Breathless Secrets by Elizabeth Lennox
Chapter 16
The following morning, a sick feeling filled her stomach as Molly read the article. Someone with the email address of “WatchingYou368” had sent a link to her this morning. James was still asleep and Molly had come downstairs to make coffee and sift through the day’s news. But she’d checked her e-mail on her phone first.
“What is going on?!” she whispered, her hand shaking so hard that she dumped coffee grounds all over the counter top.
She skimmed the article and that horrible feeling in her stomach intensified. All of the beauty of last night, making love in James’ arms and feeling the intense warmth of his love, completely dissipated as she realized what this article meant!
“Dear god!” she whispered, her eyes skimming over the words. Closing her eyes, she tried to calm her breathing, tried to stop the panic from choking her. But it was pointless. The words, the insinuations! They dammed without coming right out and saying the accusations!
When she opened her eyes and looked around, Molly didn’t see the horrible décor of James’ penthouse. She didn’t see the sun shining in through the beautiful windows. All she saw was James’ laughing features from last night.
There was just one thing to do, she thought. Molly hurried into the kitchen and put the beautiful diamond ring in the sunshine right in the middle of his kitchen table. It was the only place she was sure that he would see it when he came downstairs.
Quickly, she dialed a number, but couldn’t hold still to wait for the taxi. Instead, she grabbed her clothes, pulling them on with shaking fingers as she stepped into the elevator. James was still asleep, please let him stay asleep, she prayed as she made her way down to the lobby. The cab turned the corner onto his street and Molly had to wipe the tears from her cheeks in order to see.
“Thank you,” she said as she stepped into the backseat of the taxi. “I need to go to fifty-one twelve Roshand Avenue.” Once she’d given the driver her address, Molly leaned back against the vinyl seat and stared blankly out the window, not really seeing anything. Her mind was a blur of pain and anger, the vicious, hateful words of the article stabbing at her heart.
But what could she do about those lies? She hadn’t stolen anything! She hadn’t taken money from anyone! Good grief, she hadn’t even had a salary increase in years! She still earned the same, paltry amount that she’d been offered the first year she’d started working at the Center!
“Not true!” Molly muttered, her hands fisting in her lap.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” the driver asked as he pulled into the parking lot of the Rose Gardens Apartments.
Molly blinked as she turned to look at the man. “I’m sorry?”
The man tried to smile, a mixture of awkwardness and concern. “Are you okay? You look as if you’re about to shatter into a million pieces.”
Molly stared at the man, afraid that if she spoke, then his premonition might actually come true. It was ridiculous, though. Molly knew that she wouldn’t shatter. So, she forced her lips into a polite smile. “I’m fine. And thank you,” she said, then swiped her credit card through the payment machine, adding a large tip. “Have a great day,” she told him when she stepped out of the vehicle.
Molly bowed her head as she hurried down the sidewalk, not wanting to speak with anyone. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on her side. Jimmy was coming out of his apartment as she passed by.
“Molly,” he called, his voice stronger now than it had been in years. The man looked good too. Caring for Lilly’s baby, Marcus, was healing him faster than anything else he’d tried.
That didn’t mean that she wanted Jimmy to see her pain. No, this was a personal hell that she’d have to deal with by herself.
“Good morning, Jimmy,” Molly replied, trying to appear normal. Jimmy might have gone through hell in an alcohol-induced haze for several years. But he was getting better. He went to AA meetings almost every day and had started exercising, becoming addicted to the endorphin rush as a replacement for the alcohol addiction. He still struggled, but there was a determined look on his face now. And those sharp eyes of his were seeing things that Molly would rather he not witness.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice soft with concern.
Molly blinked back the tears. His kind voice and those sharp, but gentle, eyes could see straight through her. “I’m fine,” she lied. “Just tired.”
“Molly,” he said again as she tried to walk by. He didn’t touch her, he didn’t say anything other than her name. But that one word stopped her. For a long moment, she just stood there on the sidewalk, trembling with pain. That article! The accusations…! They could destroy her center as well as James’ campaign!
