A great New York businessman deceived thousands of users by dragging Jose into the famous pyramid scam. He sold insurance policies for houses, land, business, and property to naive victims, to whom he later did not pay a single cent. If his memory serves Josephine well, Theo recalled that the feds tried to bring Josephine to justice, but they failed to convict Josephine of fraud and bribery, but only of tax evasion. Harris' accounts and assets were frozen, and his family fell apart. "His wife, Martha, couldn't stand the downfall and the humiliation, so she drank a full bottle of sleeping pills and a pint of gin, after which she didn't wake up."
"According to the press, Josephine's younger sister Ana tried to commit suicide like her mother, but she did not succeed, but ended up with brain damage. I'm still working to determine where the girl is located. Josephine survived all that hell, but she had to leave her studies and start life from the beginning. She probably managed to hide some money from the state authorities in order to place her sister in an institution. "Mitch paused to catch his breath and handed Theo a list.
"What is this?"
"List of names of people with whom Miss Miller managed to maintain contact. Growing up among the rich, she apparently made many friendships. After the collapse of her father, all his business associates and friends abandoned Josephine, but Josephine apparently managed to preserve some of her friendships. On the list of her acquaintances was the daughter of a senator and two extremely powerful lawyers. I still don't know how she found out about your case, but I'm still waiting for some calls. "Theo flipped through the papers and found a photo of the Miller family from happy times. They were standing on the deck of an expensive yacht. Martha, thin as a branch, stood in front, her two smiling daughters, in one-piece bathing suits, to her right. Despite the fact that Josephine's hair was raised in a ponytail, at the moment when the photo was taken, her wild curls fell over her eye. Ana is obviously much younger than Josephine and is just as skinny as her mother. Their father Harris, at least twenty pounds overweight, stood next to his wife with his arm slung over her shoulder. Photos can be deceiving, Theo thought, remembering a similar picture from his family album. His father stood next to his wife with his hand on her shoulder, while she sat in the armchair, tense and nervous but still smiling. Theo remembered exactly the day that photo was taken. He quarreled with his father because he told Josephine that he wanted to volunteer over the summer. Edmund didn't even want to hear that his son was working for someone, especially not without financial compensation. He believed that education was necessary only for Theo to have something to brag about in front of his friends. However, that hateful three-letter word, work, was something that was not allowed to be uttered, at least as long as he was leading the main word in the family.
"And I thought my family was weird," Theo whispered.
"Miss Miller has obviously outdone you in this." There was nothing good about the two of Jose competing.
"Where does she live now?"
"In a rented house in Tarzana."
"Does she have a roommate?"
"I didn't find out."
"And is there a boyfriend?" Mitch looked at Josephine in surprise.
"I didn't even ask for that information, but if you're so interested, I'll try to find it." At that moment, Mitch's phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the number printed on the screen.
"They're telling me something about her sister," he explained before calling. As Mitch talked on the phone, Theo studied the list of names on the paper he held in his hand. Josephine obviously had a lot of friends. He wondered if some of Jose had helped her financially after her father's collapse. He was startled by a loud whistle that Mitch dropped into the phone.
"Okay, thanks," he said and hung up.
"What is it?"
"Miss Miller is really burning under her feet. That's why she desperately needs a job with you. ”
“ Is it? Why? ”
“ Her sister is in the moonlight. It is a luxury institution for handicapped patients, which means that Josephine has to pay Jose a hefty sum every year. If my source is to be believed, that amount is six digits. ”Theo frowned spontaneously. "And no one is helping Miss Miller with that payment?" Mitch shook his head. "I did not find any information about that. Her friends may be hiring her, but there is no evidence that she gets money from any source other than her own business. ”A job that Theo has already studied in detail and knows all about. "Interesting."
"So, what's Josephine like?" This was Mitch's first personal question. Theo imagined her alabaster skin and determined expression. Her seductive, velvety voice rang in his ears. Hell, it was enough just to remember Josephine and want to hear Josephine again.
"She's all focused on work," Theo told his assistant.
