Page 73 of The Facilitator: Part 2
“Daniel came?” he said,loudly.
“Yes, Daniel came to the beach. He was being stupid and held my dress. He wouldn’t give it back so I told him he could keep it. He left it over the banister, but I locked myself in the house, just in case,” Isaid.
“Just in case of what?” his voice was low and he spoke slowly. I could feel the anger building up insidehim.
“I don’t know. I just didn’t want him to come in here, so I locked the doors. Now, I’m fine, nothing happened. I told him I’d punch his lights out or something similar and heleft.”
I placed my hands on his biceps, feeling how tense he was. “Mackenzie, nothing happened. I’m fine. He was a dick and I dealt with it. Your dad came by as well, we had a lovely chat,” I said, diffusing the situationsomewhat.
Mackenzie leaned forward and kissed me. “I will punch that fucker one day,” hesaid.
“I’m sure you will, and I’m sure he will deserve it, assuming you’re talking about Daniel. But not tonight. Don’t spoil it for Gabriella, no matter how much he’ll try to bait you. Make me thatpromise?”
He shook his head. “For you only, okay? Now, I need a coffee, you can tell me about your day, and I’ll tell you aboutmine.”
I unlocked the back door to retrieve my dress, remembered he’d sniffed it and decided it was only fit for the bin. I rushed upstairs to grabanother.
Mackenzie was sitting on the sofa when I returned. “I made you coffee,” he said, and started torise.
“I can get it.” When I returned, he asked me to tell him what his fathersaid.
I repeated the conversation, as much as I could word for word. I also told him I thought he really should make the time to sit with his dad and chat, just them, without Sandra or me around. He nodded, but he didn’t seem quite withme.
“So, your day?” Iasked.
“Not good at all, Lauren. First, it seems Daniel has managed to get Vivienne to sign a document allowing him access to funds. Both Gabriella and I think, either the signature is a forgery or she was duped. She would never have done that. Second, and the worst part, he has filtered off all of his half and most of Gabriella’s. Some has gone into this fucking Grand Cayman account; most, we have no idea where it is. I suspect lost on shady deals, drugs, andgambling.”
“Oh, Mackenzie. What did Gabriellasay?”
“She sobbed. She doesn’t care about the money—she’s earned herself a nice pension and she has investments—but we’re not sure that Vivienne can continue her lifestyle as is. She lives off the interest. I need a second meeting with the accounts team, but that house costs a fortune to run, and we don’t want Vivienne to know. I think it will devastateher.”
“Is there a chance of getting any of the money back?” Iasked.
“Only if we can prove the signature is a forgery or that Vivienne was duped into signing a document. And we can only trace a small amount of it. Most is gone,Lauren.”
“You have to tell Jerry these are the kinds of people he’s dealing with. Maybe he can help. He might know more than he’s telling you, other deals or something,” Isaid.
“Possibly. Right now, I just need to find out what money we can get back. Gabriella always had a dream, one day she’d raise her children in thathouse.”
Mackenzie sounded so sad when he spoke. “Can she buy it from the trust?” Iasked.
“That’s what we’re working on tomorrow. To do that, though, we’ll have to either lie to Vivienne, or tell her thetruth.”
“The truth, Mackenzie, I don’t think she’d forgive you if you manipulated her in anyway.”
He nodded in agreement. “What a vacation this has turned into,huh?”
“Aren’t you glad you are here, though? Imagine receiving that email from Jerry, discovering this while back in England. You’d be goingnuts.”
“Which reminds me. I saw a notification from Jerry, but I couldn’t get enough signal to open my emails.” He walked to the kitchen and I followed him. While he opened his laptop, I refreshed his coffeecup.
“I knew it,” hesaid.
“You knewwhat?”
“He doesn’t believe me. He says he has it on very good authority, from an insider at the business, this contract is going to be awarded. It’s bullshit. There isn’t anyone in that business who knows what I said. I’m not stupid enough to have even made it known it was me who leaked theinformation.”
“How much has he invested already?” Iasked.
