Who Needs Men Anyway?

by Victoria Cooke

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘We’ve been thinking,’ Megan said as we all sat in her kitchen on a grey and soggy afternoon. ‘You need to get in touch with that teacher guy – you’ve been really mopey, and I think it’s because you miss him.’

  I hadn’t told them about the cottage yet. I wanted the solicitors to make some progress first, just in case the vendors changed their minds. ‘Megan, I have a lot on, I’ve left my husband, and I’m pregnant – of course I’ve been mopey,’ I said.

  ‘Especially mopey,’ Kate kindly corrected.

  I rolled my eyes. ‘I just need to focus on moving forward. Besides that, I’m pregnant and in no position to start dating anyone. Especially someone who quite rightly hates my guts. I think it’s fair to leave Andrew alone so he can meet someone else. He deserves to be happy.’ I felt a huge desire to speak to him again, but I knew it wasn’t right.

  Megan cocked her head, seemingly unconvinced, and Kate said, helpfully, ‘You’ll definitely need to work on your pelvic floor as soon as the baby comes if you do go anywhere near another man.’

  I glared at her and then sighed. ‘Look, if you want the brutal and honest truth, I’m mopey because James sent me a note asking, no telling, me to come home. Practically ordering me, like my dad would’ve done when I was fifteen and in breach of my curfew.’

  ‘I hope you told him to suck his finger and stick it in a plug socket!’ Kate said.

  I shot her a sideways glance. ‘Not quite. However, I did call him to give him a piece of my mind, and guess who answered?’

  Kate and Megan stared at me blankly.

  ‘Samantha!’ I said. ‘She was in our, James’s, house.’ I shook my head, still unable to believe the audacity.

  Megan let out a shriek of horror. ‘What did he have to say for himself?’

  ‘Basically, what did I expect, I’d left him alone, he has needs, blah, blah, blah.’

  Kate’s nostrils flared. ‘What an arse.’

  ‘I bet you’d do anything for a drink right now,’ Megan said.

  ‘I could murder a hot chocolate.’ I looked at Megan with my best doe eyes.

  She sighed but went rummaging in the cupboards and while she gathered the hot chocolate powder, the milk, and a pan, Kate produced a piece of paper with some scrawled notes on.

  ‘So, it’s time, isn’t it?’ She smoothed out the paper, enabling me to see what it was.

  ‘The list,’ I said.

  ‘The list,’ she repeated.

  ‘I’m not sure about this. Megan?’ I shouted, and she turned around from the stove. ‘How did you feel after getting revenge on Mike?’

  She put the spoon to her chin. ‘It felt good to pay him back a little. Just seeing his face when his pride and joy was no longer brag-worthy gave me a little drop of satisfaction. But I when he came around shouting the odds and threatening solicitors and things, I was petrified.’

  ‘Ahh, but he didn’t have a leg to stand on,’ Kate butted in.

  ‘I know that now; from what I’ve heard on the grapevine, he did actually speak to a solicitor who told him straight that I could do what I liked with my car! Okay, so yes, it felt good and I’m glad I hit back at that bastard.’ She poured the milk into the pan and lit the stove.

  I was so cross with James; finding out that he was the complete opposite of what I’d thought he was had been too much to bear. I’d given him half my life and he’d just devastated and humiliated me by way of thanks. He’d left me and our child alone. The fact he’d given the baby no regard infuriated me the most, and his blasé attitude was the final straw.

  ‘Okay, Kate, but I don’t want revenge – it’s not who I am. I want to teach him a lesson!’

  Kate rested her head in her hands. ‘That’s my girl. What do you have in mind?’

  ‘Well, James is stupidly materialistic,’ I started.

  Megan raised an accusatory brow at me. ‘Yes, okay, we all are a little.’

  I looked pointedly at Kate.

  ‘But I’m still delightful,’ she replied, smirking.

  ‘Anyway, his image is everything – he put work before me, wanted the house, the car, the suits, and the slut. So what better way to seek revenge than to strip all that away from him?’

  Megan furrowed her brow, confused. ‘Weren’t we just planning a car unicorn or something?’