Unfortunately, Molly couldn’t stop the rush of emotion. Jimmy was such a good man. So kind hearted and tender for such a rough man. A tear slipped down her cheek. She wiped it away impatiently, but Jimmy was already there, pulling her into a big hug.
“Tell me,” he ordered, his voice gruff.
Yes, this man felt too much, she thought. For a moment, she allowed herself to feel his support and his gentle concern as he held her closely. But after a moment, she pulled back, smiling awkwardly up at him. “It’s nothing you can fix,” she sighed. “But thank you, Jimmy.”
With that, she hurried along the sidewalk to her apartment. She knew Jimmy lingered and watched her go, but she kept her eyes on the goal. Once she was inside and away from Jimmy’s too-knowing eyes, she let the tears fall. Wiping them away, she pulled out her phone and read the article again, searching for clues. She didn’t recognize the news outlet that had published the article, but the words, the innuendoes were vicious. And effective!
“I don’t have a secret account!” she muttered, pacing back and forth. “I’m not even sure how to go about opening one!” She stomped into her bedroom and stripped off her clothes. In the bathroom, she flipped the water on, then continued to pace as she waited for the water to heat up, too wound up to hold still.
She stepped into the shower, washing off the scent of James, trying to erase the horrible, ugly words she’d read. Unfortunately, not even the soap and hot water could wash away the pain filling her now. She knew that she needed to ask Lilly for help. Lilly would know how to find secret bank accounts, wouldn’t she? Yes, Lilly was amazing at business. Maggie might be able to help too. She was a genius at organization. She’d remodeled every apartment in this complex in record time! And she knew how to research a person’s background.
Yes, her friends would know what to do. Until then, Molly decided to keep James as far away from this as she could. She couldn’t let the stink of her problem infect his campaign.
And that thought brought a memory to mind.
Molly froze, shampoo bubbles dripping down her face as she thought back to that visit. Eleanor Morgan…or whatever her last name was now. She’d threatened to ruin Molly if she didn’t leave James! She’d warned Molly that it would be bad, but Molly hadn’t anticipated this!
Could James’ mother have done this? Would she really have set all this up to destroy Molly?
When the soap invaded her eyes, she winced and tried to wipe the suds away. “Darn it!” Molly ducked under the water, rinsing out the shampoo. By the time she reached for the conditioner, Molly knew that she needed to figure this out…fast! Besides, she hadn’t done anything wrong! Not that the press would necessarily care! Nope, they preferred the salacious articles more. It was the provocative news that garnered the advertising dollars!
“No!” she snapped as she squeezed way too much conditioner into her hand. “I’m not going to let that bitch do this to me or to James.”
Taking a deep breath, she rinsed out the conditioner, then scrubbed her body clean, wanting to wash away every toxic thought that had entered her mind after reading that horrible article.
James woke up and reached for Molly, wanting to feel her softness and admire his ring on her finger. But when his hand encountered only cold sheets, he lifted his head and looked around. “Molly?” he called out.
Silence.
Molly wasn’t here? After last night, how the hell could she just leave? Had she just gone out for coffee or breakfast? No, he doubted it. Molly loved her coffee, but wasn’t a huge fan of breakfast. She’d just grab a yogurt or cereal unless he cooked something for her.
James stood up and grabbed a pair of jeans, pulling them on but not bothering to button them up since he would be taking them off again as soon as he found Molly.
When he didn’t hear anything in the house, James walked down the stairs, a troubling sensation hitting him. Surely she hadn’t just left!
“Molly?” he called out again.
Still nothing.
As soon as he stepped into the kitchen, he saw the ring. The damn ring that he’d put on her finger just last night sparkled in the morning sunshine.
