Page 6 of Never and Always
“Mia, that money was in a secured account. How did he get into it?” Glenn asked, nostrils flared. He knew the answer even before she gaveit.
“He managed to get the password.” There was no point pussyfooting around it. She had to explain what had happened and it was best she just get it over and done with. Out of her system. “I wrote it down and kept it in the safe in mybedroom.”
She didn’t think it was possible for Glenn’s face to turn any redder than it was, but it did. His face was so red it made his blond hair look stark against hisskin.
“Mia, how the fuck could you be so stupid? You don’t write down passwords like that! That’s why you’re supposed to think of something memorable. We had two million dollars,Mia.”
More tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’msorry.”
“Sorry, fuck. What do you think sorry can do right now? That was our inheritance. Our grandparents left that forus.”
“I trustedhim.”
“Trusted him enough to let him into your bedroom?” Glenn’s eyes bored intoher.
The look he gave her told her exactly what he was thinking and she couldn’t even attempt to make it look like Alan had happened upon finding out that she had the passwords to the inheritance account in the safe and what the password was to openit.
She was the one that told him.Her.
God. It was like a curse. She trusted the guy so much that she told him everything. Two weeks ago he’d been talking about expanding the business and her future plans. That was when she told him that she had a million dollars she could work with to make it all happen. She didn’t think anything of it when he started questioning her about the money, and she told him how good she’d been to save the money and keep it for the exact moment she needed it. Her grandparents had left that money two years ago. It was released to them after her grandfatherdied.
She told Alan all of that and mentioned that she’d been so good with taking care not to spend anything that she kept all the details in her bedroom safe. She’d even joked about it being out of her reach so she couldn’t go crazy buying shoes andhandbags.
If she could kick her own self shewould.
Alan charmed his way into her home, into her bed, and into that safe. God, she knew she’d been a complete fool. She had the worst experiences with men, the worst relationship history, but this totally stole theshow.
Glenn was looking at her like he was thinking this was one of those times when she’d gotten involved with some guy who promised to love her and offered her the world only to take her for a fool. Only part of that was true. She knew Alan didn’t love her. He didn’t promise her anything other than to take care of her accounts and business, but he did take her for a fool. Sadly, she played right into histrap.
And with how angry Glenn looked she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the rest. The safe didn’t just contain the password to the account that held their inheritance, it also had the password to the storage facility that kept the art collection their grandmother had leftthem.
Her grandmother collected art from every era. They had a collection of fifty masterpieces from great artists like Van Gogh andMonet.
Mia came from a family who were all incredibly wealthy but were the kind of people who used their success to help others or the community in some way. All of them were like it, her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Being given those paintings was a gift indeed, but not one to be sold off for the fortune they were worth. That was why she and Glenn decided to place them in a storage facility in Rochester until they had time to really sit down and decide what they were going to do with them. The facility was calledHamptons.
Alan had taken the passwords that would allow him entrance to the facility and the vault they were being kept in. She’d never spoken about the paintings but the information she’d left in the safe gave a full run down of what they had. It was all the facility documents and everyone knew that you didn’t just keep any old thing in Hamptons. It was for the wealthy and well to do, designed to offer protection and peace of mind for those who wanted to store their priceless artifacts. She’d heard of people storing things like gold, ancient treasure and relics, paintings and art worth more than theirs, and bizarre things you could only dream up, likescrolls.
In the safe she had an insurance certificate with an itemized list of their paintings and the value of each, the total of which was estimated around two billiondollars.
She and Glenn had talked about opening a small gallery to showcase them because they were the kind of art you’d share with the public, people who could appreciate the work. They both thought that was what their grandmother would have wanted, and what she intended when she gave the collection tothem.
“I didn’t think he would do this to me.” What else could shesay?
Glenn grabbed the ceramic pen holder from off his desk and threw it across the room. It hit the wall and smashed, scattering shards across the dark bluecarpet.
“I can’t believe you lost our inheritance to some shit you’ve been fucking around with!” heyelled.
“Glenn, Jesus, calm the hell down.” Nick’s voice pierced through the tension in the room and the anguish shefelt.
She looked at him through the tears that were once again pouring. He quickly glanced at her, offering a gentle smile ofsympathy.
Glenn glowered at him when he saw that, and Mia felt that if it were possible he would have incinerated Nick with hisstare.
“Nick, stay out of this, man. Now’s not the time to play mediator,” Glenn said, his voice filled withdistress.
“Bro, it looks like the perfect time to play mediator. You’re furious and I don’t want you to do something stupid and end up smashing up the place. Remember how much you hate cleaning.” Nick sounded cool and calm. “I know you’re angry but come on, this is Mia. You look like you could killher.”
“I could, for her damn stupidity,” Glenn retorted, narrowing his eyes at him with his nostrilsflared.
