Chapter 26 #2
Georgia’s eyes are wider than Rebels Field as she grapples with this.
“That’s… insane. I mean, it’s just… wow.
Alfie did this? I’ve known him my entire life.
I don’t know how to wrap my head around that.
” She pauses, thinking this through, and then her eyes flash.
“But wait, if this was going on for over a year, I was with Ezra during that time.”
“Yes. You were. I’ll get into some of that in a moment, but what I have to tell you next is going to be very difficult for you to hear.”
Her body is a marble statue. The back of her head is all that’s visible to me as she stares at the screens, one by one.
“Just… fuck.” She emits a rough sigh. “Just tell me.”
“Your mom was having an affair with Alfie.”
I squeeze her tighter as she sucks in the harshest gasp I’ve ever heard. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Just listen,” I tell her. “So, per your father’s documents, that’s what was going on.
He didn’t trust Alfie, and so he was having him investigated.
But, because Alfie is a hacker and your father was not, your father didn’t get access to what I have access to now.
He was flying blind, picking up scraps Alfie was foolish enough to leave behind while having him followed and privately investigated. ”
“I can’t…” She shakes her head.
“You still with me?”
“Yes. Keep going.”
“You sure?”
“Yes. I need to hear this. All of it.”
“Okay. So what your father knew was that your mother and Alfie were having an affair. What he didn’t know was that Alfie drugged your mother at a party, got her extremely high, and then had sex with her at the party in a bathroom.”
She starts to shake. “That motherfucker!”
I kiss her neck, holding her as close as I can.
“After that, he threatened to come out publicly about it. He had pictures that weren’t the kindest, and he promised to ruin her name and her marriage if she didn’t continue the affair and report back on your father’s doings.
She put him off as much as she could. Through this, much like his son, he became obsessed with her.
At least that’s what his private texts to her from his real phone show, though he denies drugging her and says it was all her, which I believe is more for proof purposes than fact. ”
“Jesus, fuck, Lenox.” Her fingertips touch her trembling lips. “Is he… is he still… are they.”
“No. As far as I can tell from their texts, she hasn’t had sex with him since your father died.
Alfie was threatening to tell your father and the media that the perfect Harmony Monroe had an affair with her husband’s best friend if she didn’t continue to sleep with him.
I have more on that too. But all your father knew was that she was having an affair, and he had planned to confront her and Alfie—along with his financial indiscretions—shortly after the wedding. ”
She climbs off my lap and starts to pace back and forth.
“Keep going.”
I spin in my chair to face her as she paces.
“I believe that’s why your father changed his will in secret.
It also seems that Alfie believed all along that your mom was the sole beneficiary of Monroe and knew that your father was investigating him.
Alfie wanted your dad gone, and Monroe and your mom as his.
He gave Ezra twenty grand to hire someone to take your father out. ”
She pauses mid-step and glares at me as if I just told her the sun was about to explode and the world was going to be thrust into an ice age. “Twenty grand. You told me Alfie gave that to Ezra, and he paid off a bookie.”
“He did. Ezra was in deep and hiding it from the world. He took the twenty grand and paid off a bookie who is also a mafia boss of sorts. Alfie and Ezra promised this bookie two hundred and fifty grand to pay off all his debts if the bookie killed your father after you and Ezra were married. Only it seems the mob boss didn’t wait for reasons unknown. ”
She collapses onto the sofa, and I climb down off the chair and crawl to her until my hands are on her knees and I’m staring straight at her.
She looks sick, her skin void of all color, her eyes glassy and red. Her hands rake through her hair, and then she just sits here, holding her head, completely overwrought with this. “My dad was murdered.”
I nod, my chest clenching painfully for her as I say, “Yes.”
“By a hired gun from my fiancé and his father, my father’s best friend and business partner, who was coercing my mother into an affair with him.”
“Yes.”
She sits up, her forearms dropping to her parted thighs I’m positioned between. “But… why did my father add in the stipulation about me needing to be married?”
I throw my hands up in frustration. “I have no clue. It doesn’t make sense to me, and I feel like that’s a big piece of this pie that we’re missing.”
“I agree with both of those. Why would he be so adamant that I marry Ezra if he was onto Alfie?”
“We also don’t know why he changed his will, other than we can assume it was because he was suspicious of Alfie and no longer wanted your mother to inherit anything.”
She falls back against the couch, only to stand and start pacing again as she works this out. “But it’s not like he knew he was going to die.”
I climb up onto the couch and watch as she paces. “I wish I could tell you more. I have a lot of unanswered questions, and much of what I just told you is from educated guesses based on data.”
“It’s the worst thing in the world to know that I’ve spent all this time with men who murdered my father.
Who would have likely murdered me and my mother given the chance and timing.
I very nearly married one of them. I don’t even know how to reconcile this in my head.
I never suspected them of something like this.
Maybe it’s na?ve of me, but how can people be so two-faced, and you don’t even know it?
I guess it’s true what they say. You never really know someone’s true character until it’s too late. ”
“I’m sorry, baby. I truly, truly am.”
She stops pacing and faces me, visibly raging, yet with a calmness to her I didn’t expect. “Do we have any proof?”
“Yes. We have a lot of proof. Enough to take both men down. Your father built up a hell of a case, and I have the paper trail leading from Alfie to Ezra a week before your father’s death.
” I swallow and lick my lips, shifting to the edge of the couch as my eyes lock with hers.
This is where it gets tricky. “I’d like to send all of this anonymously to the FBI.
I sorta have a contact there that I’ve sent other things to before, and she’ll handle it the right way.
Alfie never thought anyone would ever be able to hack this.
It’s a burner phone he uses with Ezra, only that’s exactly the same phone he used to hack my dummy system. ”
“The FBI,” she parrots. “And they don’t know it’s you?”
I shake my head. “No. Nor will they ever. Alfie fucked up. I never do. But honestly, governmental agencies aren’t known for their timely interventions.
With that, I’d like to leak some of this to local law enforcement and media who will take it and create a public demand for something to kick it into gear. ”
She blusters out a breath. “And my mother’s stuff? The affair?”
“I don’t see any reason why that needs to become public.
At least from our side. The financial stuff and the paid assassin are enough to put both Alfie and Ezra away for a very long time and keep your name out of it.
Well, as much as possible. But you, as board chairwoman, will have to wade through this storm and all that comes with it. And Georgia, there will be a storm.”