Page 17 of Sweet Surrender
Liam Olsen had a lot of explaining to do. That was if he everresurfaced from the rock he’d crawled under after leaving me in the lurch.
Even though four months had passed since I’d learned of hisbetrayal, I still had moments when I couldn’t believe he would ever do something like this.
We met in kindergarten and became instant friends, and when wegrew up, our friendship blossomed into something more. We had our whole future planned out; traveling, marriage, kids...grandkids.
He’d enrolled to go to school at the New York University so we couldbe in New York together, but when my mom got ill and I decided to postpone going, he changed his enrollment to the University of Portland.
It was still some distance away from San Fran, but at least he wasn’ton the other side of the country.
Don’t get me wrong, the distance was still tough, but we got throughit. After all, love conquers all. At least, that’s what he used to tell me when I’d cry down the phone and tell him how much I missed him.
When my mom passed away a year and a half ago, Liam was myrock. He helped arrange the funeral, held my hand during the service, and then when I had the painful task of going through her belongings, Liam was right by my side.
When I was at a loss as to what to do with my life in the weeks thatfollowed, Liam convinced me to move to Portland with him. He’d graduated from college by then and had managed to get an incredible job with a marketing company.
Liam helped me sell my childhood home, and two months after mymom passed, I left the city where I’d lived all my life to move into his condo. Several weeks later, I started my first year at the Portland School of Art & Design, finally taking a step in the direction of becoming a fashion designer.
Despite my protests, Liam refused to let me pay a cent towards thecondo. After paying off medical bills and funeral expenses, I hadsomeinheritance left over, and I was more than happy to pay my way. But Liam assured me he was earning enough money to support us both.
He convinced me to invest my inheritance for our future, whichseemed like a sensible idea. We’d often spoken about marriage, and the money I had left over from the sale of the house would have gone a long way to pay for the perfect wedding.
I didn’t know the first thing about investing, but I didn’t need to. Liamassured me he knew what he was talking about, and like the fool I was, I handed over nearly every cent to my name. The small pot I kept back, I put in a savings account so I didn’t have to rely on Liamfor everything.
If only I knew the headache waiting for me, I might not havebeen stupid and put all my trust in Liam.
Trust that he betrayed and stomped all over, leading to this verymoment of me sitting in my crappy, freezing apartment with my head in my hands, and staring at the letter from my landlord telling me I needed to find an additional $400 a month.
If I hadn’t trusted Liam, maybe I’d still be able to afford rent andcould have carried on with my education. As it was, I had nothing left. Liam had made sure of that.
While I’d been putting all my efforts into getting a career off theground, Liam had slowly been draining my savings. To add insult to injury, he’d been faking my signature on loan and credit card agreements, making sure the money went into his account.
I didn’t notice my savings dwindling, just like I didn’t notice the letterscoming through telling me I was behind on payments I never even knew about. Liam was too clever for me to find out, telling me constantly that I didn’t need to worry about our finances, and that I should focus on getting through college.
And why wouldn’t I have believed him? The man I’d trusted sinceI was five years old.
The first time I knew about the debt was four months ago when onemorning, I woke to find Liam missing, and bailiffs practically knocking down the door.
I didn’t believe them at first, but when they shoved paperwork undermy nose which had my signature on, I had no choice but to accept it.
Liam had somehow managed to put the condo in my name, so thatwas the first thing the bailiffs repossessed, followed by the convertible Audi Liam had ‘bought’ me. Except, he hadn’t bought it. It was in my name, paid for by money Liam had borrowed from the bank.
With Liam missing, I went to the police and explained everything, andthat’s when I discovered my savings account had been emptied with the exception of a few hundred dollars he hadn’t quite gotten around to stealing.
As for the money he’d invested, there was no such thing. Liam neverinvested a single cent.
Well, I guess he did. Just into his own account.
If I had any hope the police were going to help me though, I wassadly mistaken. They told me they’d look into his disappearance, but as for him stealing my money, they didn’t give a damn.
I didn’t have any evidence that he’d forged my signature, and the officer I reported it to said that for all he knew, I was a disgruntled ex trying to land my boyfriend in hot water.
When I became angry at the cop and lost my temper, he threatenedto arrest me if I didn’t calm down, and that was the last thing I needed. But I refused to accept his answer, it didn’t seem fair.
A few days after reporting Liam missing, I contacted a privateinvestigator to see if they could help. Of course, my plan fell flat at the first hurdle. To hire the investigator, I would need to spend thousands of dollars for his services.
With no other options, I accepted that until Liam was found, I’d haveto pay back the debt.
And so started my life of hell.