  ‘Megan, James could just buy a new car. This is the problem; he has everything and values nothing. To really hurt him and teach him a lesson, we need to rip out his lifeline: his money. But we need to bide our time.’

  Megan placed a steaming mug of hot chocolate in front of me and I thanked her.

  ‘I’m intrigued,’ Kate admitted. ‘But don’t forget you’ve got a divorce to go through and believe me, you need it to be amicable at least.’

  ‘I know. I’m just thinking James should be knocked down a peg or two. Perhaps he shouldn’t take all the nice things he has for granted.’

  Megan still looked confused. ‘I’m not sure I follow.’

  ‘She said, rip out his lifeline. We’re going to get him fired,’ Kate said.

  ‘That’s right.’ Kate was always on my wavelength when it mattered. ‘We mess with his career, his image, and leave him with nothing.’

  ‘But, if James were to lose everything, your financial support would be lost too and you’re pregnant,’ Megan said.

  ‘I know and I’ve already thought about it. I can manage with what I have and I can always go back to work. The last thing I want is James’s money that he made rolling around naked with Samantha. My life might not be quite as lavish and I may no longer be able to afford Lauren’s high-society balls but who cares? I’ll have my baby, my health, and hopefully still a great arse.’

  ‘I don’t know about the arse, Charlotte; it’s already losing its perk but not having to go to any of Lauren’s balls is a great trade-off and you can always get a butt lift.’

  ‘Don’t listen to her,’ Megan jumped in, taking Kate and me by surprise with her assertiveness. ‘We’ll have that arse whipped into shape in six months flat.’

  ‘It had better be three,’ I said.

  ‘So how do we get him fired?’ Kate asked.

  ‘He’s an equity partner so he can’t be fired as such, but he can be voted out or asked to leave. I was thinking that the first thing we do is capture some evidence of what he gets up to on company property in company time. If we share that with the Haiden brothers I imagine that would be enough for them to ask James to leave. I just don’t know how to go about it yet.’

  ‘Okay, well, you can leave that to me.’

  I shot her a concerned look.

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be discreet – it’s best you don’t know anything in case James confronts you about it.’

  Kate left to meet Carl for dinner somewhere and Sam called in after work. I skulked off to the spare room. It felt strange having people around me all the time. I was so used to my own company or James’s quiet presence that I still found myself needing alone time at Megan’s. It wouldn’t be long before the baby came, and time to myself time would definitely be a thing of the past.

  Alone with my thoughts, they soon meandered to the place where they always seemed to go lately: to Andrew. My mind whirled back to our chats, his messages, and the fact my stomach flipped every time I saw his picture. It had been over a week since I sent him the message apologising and he must have seen it by now. I drew a breath before switching on my laptop and logging into the website. My heart tingled with anticipation as the little circular timer spun around and around in response to Megan’s inadequate Wi-Fi, which I hadn’t upgraded to fibre for her because I was on a meddling detox.

  0 New Messages

  I hit refresh repeatedly as if it would magically produce a reply. Then I thought about sending something else and went into my messages to double-check whether my last message sent. It had – it was just sat there unanswered. Andrew’s beautiful face was missing from the grey box in the top left-hand
corner where it should have been. I clicked the blank profile picture icon to go to his page.

  User not found.

  That was strange. I searched for him by name.

  0 Matches.

  Then my fingers started to feel clammy and my chest tight. I was starting to panic.

  He’d disappeared.

  ***

  The house purchase started to progress and solicitors were working their magic in trying to finalise the sale as quickly as possible. I’d made arrangements with my cleaner to start boxing up my belongings at home and put everything in one of the spare bedrooms. I’d collect them on moving day. I’d deleted all things Me & You, including Andrew’s phone number – I’d promised Andrew that’s what I was going to do and I hadn’t felt able to forget about him whilst it was lingering on the back burner. He’d made his feelings quite clear through his silence. James hadn’t been in touch, which I was relieved about, and I’d had a relatively nausea-free morning. Things were looking up.

  ‘Do you remember that George Clooney lookalike who works at James’s office?’ Kate said breathlessly the following evening as she bounded through the door.