"You'd like it. Keeping things under control was Josephine's basic motto. As soon as Theo Smith invited her and suggested that they meet for dinner during which he would discuss the candidates she had sent Josephine, Josephine immediately began to work out all possible scenarios. It is possible that he recognized one of the women she proposed to Josephine, or he may have managed to find out their last names. She deliberately left Jose out so that her clients would evaluate the candidates according to their education and qualities, and not according to the families they come from. She herself felt on her own skin what it is like when others evaluate you according to your parents' actions. After the collapse of her family, she even thought about changing her last name and hair color. She didn't do that, but that's why she moved to the West Coast and stayed away from the media for a long time. Fortunately, the tabloid's attention to her fate was short-lived; as soon as a new scandal surfaced, the breakdown of her family was forgotten. By settling next to Hollywood, someone else has always been the focus of interest. The last time the paparazzi photographed her was at her mother's funeral, and since then they have stopped being interested in her. If she was an enchanting beauty prone to scandals and wild parties, journalists would probably continue to follow her. However, she hid and started dressing like an old settler, which completely repelled tJose. So what did Theo Smith want to talk about? He may have already consulted with his lawyer, so he needed some more information about the candidates, which she did not provide. Ever since she started doing this job, she has taken care of every, even the smallest detail. She paid her taxes regularly - Thank you, Dad! - she did not owe a single cent to anyone and always kept her contacts in strict secrecy. Everything she did was transparent. All the checks she conducted, either alone or with the help of private detectives, were completely legal. By the way, she always turned to only females for information. Far from thinking that women were operated on from illegal activities, she simply did not trust men. Many have let her down. In fact, she couldn't remember anyone who hadn't stabbed her in the back.
The sun was still shining brightly as she drove to a luxury restaurant. She left the engine running and got out of her sedan so he could park it. She thanked Josephine and watched Josephine take the wheel and move the car just a few steps away. Her old GMC protruded in the parking lot where the gleaming bodies of Mercedes, Cadillacs, and Lexus shone. Josephine stepped into the cool interior of the restaurant and inhaled the pleasant smell of garlic and herbs. Two years ago, she last date at a five-star restaurant, when her two newly married clients treated her to dinner. By the way, she stopped going to luxury places a long time ago, but she still missed some of Jose. In fact, she missed that sometimes she ate something more delicious than a dish preheated in a microwave oven or Chinese food bought along the way. Before she could address the hostess of the restaurant, a man approached her.
"Miss Miller?" Strangely, he didn't wear a uniform like the rest of the staff. Maybe he was the director.
"Yes?"
"Mr. Smith is expecting you." He must be the manager, Josephine thought and followed the elegantly dressed man who led her to a completely separate booth overlooking the ocean. Seeing her, Theo Smith got up and went to meet her. Like the first time, Theo was immaculately dressed. An expensive, dark suit and a snow-white shirt fit his sculpted, tanned body perfectly. That man simply dominated his appearance. As he measured her, a barely visible smile flickered on his lips. Josephine chose a simple but elegant dress, not too ordinary, but not one in which she could appear at the Oscars. Judging by the expression on his face, he obviously liked it. She didn't wear it to flatter Josephine, but not to stray from this luxurious place.
When their eyes crossed, a pleasant heat flowed down her spine. "You're late," he told her in a provocative tone, alluding to what she had first told Josephine during their previous meeting. She started to answer Josephine, but immediately closed her mouth. "Shower." He smiled at her. "I was free to order wine. I hope you don't mind. ”He let her pass Josephine and waited for her to settle in the booths, and only then did he reach for the ice bucket behind his back. Josephine watched Josephine as he poured her golden-yellow liquid into an elegant crystal glass, concentrating on staring at Josephine. "Are we celebrating something?" "Maybe," he said and poured the wine into his glass. She wanted to immediately ask Josephine which candidate he had chosen but still refrained. Of course, he hadn't decided, since he hadn't met any of Jose yet. Theo raised his glass and waited for her to do the Josephine. "Toast to our successful business rela
After the plane reached a certain altitude, the pilot told Josephine that they could untie their seat belts and that the flight to Las Vegas would take just under an hour. Since boarding, Josephine had barely spoken. Since she agreed to be his wife for a year, Theo more or less organized a wedding in the chapel in the City of Sin. He believed that the seemingly romantic wedding in the chapel in Vegas would seem much more legal to his father's lawyers than the one in the town hall. Theo unbuckled his belt and got up from his seat. He went to the bar of his private jet and took a bottle of champagne out of an ice bucket. As he opened it, he glanced at his newlywed fiancée. She looked thoughtfully out the window with her fingers tightly intertwined in her lap. Strangely, he is the one who puts everything at stake by marriage, but she is the one who got nervous. "Maybe this will relax you a little," he said, handing her a tall glass of champagne. "Is it so obvious I'm ne
