“I agree,” Josh added as he grabbed the folder and looked through it. “What I don’t get is why the big neck dude has been breaking into your house and not stealing anything. How does that fit in with all of this?”
“I have no idea.”
“Maybe they needed to see your signature on something so they could forge it?” Billy asked.
“They could have looked at the divorce documents.”
“Yeah, his signature is all over the place. There has to be something else in the house that they wanted,” Dick suggested.
“Or maybe they were just trying to rattle him?”
“Maybe,” I said. “It was working. Last night I stayed with Delilah and it was the first good night of sleep I’ve had in days.
“Okay, so I’m meeting with Rose this afternoon. I’ll get a feel for what’s going on and if the time is right, I’m going to tell her what we know about Carlos. If she really isn’t involved, I can’t let her be around the man without knowing what he’s been up to. It sounds like he and his brother are really dangerous.”
“We should probably involve the local police, as well,” Billy added. “Things could get really complicated if we are trying to catch them in the act all by ourselves. It’s better to at least be in communication with the police, even if they decide not to get involved.”
I was all for having the police involved in what was going on, I just wasn’t sure we could get them to care. So far my house had been broken into three times and the police didn’t show up for nearly an hour. I tried not to be too bitter about it all and understand that Los Angeles was filled with much more urgent issues that they needed to take care of, but I didn’t think my financial issues with Carlos and his brother would rise to the top of the police department’s list, either.
“That’s a good idea,” I said as I gathered the file and prepared to go see my ex-wife. “Wish me luck, guys. This could either go really horribly, or just a little bad.”
The guys wished me luck, and I called Rose to meet me at the local coffee shop near her house. I pretended like I planned to sign the papers she had for me, but I certainly didn’t intend to sign anything she and Carlos had put together.
If Rose needed money, I had no problem helping her out. I still cared about her a lot and she would always be part of my life. If there was something I could do to help her, I would do it in a second and not even think twice about it.
But what Carlos was trying to do wasn’t just take a little money: he was turning Rose against me and making her believe that I didn’t care or that I had tricked her. That pissed me off because I would never purposely hurt Rose. She was the mother of my only child, and I had a big spot in my heart for her.
“Hey, thanks so much for meeting me,” Rose said as she gave me a hug and sat next to me. “I’m not sure what this is so please feel free to have your lawyer look over it.”
She handed me the legal document and I read it over. It wasn’t something I’d ever had drawn up and I knew it. I certainly would have remembered if I’d agreed to give ten percent of my company to her.
“I need to tell you something, and it might piss you off a little at first, but please hear me out,” I said.
“Carlos said you might be angry,” she looked defeated at the idea of having to listen to me. “Fine, what do you have to say?”
“Rose, I think Carlos is a fraud. I’ve found out some information about him that you should know.”
“Brandon, I don’t know why you’re so afraid to let me move on. You and I just didn’t work out,” she said. “It’s okay, I’m okay, we are both okay; let’s just move on.”
“No, Rose, look at this. I had a private investigator do a background check on Carlos. First of all, did you know his real last name is Ramirez?”
I could tell by the look on her face that she hadn’t known that information. Her arms were crossed and she leaned back in her chair, but she was listening to me. I had to tell her what I knew. If this guy was dangerous, I wasn’t going to allow her to be around him, not if I could help it. We might not be good together, but I wasn’t going to let anyone else hurt the mother of my child.
“Maybe that was his mother’s maiden name or something. I really don’t know what you’re trying to get at here, Brandon. Carlos said you’d try to protect your money at all costs. This document was in our files. It should have been executed, and I should have received ten percent of your company when you sold it.”
“Rose, listen to what you’re saying. When we divorced, was I even thinking about selling my company? No, I loved my work. You even complained that I worked too much. Carlos faked this document. You have to know that.”
“I don’t know what’s true right now.”
“Okay, let me show you this,” I said as I pulled more evidence out of my folder. “Carlos went to my girlfriend’s work and pretended to work for the Securities Exchange Commission. He said that he was investigating me. He had a man hack into my credit cards and then gain access to my bank to freeze all my accounts.
“I believe he intends to blackmail me with this legal document. If I sign this, he will unfreeze my accounts. If I don’t, I will spend months fighting with the bank trying to have access to my money.”
“No, no, he wouldn’t do that. He asked me to come and have you sign it. He didn’t want to be involved.”
“Or he thought by making you come do it, then it wouldn’t place the legal blame on him?”
She was silent, and I gave her the time to process what was going on. I couldn’t pretend to understand the hurt she felt at that moment. I had only felt hurt for a few hours when I thought Del had something to do with freezing my account. But the evidence was piling up against Carlos and soon Rose would have to believe he wasn’t the man he said he was.