AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, there must be something going on,” Lottie insisted, irritation sharpening her tone.
“You know what, I’ll get it.” Pulling her wallet from her bag, Frankie waved away Lottie’s protests. “It’s fine, babe. You can get it next time.”
“It must be their system. There’s literally no other reason for two separate cards to have the same problem.”
But when the waiter returned with Frankie’s card and a slip for her to sign, a knot formed in Lottie’s stomach. What the hell was going on?
Her unease must have shown on her face, because Eva squeezed her hand and leaned over, dropping her voice low so that nobody else could hear. “It’s probably just some weird accounting error. Ask your dad about it when you get home. I’m sure there’s nothing really wrong.”
An accounting error. That had to be it.
Right?
* * *
It definitely wasn’t an error. Or if it was, her father had somehow missed it for what looked like several months.
Sitting at the desk in his office, she clicked on yet another account, tears blurring her vision at yet another giant PAST DUE notice flashing across the screen.
Maybe he’d just forgotten to pay them. The past two years had been rough on both of them, but while she’d at least somewhat moved on from her mother’s death, her father hadn’t. He almost never left the house anymore, and she couldn’t remember the last time any of his friends had come by. The constant stream of visitors they’d had while mom had been sick had dried up almost as soon as the funeral had ended.
Mr. Elliott, their next-door neighbor and her dad’s best friend, was the one exception to that rule. He came by at least once a week to check on Dad, and he’d even managed to talk him into dinner out once or twice.
It was entirely plausible that her father was simply so mired in his own grief that he’d completely lost track of his bills. She’d just check the bank accounts, find a way to get everything caught up, and then keep a closer eye on things until he was better.
Easy.
But that last little bit of hope went up in flames when she logged into her father’s bank accounts. While they weren’t flat broke, there also wasn’t nearly enough to cover the credit card bills. And she didn’t know enough about the mortgage, or the utilities, or any of the dozens of other charges she saw listed on his main account to know how much she could risk paying to help get things back under control.
There was a series of charges that caught her attention, however. Because they were for such exact amounts. One hundred, five hundred, five thousand. Over and over again, more times than she could count. When she clicked on one of the charges, she saw a website listed in the description, and her fingers trembled as she typed the site into a separate window.
And her heart sank when a woman in a barely-there glittery shirt popped up, smiling and holding a pile of betting chips.
Gambling. Her dad, the most responsible man she’d ever known, had gambled away what looked to be a good portion of their wealth. She wasn’t sure she could even stomach totaling up the charges, but she tried.
She had to stop when she hit the six-figure mark, which didn’t take her nearly as long as she might have hoped.
Feeling numb, she clicked the red X at the top of the screen to close out the internet windows. Just as she was about to log off, a voice called her name, making her jump in her seat.
“Charlotte? What are you doing in your father’s office?”
Mr. Elliott, the sharp edges of his gorgeous face set into stern lines that made her stomach jump with nerves, stepped into the room. Part of her wanted to tell him exactly why she was there, to throw herself in his arms. Arms that had held her and comforted her when she’d sat by her dying mother’s bed and again when she’d watched them put her mother in the ground. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to help, but at least then she would have someone to confide in. Someone who might actually be able to give her some direction.
But she couldn’t be sure Mr. Elliott knew the truth about her dad’s situation. And if he didn’t, then she couldn’t risk embarrassing her dad that way. If she’d learned anything these past few years, it was that when push came to shove, all they had was each other. So as much as she ached to have someone to share her newly discovered burden with, she would just have to be an adult and find a way out of this mess herself.
With that decision made, she sat back in the chair, and gave him her best ‘spoiled little rich girl’ smirk, the one she knew drove him crazy when he felt her dad was letting her get away with too much. “It’s my house. I can be wherever I want. What are you doing here?”
“Looking for your father. We were supposed to meet for lunch an hour ago, but he never showed. Have you seen him?”
“I’m not my father’s keeper, Mr. Elliott.” She wasn’t even sure why she was being so antagonistic toward him, other than she was having a really bad fucking day and it made her feel a little better to poke at him. If there had been one constant in her life, it had been the way Mr. Elliott reacted when she was being a brat.
A muscle in his jaw jumped, and even though that was exactly the reaction she’d been expecting, today her heart beat a little faster and her stomach twisted with an emotion she couldn’t quite name. It wasn’t fear, not really. Mr. Elliott had never given her a reason to fear him.
But it was close, kind of like the ‘fear’ she felt whenever Frankie managed to talk her into watching a scary movie. Like she knew something was about to happen, she just wasn’t sure what.
Odd.
“Well, perhaps you can come help me locate him. I’m fairly certain you have no business snooping around in his office, anyway.”