“Damn it, Molly!” he growled, grabbing the ring and clenching a fist around it. Turning on his heel, James stomped right back up the stairs. He took five minutes to shower, but didn’t bother to shave. Not now. He needed to find Molly. And spank her adorable butt for leaving him like this! She’d agreed to marry him last night. She’d melted in his arms and screamed his name. She was his woman! And damn it, he was her man! No way was he letting her go. Not without a fight!
When he was showered and dressed, he stomped down the stairs, determined to find her and…and put the damn ring back on her finger! They were getting married, damn it! He didn’t want to hear any more about hiding their relationship or whatever nonsense was going through her mind.
Twenty minutes later, he found her. She was sitting in the center’s main room along with Louise, Nora, Jimmy, Lilly, and Maggie. All of them were sifting through papers that James was too angry to focus on.
“I need a word, now!” he growled at Molly. But he didn’t wait for her to reply. Instead, he literally lifted her out of her seat and set her on the floor, then gently shoved her in the direction of her office.
Shoving the extra chair out of her office entirely, he slammed the door then turned to glare at her. “Okay, what the hell is going on?” he demanded, taking the ring out of his pocket, grabbing her hand and sliding the ring back into place. Then he fisted his hands on his hips and glared at her, waiting for her explanation.
“You need to read this,” Molly tried to hand him her phone.
He waved it away. “Molly, I don’t want to read anything. I want to know why you left this morning. And why this ring,” he waved it in her general direction, “was on the counter instead of your finger!”
Molly nodded distractedly, and again tried to give him her phone. “Yes, fine, but please, James, read this first. It will explain a great deal.”
James sighed heavily, running a hand over his scruffy jaw. “What’s it about? You’re going to need to explain it to me because I’m too furious to read anything just now.”
She sighed as well.
She turned her phone around and started reading in a flat, lifeless voice. “Molly McCabe, the director of the Hill Road Community Center in Arlington, Virginia, has been embezzling large sums of money for the past several months.”
“What the hell?” James snapped, snatching the phone so that he could read it himself. “The Center’s recent notoriety,” he paused, his eyes narrowing on the inflammatory word, “and subsequent influx of cash donations created a temptation too great to resist for the lovely and vivacious director. We’ve discovered a separate bank account where large portions of the recent donations were rerouted instead of into the center’s normal bank account. From this account, Ms. McCabe purchased several pricey items, such as video game consoles, jewelry, television sets, laptop computers, and other luxury items. When asked about these items at the center, Ms. McCabe declined to answer.”
James glanced at her. “Who asked you about the items at the auction last night?”
Molly shook her head, lifting both hands into the air. “No one asked me anything about where the items came from or who donated them!” she declared. “And I definitely wasn’t asked about any mysterious donations. And you know why I didn’t keep that stuff here in the center. Those things were too tempting and would have been stolen if left here, even behind locked doors.”
“I know,” he replied, rubbing a hand over his hair. “That’s why we took everything over to Lilly’s.” He looked back down at the article. “It is suspected by authorities,” again, he stopped. “Have the police stopped by here?”
Again, Molly shook her head. “I have several police officers who are friends on the force. They help out as big brothers and sisters to the residents around here and we have a special night for them once a month with special activities. I’ve already called them, asking if they had an investigation going about the donations. They all said they hadn’t heard anything. They checked with the system and nothing is pending. There are no cases to investigate this center or me.”
His lips tightened as he started reading again. “Our investigation revealed that Ms. McCabe and her accomplices…” He glanced at her again, and Molly shrugged. James’ eyes hardened and he continued reading, “…Have been hiding these items, using the public donations to purchase luxury goods that they’ve kept for themselves.” James read through the list of items that had been “donated” and stolen. “This is just about everything that was auctioned off last night,” he noted. “What the hell is going on?”
Molly shivered, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned a hip against her metal desk. “Remember the other day when I mentioned it felt like someone was watching me?”
James handed the phone back to her. “Yeah.” He didn’t like where this was going.