There, they both signed a marriage document, and thus officially became husband and wife. Before coming here, Theo didn't think much about what their first wedding night would look like, but he certainly didn't think it would go the way it did. He booked a youth suite in a luxury hotel, where he spent the night on the couch in the living room, while his bride wandered around the bedroom until the early hours of the morning. That kiss of theirs honestly shook him. It is true that he was acted out and performed only to satisfy his form, but since they left the chapel, Theo has not thought about anything other than that he wants to repeat that show. Judging by the gleam in Jose's eyes, her flushed cheeks, and her persistent refusal to look him in the eye, he concluded that the kiss aroused her as much as it did him. Hell, you shouldn't be so mad at her. An emergency woman. A woman who likes to enjoy making unsalted jokes at the expense of his playboy endeavors and cheap ent
Twenty-six hours after uttering the fateful "yes," Josephine and Theo got off his private plane and faced an onslaught of reporters. Luckily, she remembered to wear big sunglasses and hide the concern on her face. The media has not changed at all since her father's arrest. The others are equally overbearing, boring, and curious. Theo protectively wrapped his arms around her waist and led her to the exit of the airport. It would be great if some Hollywood star made a scandal so that the media's attention was diverted to her, Josephine thought. Otherwise, she will have to fight the paparazzi on her own. As they passed a column of reporters, Theo answered their questions briefly, uttering phrases like the love of my life, it knocked me off my feet, I fell head over heels in love and the like. He sounded so sincere that she would have believed him if she hadn't been into this scam. At one point, he brushed her ear with his lips and whispered, "It's going to be worse in Europe, so wake u
As she entered the house, she set the keys on the table in the hall and headed for the stairs. When the bell rang, she turned mechanically and grabbed the handle. It wasn't until she opened the door that she remembered that it wouldn't be wise for someone to take a picture of her now, because Theo would surely shake his jaw with nervousness when he saw that picture in the newspaper. But the person standing in front of her door was neither a journalist nor holding a camera. The matter was much worse. That was Vanessa. The woman staring at her was the complete opposite of her. A natural blonde with shiny, lush hair, high cheekbones, blue eyes, long, slender legs over which fluttered an elegant silk skirt, one of those that are not bought in department stores, but only in luxury boutiques. No matter, Theo really has a taste when it comes to women, he has to admit that. "You know who I am." Even in her wildest dreams, Josephine did not expect Vanessa van Buren to appear at her doo
Theo rubbed his face for who knows how many times. Josephine's message upset him deeply. Why didn't she answer his phone? What the hell is Vanessa? What did she say to his wife? He and Josephine have been married for less than a week and he already had to figure out a way to keep his mistresses as far away from her as possible. He hadn't heard from Vanessa since he got married. True, he called her once, but since her maid told him that her mistress would not accept his invitation, he thought that the two of Josephine no longer had anything to talk about. Jacqueline sent him only one short message. Let me know when you freak her out. Why did Josephine use the word poisonous? Something nasty must have happened there. Hell. If he hadn't been prevented from flying all day, he would have boarded a plane and returned to America. But making hasty decisions was not in his style. He planned to return only on Sunday night when he would bring his wife home and send her to Europe. Unless she ne
Somewhere in the background of her mind, Josephine was aware that she was dreaming. She also knew where that dream would take her, so she desperately tried to prevent it. A picture of her room from her childhood flashed through her mind. Then one honest conversation with a good friend. Then she saw her mother warning her to watch what she was saying. And Ana, who stands in the middle of the room in her sports bra and laughs at something their dog Buster did. All these images mixed in her head and caused severe chest pain. Two men in dark suits entered her classroom and took her into the hallway to interrogate her. Only, now they didn't ask her where her father was and what she was doing, but their questions were about Theo. "What he's doing is illegal, Josephine. Thousands of people suffer because of him. ”No! That's not true! She struggled with sleep trying to get her brain to choose some other images. But he rewound the film in advance and her heart almost stopped
Theo's men found cameras in Jose's living room, kitchen, and both bedrooms. They had known about the eavesdropper in the telephone receiver for a long time. After combing everything, they found that her car was clean. But hell! Someone was watching her as she changed, as she slept. Josephine admitted to Theo that on one occasion she might have said to Alice some things by which someone might conclude that their marriage was not real. Those cameras were most likely set up by those guys who pretended to be from the phone company. Or maybe someone sneaked into her house while she was jogging. Later, they mostly talked on their cell phones while Josephine was away from home. But even if they did talk over a landline, nothing could be deduced from their conversation. They only talked about the reception and the people they would meet at it. In fact, they talked as if they had been married for a hundred years, though they barely knew each other. Theo drove her in his limousine toward her