Page 10 of The Reboot
‘Thanks.’ Her cheeks were pink, her eyes bright, and she looked happier than he’d seen her in a while. She’d seemed so dragged down lately, little cracks showing beneath the well-tended surface, but there was a definite glow about her today.
‘You do,’ Christine said. ‘That’s a gorgeous scarf.’
‘It is, isn’t it?’ Loretta smiled as she took the brightly coloured scarf from around her neck and handed it over to Christine for inspection.
‘Gucci, no less!’ His nan’s eyebrows raised almost accusingly as she stroked the silky material. ‘Very nice.’
‘My boyfriend gave it to me.’ Loretta beamed with pride and pleasure.
Roly pretended not to notice his nan trying to catch his eye. He didn’t want to collude in her disapproval and pessimism. He was glad to see his mum so happy, and he wanted to believe that maybe this time she’d found a decent bloke who’d treat her well.
‘How did your meeting with the solicitors go yesterday?’ his mum asked, and his heart sank. At least his nan hadn’t bombarded him with questions about that the minute he came through the door. ‘Any news?’
‘No. There isn’t going to be any news – nothing good anyway. The money’s gone. That’s not going to change.’
‘All of it?’
‘Yep. I’m broke. Bankrupt, basically.’
‘But … there must be something you can do.’
‘Like what? Marty’s dead, so I can’t take him to court. Even if I could, I doubt I’d get any of it back. He’d already pissed it all away, apparently.’
His mother sighed. ‘Poor Marty!’
Of course – how could he have forgotten she’d dated Marty briefly? He should have known then that he’d turn out to be a scumbag. That was her type.
‘Poor Marty indeed!’ Christine scoffed. ‘After what he did to Roly!’
‘Well … I’m sure he didn’t mean to. He probably just got into difficulties and thought he’d be able to fix it before anyone found out. You know how these things happen. He couldn’t have known he was going to die suddenly.’
God bless his mum, she always gave people the benefit of the doubt. No matter how many men let her down, it never seemed to dent her core belief that most people were basically decent and were just doing their best. It was equal parts infuriating and endearing. She always made allowances – even for his slimeball of an accountant, who it turned out had been robbing him blind for years.
It was some comfort to Roly that he wasn’t the only one. Marty’s sudden death from a brain aneurysm a month ago had come as a shock, but it was nothing compared to the bombshell of discovering he’d been embezzling from his rich and famous clients for years. Roly had thought he was a friend, and he was still reeling from the betrayal. Marty had been almost like a father to him – which should have been his first clue, he thought bitterly.
‘Death was the easy way out. He should be rotting in jail.’ His nan took a harsher view than his mum. ‘But you must have some money left?’ she asked Roly. ‘It can’t be all gone.’
‘It is, apart from whatever’s in my bank account.’ He knew he shouldn’t have put all his eggs in one basket, but he’d handed over control of all his money to Marty. He’d been his financial adviser and personal banker, with carte blanche to make investments on his behalf. Whenever Roly needed money, he just went to Marty for it.
He’d been an unusually flamboyant and profligate character for an accountant, making the most of the entrée to the celebrity lifestyle that his high-profile clients gave him. He’d enjoyed having VIP access at events, and loved rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous at their swish parties. His generosity had been legendary, and he’d lavished his friends with extravagant gifts. He’d once given Roly a guitar that had belonged to John Lennon. It had cost him a fortune at auction – someone else’s fortune, as it turned out.
‘What will you do now?’ his mum asked. ‘What about your agent? Could he get you something?’
‘Dave was the one who introduced me to Marty. He’s got his own problems.’
‘Well, at least you have your house. You could always let it out and move in with me.’
That would really play havoc with her love life! He didn’t want to do anything to stymie her new romance, if there was any chance she might finally be having some luck in that department. It was still tempting, though. His money problems were preying on his mind a lot lately and he was finding it hard to go to sleep, his mind whirring with worries and schemes. He’d wake up in the middle of the night sometimes in a cold sweat, sick with panic about how he was going to dig himself out of the hole he was in.
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ he said to his mum. ‘It’d put a bit of a dampener on your love life.’
‘That’d be no bad thing,’ Christine muttered under her breath.
‘Well, we could sell my house,’ his mum said.
‘Mum! I’m not turfing you out of your house.’
‘I could easily downsize – get a little one-bed apartment. I don’t need all that room just for me.’