“Well, these were delivered this morning.” She reached behind her and handed him an envelope. When he looked inside, there were several pictures. Pictures of Molly hauling boxes that obviously contained the items listed in the news article. They showed Molly loading those boxes into her car. There were even pictures of Molly checking over her shoulder, as if making sure that no one was watching her. Which they were!
Fury burst in his chest as he flipped through the pictures and then tossed them onto her desk. “Damn it, Molly, I’m so sorry!” he pulled her into his arms. “I should have taken your comments more seriously and looked into this situation!”
Molly wrapped her arms around him. “I’m sorry that I ran away this morning,” she replied, hiding her face in his neck. “I shouldn’t have done that. I love you,” she sniffed. “But in my defense, I was trying to protect you, worried that this story might hurt your chances of winning this election.”
He pulled back, but kept his arms around her. “Molly, you don’t seem to get it. I love you! I love you more than the possibility of winning this election! You mean everything to me!”
She sniffed again. “But you have such wonderful ideas, James! You need to be, and deserve to be, elected.”
He looked into her eyes, trying to impart the sincerity of his words. “Yeah, but if I don’t get elected, I can accomplish my goals another way. There are always other ways to accomplish a task, Molly.” He pulled her against him, holding her close, as if he could somehow protect her from the vicious world. “Now, tell me the rest of it. You’re hiding something still.”
Molly laughed, pressing herself more firmly against him. “Why do you think I’m hiding something else?”
“Because you are,” he asserted, and kissed the top of her head.
Molly sighed and pulled back, wrapping her arms around herself as she looked up at him warily. “I think it’s your mother.”
James heard the words, but didn’t connect the dots. “My mother?” he repeated. “Why would you think she has anything to do with this article?”
“Remember when I mentioned that she’d visited me?”
He couldn’t hide his shock. “Yeah. What about it?” he demanded. “She’s not one of my biggest fans. So, why would she care about…?”
Molly lifted her hand, stopping his question. “When she came here, she made it clear that she didn’t like me. She warned me that I wasn’t the ‘right’ woman for your future. She asserted that you were destined for bigger things and that I would only hold you back.”
James stared at Molly for a long time, then finally shook his head. “You mentioned as much last night. But why would you think my mother did this?”
Molly realized that James wasn’t angry about her accusation towards his mother. He seemed merely curious. “Because she threatened me. Nothing specific, just…” she shrugged slightly. “It was an ambiguous warning to back off.”
“Okay, so I can see her doing that. If she made threats against you…” he trailed off with a sigh. “You should have told me, Molly.”
She groaned, leaning her forehead against his chest. “I know.” She shrugged slightly and the movement made him more aware of her breasts against his chest. “But seriously, what was I supposed to say, James? ‘Oh, by the way, your mother thinks I’m a tramp. Let’s get pizza!’?”
“Yes!” he replied with feeling. “Damn it, Molly! I love you! And you love me. We’re getting married and these secrets won’t help us in the long run!”
“I agree,” she said, and kissed his chin. “I honestly didn’t mean to keep your mother’s visit a secret. And I told you the other day when I felt as if someone was watching me.” She grinned, nodding towards the pictures fanned out on her beat-up desk. “Turns out, I was right, huh?”
He didn’t respond with words. His reply was more of a growl as he pulled her more firmly against his chest. “Don’t do it again. Don’t keep secrets from me.”
“Right. Complete honesty.” She kissed him again. “And if I’m completely honest with you, then you have to know that I don’t think I’d make a good politician’s wife.”
“That again?” he sighed. “I thought we settled that last night.” He took her hand and led her out of her office. “Very soon, I’ll introduce you to Deni, the woman who manages my social calendar. Deni loves her job and loves ordering me about, and I guarantee that she does an excellent job of manipulating me into doing her will. If you ever try to steal her job away from her, I guarantee that she’ll fight you tooth and nail.”
“Fine,” she sighed, following after him. “Now, let me show you what we’ve discovered so far.”
