Brandon walked me downstairs and waited with me while he called an Uber to pick me up. He had offered to drive me to the office, but I was fine with the car coming to get me. There was a lot running through my head and I needed to step away from Brandon before I was going to get it all straight.
“I’ll call you. Take care of yourself, and please let me know if you get any other weird messages. I’m worried that someone out there has the capacity to cause some real harm in my life and actually get me arrested.”
“Okay, will do,” I said and climbed into the Uber as said my goodbyes.
While the car pulled away, I replayed his last words to me in my head.
People who didn’t commit illegal acts weren’t afraid of getting arrested. I know that was the case for me. Even if someone was after me, or hated me, I never would think that I could get arrested because I didn’t commit crimes. My gut said there was more to this story, and I didn’t like it one bit.
Chapter Sixteen
Brandon
“I’m one hundred percent certain that someone is after me, and it isn’t the SEC.”
I had been reluctant to think that all the things that had been happening to me were on purpose; that just wasn’t the type of person I was. I gave people the benefit of the doubt for as long as possible before I gave in and started to think the worst of them.
Over the years, I’d had weird things happen before, and they were mostly chalked up to coincidences and other very lame reasons. Most people around me thought the worst of situations and I had paid them to think that way. My executives at my company had to always be planning for the worst and preparing for how they would handle things. Their preparation made it easier for me to look for the positives in situations, which was my job as the CEO.
Now things were different, though, and this was personal. Someone was clearly attacking me personally and possibly going after my financial accounts, as well. As much as I hated to think the worst, that message directed at Del had me thinking all sorts of crazy things.
“I’ve had my friend looking into things and he’s not finding much – which is both a good thing and a bad thing, I guess. He said there is no investigation into you, at least none that he could find.” Josh looked disappointed at the revelation.
“So, what does this all mean?”
“It means that you’ve pissed someone off who’s capable of some serious shit.”
“What do you mean?”
“Either you really aren’t under investigation and that was a real life bad guy who showed up at your door, or you are under investigation and it’s under some sort of clearance.”
Josh had a point, and it was exactly what I had been thinking. I’d been replaying my last few relationships, thinking about the women who I might have wronged and even thinking about the business partnerships I’d been part of. Nothing came to my mind. Was it possible I was so out of touch that I actually didn’t even realize who I had hurt? It was looking more and more like that was the case.
I only trusted Josh and a few other very close people in my life. It shouldn’t be too hard to find who was doing these things because I kept my circle of friends rather close and didn’t let new people in very often.
Many of the wealthy, young guys I knew did a horrible job of keeping their lifestyle quiet. They were throwing parties every weekend and buying bottles of champagne when they went to the clubs. I wasn’t like that. I didn’t live my life like that.
Whether I was poor like I had been growing up, or rich like I was now, I liked my semi-quiet lifestyle and wasn’t too flashy about it. Yes, sometimes I went out with the guys and got a VIP room and splurged, but I wasn’t being plastered across the tabloids like the others, and I was pretty damn proud of that.
“Del said something to me that made a lot of sense. Whoever is doing this has some seriously hurt feelings and that means it has to be a woman I’ve had a relationship with. There’s not a dude out there who would go to this level of trouble if I pissed him off. Guys are much more likely to just punch me in the face.”
“What about a guy who was with the girl you hurt?”
“Like a new boyfriend? Why would any self-respecting guy bother? No, it’s got to be a woman. Maybe she’s capable of manipulating a man into doing what she wants him to, but it’s a woman behind all of this.”
“What about your ex-wife?” he asked.
It was a reasonable question, but Josh didn’t know Rose like I knew her. She and I got along much better now that we were divorced than we ever got along while married. Rose didn’t have anything to be upset with me about, either; we had decided to separate mutually. Sure, she was hurt and angry because our dreams of a happily ever after life ended, but it was so long before that I couldn’t imagine that she would still be angry enough to mess with my life.
Rose and I had been separated for several years by this point; it didn’t seem likely that she would suddenly start trying to chase after me or cause trouble in my life. My gut was saying the person causing issues was highly skilled in computers, and that wasn’t Rose – she could barely log into her cell phone without help.
“No way. We get along fine. I don’t see a reason for it.”
“How about that you sold your company for over a billion dollars and didn’t give her any of it? If I was an ex-wife, I’d be pretty pissed off that my husband sold his company only a few years after our divorce and didn’t give me any of that money. She supported you when you were poor and then you waited until the divorce to run off with all the money,” Josh said dramatically as he waved his hands around and pretended to be an upset ex-wife.
“No, that’s not what happened. I was still running my company when we divorced. I hadn’t even imagined I would sell the company. She’s not angry about that. Anyways, she’s getting remarried soon, so there’s nothing to worry about with her.”
“I don’t know, man. That new guy of hers seems shady to me. I definitely don’t think he works for the government. He reminds me a lot more of that thick-necked thug who showed up here than of a professional who has a government job.”