  ‘Vaguely,’ I said, unsure as to where this was going.

  ‘Well, it transpires that he’s a terrible flirt and a sucker for an Italiano.’ She grinned, flicking her hair back.

  ‘What, like a pizza?’ Sam asked, puzzled. He was sat twiddling something that looked like some part from a lawnmower. Even though he’d found himself an apartment, he still spent an awful lot of time at Megan’s house.

  Ignoring him, Kate continued, ‘I acted so disappointed to find James was out to lunch when I turned up for my “appointment” that he let me sit and wait in James’s office because he felt sorry for me. I managed to turn on the little camera thingy connected to his PC that he uses for Skype and stream it to an app on my phone. I can’t believe that philandering husband of yours still uses his mother’s name for his work password too. Anyway, silly me, I realised I had the wrong day for my appointment after all, so I thanked George C and left. By the close of business, the goings-on in that room started to represent an X-rated movie.’ She placed a hand on mine. ‘I’m sorry, Charlotte . . . and Sam.’ She reached down into her bag and pulled out an envelope, which she slid across the table.

  ‘You don’t have to look at them, but we have everything we need.’

  I glanced at the innocent-looking manila envelope. My imagination was enough; I didn’t need the mental images scorching into my brain. ‘I think I have a good enough idea,’ I said grimly.

  ‘I don’t need to see what they get up to either,’ Sam added.

  ‘So we just need to decide what to do next,’ Kate said. ‘You could probably use this evidence to get a quick divorce and come out fairly well financially. You’d probably get custody too based on how he wasn’t ever home and has all these extra-curricular activities going on – not that I’m a solicitor or anything.’

  ‘I don’t want that. I don’t want my baby to become a bargaining chip, and I’m not out to milk James for all he’s worth. I have some money and that will be enough. If there’s one thing I’ve learned through all of this it’s that the money is irrelevant – the nice things are all very well, but it’s the people around us that matter. James never saw that. Cutting his financial umbilical cord is enough to teach him a life lesson. Anything else will be no more than a minor inconvenience.

  ‘As long as you’re sure,’ Kate said. It was understandable her wanting to make sure. She did well out of her divorce, and I knew I could too if I’d wanted. The truth was, I didn’t want.

  ‘There was something else.’ Kate paused, ensuring the refocus of the group. ‘Whilst I was fiddling with wires and things I had to rummage around on the floor to make sure the camera was plugged into the PC box properly – I know, me crawling around on the floor, I’m such an amazing friend blah blah blah.’

  She flipped her head from side to side but I wished she’d get to the point.

  ‘Anyway, underneath that heavy mahogany desk there was a teeny gap between that and the floor and I spotted a little corner of something peeping out. Worried I’d knocked something over I pulled it out. It was a file.’ She bent down to rummage in her Mulberry tote and pulled out a file, which she laid on the desk. ‘I don’t think it had fallen under there accidentally because it was pretty well wedged in. But look, the folder is marked “for shredding” so why would you hide that? Anyway, I sensed it might be something important and pulled it out for a look and interestingly the documents inside seem to link to . . . guess?’ Her wide eyes darted between the three of us eagerly.

  ‘We don’t know,’ said Megan.

  ‘Get to the point,’ I said.

  ‘Bracken Peel. They’re a huge company and it seemed odd there was a file on their accounts and things under James’s desk. Wasn’t there something in the news about it? Wasn’t one of the directors arrested or something?’ she asked.

  I cleared my throat. ‘Yes, he’s been accused of embezzlement. It’s the huge case James and Samantha were working on.’

  ‘Embezzlement, as in squirrelling away money into secret places?’ Kate said, pushing the folder towards me.

  I scanned the documents, most of which were bank statements from offshore accounts and invoices set up in businesses registered in Grand Cayman. There was one link joining the dots. The businesses were in the name of Phil Brady, the director accused of embezzling money, and the invoices were all to Bracken Peel for various services. The bank statements showed mostly deposits, regular deposits, for large amounts. Twenty thousand pounds here, fifty there, and there were copy invoices for matching amounts. It had been going on for years.

  ‘What is it?’ Sam asked.