Molly led him out of her office and back into the main room of the center where everyone was still hard at work. “What have you found out?” he asked of the group. Nora was still sifting through invoices while Lilly and Maggie researched possibilities on the computer.
“We’ve tracked the e-mail from which the items were purchased to a New York City address. But I don’t quite have the person’s name yet. But I’m close,” Maggie explained.
Lilly hung up the phone and smiled. “I think I’ve got something,” she announced and pushed a piece of paper towards him. “Here’s the driver’s license that was used to open the bank account. Does she look familiar to anyone?” she asked.
James and Molly stared at the image, but she was a stranger. “I’ve never seen her,” they said. Although the woman was about Molly’s height and with dark, curly hair. She looked vaguely similar to Molly but with an extra fifty pounds on her already voluptuous figure.
Lilly grinned. “She’s a maid that works at your mother’s husband’s hotel in Portland, Maine. Apparently, she’s been arrested several times for theft.”
James braced his hands on the table, staring at the papers spread everywhere. “Okay, so we have a connection with my mother and the person who opened the bank account.” He dialed a number on his phone. When a man picked up, he said, “Hey Howard.”
“Boss, what do you need?” the man answered.
“I need you to go up to a hotel in Portland, Maine and interview a woman named…” he pulled the printout of the woman’s driver’s license closer, “Josie Mulligan. I’m sending you the details.”
“Got it,” the man replied. “What’s this about? Is it for a specific case?”
“It will be,” James replied. “I don’t have a case number yet. But get up there as fast as you can. I’ll have my plane standing by at the airport for you.”
“Excellent!” the guy replied.
James chuckled. “Don’t get used to it,” he warned.
The man laughed in response. “I never do! Send me the information. I’m already heading out the door.”
James hung up and dialed a second number. “Annette, I need you to do some work for me.”
“What’s up, James?” Annette asked.
“I’m going to file a defamation lawsuit against a reporter named Mike Daines,” he announced, reading off of the news article. “He filed a story that posted to ‘The National Intruder’ about how Molly embezzled money from the center for personal use. I suspect that my mother is involved as well, so we’ll file a separate lawsuit against her, but I don’t know what the charges are yet. Conspiracy is definitely there. I don’t have the dots connected for her yet though.”
There was typing in the background. Then Annette said, “Mike Daines was fired from three different news outlets over the past five years. Right now, he’s listed as a free-lance journalist. Although I don’t have any recent articles published by him. At least, none that I can…” she paused. “Wait. I just found the article about a Molly McCabe that was posted last night. Isn’t this…wait a minute, I read an article this morning in the Post about an auction that you attended last night that raised money for–”
“That’s why I want a defamation lawsuit filed against Mike Daines,” James confirmed. “I also want punitive damages set at five million dollars against him!” Molly watched as James’ eyes hardened. “I want another five million against the news outlet. I might include a ten million dollar punitive suit as well. I don’t want this guy working in the news industry ever again.”
“He sounds like an idiot,” Annette scoffed.
“He is. But I think my mother put him up to it.”
There was a pause, then Annette asked carefully, “Are you really going to file a lawsuit against your own mother?”
“If I find out that she was behind this story, then definitely.”
“Seriously?” she laughed.
“Absolutely!” James replied, staring at Molly. “She’s interfered with my life for the last time. If there’s any evidence of her conspiracy, then I want her hit with a suit as well.”
“Do you have Howard looking into this?”
“He’s already on his way to Maine.” James took a moment to explain the Portland, Maine, connection.
“Okay, I think I see where this is going. I’ll let you know when I get the papers filed. It’s Saturday, so the clerk’s office won’t be open until Monday morning, but we’ll get this set up and ready to file first thing Monday morning.”
“Thanks Annette,” he said, and hung up.
There was silence around the table.
Molly was the one to speak up and say what the others were thinking. “You’re a terrifying man, James Morgan.”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her cheek loudly. “Yes. Yes, I am!” he agreed.
