Page 33 of Indiscreet

Suddenly I wished she had been headhunting me to assist with the campaign. This scenario was worse than anything I could have concocted in my head.

My stomach muscles twisted in knots as I rushed over to turn on the news. They were in the middle of a segment on New Year’s resolutions, but the scrolling text at the bottom said Dalton Pierce had been charged with bank fraud, four counts of counterfeit securities, and five counts of money laundering. Panic erupted inside of me. Astrid was probably frantic as she waited for my response. I quickly replied.

Gia: I’ll find out what happened. We don’t have all the facts yet. I’ll be working from here on out to fix it. Try to relax.

I’d told her what she wanted to hear, that there was an easy solution. I wanted to believe I still had my life savings and company and she still had her investments in Perfetto, wanted to believe Dalton hadn’t mismanaged the company. Patrick and I had checked him out thoroughly, and he had an extensive, high-profile client list, including A-list celebrities. He also had a stellar reputation in the business. This had to be wrong…but then there he was in handcuffs, being put into the back of a police car. With all his wealth and connections, they would have to have something to get him in that car, and especially to do it on camera.

Bile rose in my throat and my body shook to its core as dread took hold of me, my mind already racing with thoughts on the implications of what this could mean for my company. My hands shook so hard I fumbled the phone, scrolling as fast as I could to call DP Management.

After a series of beeps, I heard an automated voice say, “Mailbox full. Ending call.”

I went through the list I had—his partners, financial heads, even his secretary—before it dawned on me that it was New Year’s Eve. No one would be there. The call waiting came up on my phone, and thankfully it was my attorney, Stuart Miller. I immediately answered.

“Gia, I’m in my car. Can I meet you over at your place?”

I swallowed against the brick that had lodged in my throat at the woeful tone of his voice. Whatever he had to share wasn’t good news. I didn’t think I could wait however long it would take for him to arrive. “Would you please pull over and just give it to me straight, and right now? I don’t think my nerves can handle waiting.”

He sighed heavily, and I paced as I waited for him to come back on line. “Bottom line, Dalton Pierce and his management company misappropriated funds from Perfetto. It will take some time to decipher the full extent as we wait for law enforcement’s disclosure. I’ve stopped all the automated transactions that had been going through, and I will be filing a lawsuit to attempt to recover what we can.”

“Will we have enough to pay our employees the next few months?” I asked, my voice cracking.

“Perhaps a few months, maybe five, but I can’t promise you anything,” he said then cursed.

Tears tunneled down my face and I took a deep breath in. “We have production costs, marketing for our new line…”

“The bank may be able to guarantee a loan,” he said. “But, with the other ones you have, you’ll be in a lot of debt…I will work on it as best I can.”

I drew in a deep breath “Thank you.”

“Now, there is something else that has come to light,” he said cautiously. “The investigators on Dalton’s fraud case will want to talk with you, and I’ll be there with you. I’ve asked a criminal attorney to join us to cover any issues with the selling off of Perfetto shares so close to the announcement of his indictment. I will assure them you were unaware of the investigation into his business practices—”

Selling Perfetto shares?

I placed his call on speaker and frantically opened my laptop to check through the online holdings. My mouth dropped open. “What? I didn’t sell anything. Obviously, I would have broken ties with him and removed everything he had control of if I’d known he was doing anything criminal. The only shares that could possibly go through without my personal authorization are the ones Patrick holds, but with our divorce agreement…” The screen in front of me showed shares had indeed been sold off. “Why wasn’t I informed by the bank?” I carped to Stuart.

“He didn’t sell large amounts right away, as you can see,” Stuart said, and his voice melted into the background as I stared at the columns on the screen. While Patrick was holding out on our divorce, he was quietly selling off all his shares of Perfetto, bit by bit. I had underestimated his greed. He had put the stipulation in the divorce as a carrot that he would sell the shares back to me, but all this time, he’d been siphoning them off until the last transaction was completed on the day I had received the signed the divorce papers. I had been too giddy to check over to see if anything had changed. I had been too trusting. I was a fool.

Even so, what he did was so underhanded. I wanted to fall apart, but that wasn’t going to help the hundred employees I had counting on me. “What can I do now?”

“I’m ten minutes away,” he said. “We’ll find a way to fix this.” It was what I needed to hear to hold me together, but it couldn’t erase the possibility that my company could now face bankruptcy.

While I waited for Stuart to arrive, I called Patrick. “You son of a bitch,” I said the second he answered.

“Excuse me?” he said. “I’m in the middle of lunch. I don’t have time—”

“We both know you have time for whatever you want to do,” I said abruptly. “You went against the agreement in our divorce. You sold the shares of Perfetto that you promised to me.”

“You mean my shares?” Patrick said, speaking over me. “I sold off my shares because my foundation needed the money to finance the election since you refused to help with the fundraising. You know how much money is needed for re-elections. I was within my rights to sell what I owned.”

“You promised to sell them back to me,” I hissed. “Are you aware that the police are investigating Dalton for fraud? You could get in a lot of trouble for this.”

“My lawyer assured me that the transactions will weigh out legally in my favor,” he said. The smugness in his tone was hard to miss. “We were divorcing. I no longer wanted to be involved with your company. The timing of the sales was purely coincidental. I wasn’t aware of Dalton’s transgressions—”

“Liar,” I screamed. “Nothing goes on in Seattle that your slimy hand isn’t all over.”

“That’s not true,” he said with fake indignation. “You’re bitter, and you mismanaged your company. That’s on you. If I hadn’t sold all my shares, that money would be tied up with the courts. It was a stroke of luck, that’s all.”

“The sales went through while we were still married,” I pointed out. “You will have to give that money to me.”

---