitted to being the one who created that montage of Capri and me.”
“So it was fake.”
Barrett nods. “It was the work of exceptional video editing."
"I can't believe I fell for it."
"I've told you before, Charlotte, we were no match for them. They’ve been planning this for over a year. They were coming at us left, right and center. I consider myself lucky we figured it out before they stole more money from me or they had a chance to hurt you even more."
"Jesus," I mutter.
"So, back to Toby and Capri.”
“I’m listening.”
“He snatched a clip of one of Capri’s movies from a pirated porn site, he hired Cheryl Mulvey as the voiceover and he used a video of me he had filmed when we were in the change room after a football game. Since I was naked, it made for the perfect trickery—he simply changed the background. Toby cut and pasted a few of my words he had recorded over time and voila! He then created that video and placed it on a secure site he owns—hence why you nor I could find it when we went looking for it on Capri’s site.”
“So, Capri didn’t know?” I ask.
“She had no clue.” He pauses. "I met with her."
“You did?"
“I had to get to the bottom this. I flew to Los Angeles to meet with her and the legal team at Mytigus Pictures, the porn film company she works for. The execs from the British office were also present. It was a big deal. Luckily, Capri was as irate about the situation as I was. The execs at Mytigus Pictures were furious."
“What an asshole.”
“Toby is a different kind of asshole.”
“What does that mean?”
“He was planning on blackmailing the
Ascotts when all was said and done. He didn’t feel that his pay matched his sophisticated skills as a con artist.”
“Seriously? The prick wanted more?”
“Yup. They offered him one million pounds—my money, of course. Over a six-month period, they were planning on stealing twenty million—five million each. Toby kept every single conversation, email and text message they ever exchanged. He even secretly recorded face-to-face meetings with them. He was going to turn around and demand more once the dust settled.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “The conman conning the conmen.”
“Brilliantly said!" he smiles. "Toby was also going to try to grab a little more out of Archer.”
“Why?”
“For a big hush-hush secret.”
“Huh?”
“Toby is a smart son of a bitch. Not only was he fucking Octavia, but he was also shagging Archer."
My eyes bulge out of my skull at Barrett's revelation. "Come again."
"Toby was fucking Octavia and her uncle," he repeats. The second time around doesn't soften the blow. "Many times, in the same night. The best part is they were oblivious to the fact that Toby was playing them."
I suck in a horrified breath. “What?”
“Yeah. Shocking.”
"Archer is gay?"
"I believe so. That would explain why he's never had a woman in his life. According to Toby, Archer is very much in the closet."
"How old is Toby?"
"Twenty-four."
"And how old is Archer?"
"Mid sixties.”
“Holy shit.”
“Crazy shit.”
“No kidding.”
“From what Toby explained, Archer doesn't know how to handle being openly gay."
"So, Toby is bisexual?" I ask.
"Toby is willing to do just about anything for money. So, to answer your question, he's gay for pay… as long as he's the top. He's not a fan of taking it up the ass," Barrett sneers.
"That is far more information than I ever wanted to know about the evil Ascotts and their partners in crime."
"Things are about to change for Toby. Once he's convicted, he’ll have to get used to being the bottom. In jail they call it, being the bitch," Barrett smirks. I don't blame him.
"You're suing Toby?"
"Fucking right I am. So is Capri Ocean and Mytigus Pictures. They own the rights to everything Capri puts out—from photos, to interviews, to video clips, to films. Toby had no right to steal that footage. I don't think the fool has a lot of money to start off with, so the three lawsuits will ruin him."
"He deserves it."
“Mytigus is also going after Octavia because Toby has on record that she masterminded the whole thing. The porn company intends on dropping the axe on her neck for her involvement. It won’t be pretty.”
“The cunt deserves nothing less.” It’s my turn to smirk. I want her to suffer and lose everything she owns as pay back for her underhanded manipulation.
"Toby is the tip of the iceberg. Tyler is going after Newton Himes, Octavia, Archer, Cormac and even Alvina with a vengeance. Toby's careful planning for his little ruse was the golden ticket we needed."
"What do you mean?"
"Throughout the investigation, the amount of incriminating information we discovered on his laptops and phones was overwhelming. They all conspired against me. The frightening part is that in the end Alvina was getting so impatient to get her hands on my money that she suggested hiring goons to roughen you up. They planned the same fate for Mum. They wanted me so distraught, I wouldn’t notice money leaving my accounts. You'd think that since the old bag is in her eighties, she’d have a little more compassion."
"They were going to hurt me?" My voice breaks.
Barrett nods.
Cold sweat trickles down my back. "Those people are fucking monsters," I spit out.
"Yes, they are. But as I said, it's over. They won’t have anything left to their names by the time I'm done with them. Given the long list of charges, I suspect Archer, Cormac and Alvina will die in prison. Octavia will be a very old woman by the time she gets out."
"I can't believe this.” I shake my head again. "I never understood why your father kept Archer and Cormac around. They hated his guts. They even hated your grandfather—their father."