  ‘It looks like it could be evidence proving embezzlement, unless Phil Brady has multiple legitimate businesses set up abroad. But they’d have been investigated, and why would James hide this? It’s either innocent or it’s not but either way, it shouldn’t be stuffed under a solid mahogany desk, it should be part of the case.’ I looked to Kate for answers I knew she didn’t have.

  ‘Could he have been paid off?’ Sam asked, stretching over the table to see the documents.

  I shrugged. ‘Not that I’d noticed but I didn’t have anything to do with James’s finances.’ I tapped my finger on the table, trying to think of a reason James would get involved in something like that. Then something hit me. ‘Ages ago, when he was feeling guilty about leaving me by myself so much, or at least pretending to feel guilty, he mentioned how the case would be worth it in the end. At the time, I thought he was talking about how it would put the law firm on the map, but maybe you’re right, Sam. Or maybe his motivation was both.’

  ‘My guess is, the money was coming from the Bracken Peel account and this account belongs to the director.’ I pushed the folder to Sam who eyed it carefully.

  ‘Yes, it does look suspicious – large sums of money moving into an offshore account, but would he really hide this file to protect a guy they knew was guilty? Sam said.

  ‘I don’t know.’ I shrugged. I didn’t know anything any more.

  ‘Give me that.’ Kate took the folder back and began flipping back and forth between pages. ‘There is only one reason I can think of. Here.’ She took out a few of the pages and spread them across the dining table. ‘Look, there isn’t just money coming in, there’s a payment of ten thousand here, and again here, and again there and more payments of twenty-thousand pounds all to the same account. One hundred grand to lose a few bits of paper sounds like a motive to me.’

  ‘That isn’t solid evidence; we’d have to join the dots if we were going to prove this,’ Megan said.

  ‘So where does this leave Samantha?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Well all the payments going out are to the one account. Either she’s in on it and has been promised a cut of the money or she knows nothing about it.’ Kate shrugged. ‘We need to see who this account belongs to.’

  Things
were moving too quickly. ‘Hold on a minute, the plan was to get some evidence of James having it off in the office – this could send them to prison.’ I didn’t want that.

  Kate shook her head. ‘The photographs will come in handy for your divorce, but Haiden and Haiden could just shrug it off. If we can prove that James accepted bribes, it will definitely pack a bigger punch. Listen, the case is going to trial soon. Haiden and Haiden have time to turn this over, present it as “new evidence” and get a ticking off. The director will have to change his plea to guilty and they will have to adjust the defence accordingly. If they want to take action against James it will bring the whole firm into disrepute. My guess is they’ll ask him to resign.’

  ‘It’s a risk,’ I said, but it made sense. The case had already made the national news. Did they want a ‘minor blip’ on their hands or a major ‘cover-up’ scandal? ‘You’re right. Sam, what do you think?’

  ‘Do it.’

  ‘Okay, so now we need proof,’ Kate said.

  ‘We need to prove that bank account is linked to James.’

  Kate shook her head. ‘Okay but this all needs to be anonymous; if it comes back to you or Sam, the divorces could get messier. You’ll need to search James’s office and computer at your house – can you get in without him knowing?’

  I nodded. ‘I think so.’

  ‘What if Haiden and Haiden bury the evidence themselves?’ Sam said. He had a point but I knew them.

  ‘They’re as straight as arrows. They’ll be devastated to find out James has done this and they’ll want to put it right.’

  ‘So we have a plan?’ Megan smiled. We all looked at one another and nodded.

  ‘Yes,’ we agreed in harmony.

  ‘Great, I’ll open some wine and I’ll make you a hot chocolate.’ She directed the last comment at me.

  ‘So, Charlotte, have you thought any more about your primary teacher?’ Megan asked, bringing the drinks over.

  I let out a deep breath. ‘As a matter of fact, I have. I checked my messages to see if he’d been in touch.’ I sipped my hot chocolate. Megan was becoming a dab hand at making them, and I wasn’t complaining. ‘He’s gone. I think I’ve put him off online dating, maybe even dating as a whole, but either way, he’s gone.’ Leaving a heaviness in my chest.