“Well, he works for the government. I’ve seen his identification,” she said stubbornly. “Maybe he does work for the SEC.”
“Rose, you and I both know he doesn’t work for them. What else is going on? What else has been unusual that you’ve been ignoring? Because you know I would have given you anything you wanted when we divorced. I paid for the house, gave you alimony, I’d give you another million dollars this second if you said you needed it.”
She broke down crying as she looked from the legal papers to me. We might have been broken as a couple, but she knew me; Rose knew me better than almost any other person in the world. She knew I would never have tried to trick her out of money.
“I don’t know why I believed it…” she sobbed. “He was so convincing. What do I do now?”
“Well, there is something else I should tell you,” I pulled a picture out of the file of the big neck guy, Antonio. “Have you met this man?”
“No, who is he?” she asked.
“From what we’ve been able to find, it sounds like this is Antonio Ramirez, Carlos’ brother. He just finished serving a very long prison sentence for murder.”
“Is he going to kill us?” She sounded panicked.
“No, I don’t think so. He did come to my house and threaten me, though, so I don’t think you should be around Carlos. We are filling the police in on what has happened so far, but I’m not sure they will be much help. My investigator and I are trying to figure out a way to catch Carlos red-handed so we have the proof that is needed to send him and his brother to jail.”
“He’s not going to go to jail if he works for the federal government.”
“Rose, I don’t think he does,” I said. “I think his relationship with you and that story is all a lie. I think he connected with you because he planned on stealing from me.”
“Of course you do, Brandon!” she said angrily. “Why on earth would a guy like him and a girl like me be together? Maybe he was right. Maybe you really do still love me and you’ll say anything necessary to get me back?”
“I do love you, Rose, I’ll never deny that. But our time together is over. We can’t go back to those happy days and together, all we think about is Noah and how much we miss him. We are both moving on and that’s good,” I said.
“You know in your heart that I wouldn’t be telling you all of this unless it was true. You know me, Rose. How hard do I research every bu
siness deal before making it happen? Real evidence, remember, I always said I needed hard evidence that a company was stable before I’d buy it. It’s the same here. I made sure there was real evidence before I came to you.”
“I’ve slept with him, Brandon. I’ve loved him.”
Her hands began to shake as the tears continued to flow. It was a lot for her to take in all at once. The man she had loved and shared her bed with was a fraud and only using her for the money she could get access to.
“I know,” I said. “I’m so sorry.”
“He listened to my stories of Noah. He comforted me. He has access to all my money. Everything.”
Suddenly, I got worried for Rose and her financial safety. If he had the ability to gain access to my accounts, he certainly had the ability to drain her of all her money.
“You need to take his name off of everything and have new cards issued. Get a post office box and have everything sent there. Go to the bank first thing on Monday and get it all done.”
“That mess with your bank account when I met you down there... I had to use that account because my account went negative. My account never goes negative, so I asked Carlos and he said he had to buy things for the wedding. Oh, Brandon, he’s probably wiped out all my accounts. I wasn’t even paying attention.”
“We will figure it out; don’t worry. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of. Let’s just figure out how to catch this guy. For the time being, I don’t want you going back home. He’s dangerous and so is his brother.”
“If I don’t go home, he will know something is up. I need to go back if we are going to catch him.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“In case you forgot, I’m an adult and make my own decisions. Call me when you have a plan. I’m going home, and I’m making sure my life is protected.”
Rose stood up and gave me a hug before she turned to leave. I knew I couldn’t stop her, and I wouldn’t try. She had a lot at stake and was a strong woman. If she insisted on going home, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
“I’m going to call you later tonight. We will catch him,” I said as I ran after her.
“You do what you can, but I’m going to do what I can, too.”
“Deal.”