"That hatred is Alvina's doing. She had fostered it in them since they were born. She cheated on my grandfather because he was penniless and had no education. Then she divorced him—even though he did the right thing and married her after she got knocked up. Alvina even went to court to rob him of his parental rights. She won. My grandfather gave up. I mean, he tried his best with Archer and Cormac, but they were little devils and very disrespectful towards him to the point they’d spit—and I mean that literally—in his face, kick him and punch him any chance they had. Not to mention, they never missed an opportunity to tell him that the esteemed Dr. Reginald Malcolm Littlefield was their father now and had adopted them legally. He was nothing to them. In the end, he moved on with his life. He couldn’t handle them or Alvina. Eventually, he got remarried and started a new family. Alvina never imagined that many years later, my grandfather would become an extremely wealthy and well-respected man."
"You never really explained how he came into money."
"He didn’t want someone like you to know he came from nothing. But since he passed away, I can tell you now.”
My grandfather died six months before Dad. That year was the cruelest of my life.
“But I loved him.”
“He loved you too, but he always felt that your family was at a different level.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. On my sixteenth birthday Papa Creighton sat me down and told me his story. He wanted me to know that he started life with less than nothing. That’s also the day he told me about Alvina.”
“Wow.”
“After the divorce, he struggled to find work after he lost his construction job—Alvina found a way to get him fired. Papa Creighton later found out she was sleeping with her boss before she hooked up with her MD.”
“Fucking slut.”
“Right. In any case, after a year without steady work, his luck suddenly changed when he was offered a job as chauffeur to one of the top stockbrokers in London.”
“How did he get that position?”
“The guy was a regular at Papa Creighton’s shoe shining station. His boss-to-be had weekly breakfast business meetings at the London Hilton on Park Lane.”
“Your grandfather did that?”
“Yes. Until Alvina got remarried, he had to pay child support. The funny part is she’s the one who declared she no longer needed his money once she tied the knot. Stating that the esteemed Dr. Reginald Malcolm Littlefield would more than take care of her and his adoptive sons. He got that in writing and he was off the hook.”
“That woman is poison.”
“And my grandfather was better off without her. Back to his story. Papa Creighton was uneducated, but he wasn’t dumb. He’d listen in on his boss’ buy and sell orders while driving him to and from the office. He even enrolled in several night and weekend training courses. Eventually, he started making money. A lot of money. In the meantime, the doctor Alvina left him for, left her. She couldn’t even sue him because the chap gambled all his money away. She was always bitter of the fact that my grandfather made something out of himself once she had flipped him the bird. She spent her life punishing him and punishing my father for that. When Papa Creighton passed away, Archer and Cormac thought they would come into some big money—even though they hadn’t spoken a word to my grandfather since they were adopted. I remember how excited they were. Assholes.”
“I can’t believe your grandfather would leave them anything.”
“He didn’t. He explained his decision to my father years prior to his passing. I only found out when Dad and I were sitting in front of a lawyer that Papa Creighton had left his colossal wealth entirely to me. He wa
nted to protect his fortune and my father from any possible retaliation. That way Archer and Cormac didn’t have a leg to stand on... that’s why they hired Toby. Their goal was to steal even a small portion of my money to make up for what they considered to be rightfully theirs—Papa Creighton’s inheritance and my father’s firm and part of his fortune.”
“Talk about seriously delusional,” Charlotte snorts.
“Right?”
“I still don’t get why your dad brought Archer and Cormac into his firm.”
“My father didn’t do that out of compassion or love for his half-brothers. On the contrary. He despised them. He believed it was always best to keep your enemies close."
“Incredible,” I say. “He’s a bigger person than I would’ve been.”
“Same here. His half-brothers tried to soil his memory. Bring down his company. Shame my mum. Steal my legacy. And the thing that really hurts the most… rob me of the best thing in my life—you.”
The vehemence in his tone tugs at my heart.
“Ha.”
“Yes, I stumbled—I fucking stumbled big time—when it comes to the way I tried to protect and shield you from their maliciousness, but thank God I’m here with you again—”
“We’re stronger than their malevolence,” I declare.
Green eyes burn into mine. “Yes, we are, butterfly.”
“Thank God because the idea of living without you shattered my heart.”
CHAPTER 51
Barrett
I reach out and cradle her beautiful face in the palms of my hands. “Come here.” I gently bring her closer and tilt her chin up. “I really hate that I had to sacrifice us.”
She blinks away. “I couldn’t stand seeing you with Natasha. I really thought you were going to end up marrying her," she confesses. “Owen. Jonathan. And the rest. I was seeking revenge. I was retaliating because I was jealous.” Her facial expression morphs into something I’ve never seen before.
I inhale and release a very long, slow breath. A wave of anger rushes over me as I absorb her pain and make it mine. “Look at me,” I order. "You really thought Natasha would become my wife after a few lousy months?” She averts her gaze for a beat. She nods. “Nah. Never,” I say when our eyes lock. “Every single night, for the past four months, I’ve thought about the last time you were in my bed—it’s the same crushing feeling I had ten and a half months ago. Thank God, our last kiss kept me company throughout this ordeal," I let out a long sigh. “The agony of it all is that I knew I wouldn't be able to kiss you again until I outmaneuvered the evil Ascotts. I was just worried that in that time you’d have moved on... for good. The idea broke me."
You're All I Think About_Second Chance Romance Page 37
