Chapter 6 - THE MISTRESS’S PRICE
Ava Monroe was found two days later in a motel in upstate New York.
She had been trying to scrub her digital footprint,
but Elias,
my private investigator,
was faster.
I went to the police station to see her.
She was sitting in an interrogation room,
her red hair a mess,
her designer clothes stained.
She looked up when I walked in,
her eyes narrowing.
"What do you want,
Vivienne?"
she spat.
"To gloat?"
"I want to know why,"
I said,
sitting across from her.
"Why my husband?"
"Because he was easy,"
she said,
laughing a dry,
bitter sound.
"He was so desperate to be a Bellamy that he would have done anything."
"I just gave him a reason to do it."
"You ruined his life,"
I noted.
"He ruined his own life,"
she countered.
"I just helped him spend the money."
I looked at her,
realizing that she was exactly what she appeared to be.
A parasite who had found a bigger parasite.
"The three million you stole,"
I said.
"It's gone,
isn't it?"
"Every cent,"
she smiled.
"But Bennett doesn't know that."
"He thinks I have it hidden in a Swiss account."
"He's still hoping I'll bail him out."
"He signed a confession,
Ava,"
I told her.
"He pinned everything on you."
Her smile vanished,
replaced by a look of pure,
murderous rage.
"He what?"
"He said you forced him to forge the signatures."
"He said you threatened to expose his failures to the board if he didn't transfer the house."
It was a lie,
of course.
Bennett had blamed her,
but not that much.
I wanted to see if she would turn on him.
"That bastard!"
she screamed,
slamming her hands on the table.
"I have the recordings of him laughing about her surgery!"
"I have the photos of him signing the documents!"
"Will you give them to me?"
I asked,
leaning in.
"In exchange for what?"
"In exchange for a recommendation for a lighter sentence."
"And the chance to see Bennett’s face when you testify against him."
Ava looked at me,
and I saw the calculation in her eyes.
"I'll give you everything,"
she said.
"I'll bury him."
I walked out of the room,
feeling the power of the Bellamy name once again.
I had used them both,
just as they had used me.
But I was doing it for the truth.
May you like
They were doing it for the greed.
And that was the difference.
