Page 68 of Taming Her Temptations

I shrug my shoulder, neither a yes nor no, just encouraging him to get on with the point.

“Well, things are about to get really bad for me. I’m being audited. And I tried to keep Madison out of it, but…”

His voice trails off and he gets up to start pacing around the kitchen.

“Oh god, Steven. What did you do?”

“All of my investment accounts are frozen because of the audit. So last week when I…” he pauses, “saw you at their house.” He sounds like he’s choking on his own anger. “I was there to ask Levi for help financially. Just a little loan while I get back on my feet.”

A little loan, yeah right.

“But that didn’t go as I planned.” His eyes dart to my stomach, probably imagining the pink bellybutton ring he hates so much.

“So I asked Madison to call and pretend to be you. You still have access to some of our accounts.” His face is flushed, and he’s sweating. I would take some satisfaction in how utterly ridiculous he looks right now if it weren’t for what he was telling me. That’s news to me that I have access to the accounts, a secret he obviously didn’t want me to know.

“She withdrew money pretending to be you. But it’s my money, Ruby. Having her call was just a convenience because you’re too busy having some kind of orgy to help me.” He is stammering now.

I take a deep breath, trying to regain my composure. I just want this man out of my house. He essentially told me he just committed fraud against me and followed it up by calling me a slut.

“Get to the damn point,” I grit out.

“We got a call immediately to our house about it. They were suspicious about the transaction, but Ruby, she can’t handle that right now. It will stress her out too much. She could lose the pregnancy.”

Now I start pacing. “What are you asking me to do?” My voice is high-pitched, already feeling trapped.

“I need you to take responsibility for the phone call if they come by for questioning. I’ll tell them it was you who called and authorized the transaction and you just have to confirm.” His voice is steady now, and he looks me right in the eye. “I’m most likely going to jail. There’s no way I can avoid it at this point. But I don’t want Madison to have to deal with the stress of being questioned. Or worse, going to jail herself.”

I swear under my breath, biting my nails nervously and walking around the kitchen.

“How could you have been so stupid?” My voice is raised, panicking. “You could never take responsibility for your mistakes. Look where it got you, Steven. Are you proud of yourself?”

“No!” He shouts back, his face swollen with anger. “I’m not fucking proud of myself. But this is life or death, Ruby. Is your pride really worth her losing that baby?”

This stops me in my tracks. I stare at the floor despondently. I know death. For some people, it might be an abstract thing. But after losing my mom, I know that life can be crueler than it has any right being.

I think about Levi and how much he loves that baby already.

Like a shark, Steven smells the blood of my breaking point in the water. I’ve seen him do it a million times before closing deals.

“My lawyer can represent you, too. If it even comes to that.” He says, thinking this will push me over the edge into submission. “Which it probably won’t. They’ll just want to question you.”

“I’ve learned a long time ago not to rely on a damn thing from you.” I shoot back.

I pace around the room. Of course, my first instinct is to tell Steven to go fuck himself. But if Madison loses that baby, I could never live with myself. And Levi wouldn’t be able to either.

In comparison to that, accepting this scenario seems like no big deal. Plus, I have plenty of leverage. I can throw Steven under the best in twenty different directions when I talk to them.

“I’ll do it,” I say, not hiding the anger at the situation he’s putting me in. “But don’t expect me to cover for you, too. I’ll give them any and all information I have on you.”

He takes a huge heave of relief, as if he hasn’t breathed in weeks.

“It’s fine.” He nods emphatically. “Tell them anything you want about me. I promise, it’s okay.”

“Gee, thanks.” I deadpan.

“Just so I know we’re on the same page,” he stands up. “Tell me exactly what you’re going to tell them. It was $50,000 from the Global Prosper Fund.”

I roll my eyes, feeling those same condescending eyes on me that I had to put up with for so long. “I called the bank to transfer $50,000 out of the Global Prosper Fund, money that I really could have fucking used in the last few months.”

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