He Accused Me Of Stealing But I Heard The Truth Chapter 03
[Yes. Good. Let the lawyer keep her here.]
[She won’t leave Maisie. As long as the child is with me, she won’t disappear again.]
I looked at Derek. He seemed to genuinely believe this was a choice.
“No.”
I didn’t bother explaining myself again. I turned and walked toward the elevator.
“I’d rather sell my body than trade my daughter for your money.”
I ran out of the hospital and didn’t look back.
Reality didn’t give me much time.
I called Mia first, the only friend I had stayed in touch with after leaving Chicago.
“I need to borrow money. Maisie’s in intensive care.”
I heard muffled sobs on the other end of the line.
“Erin, I’m so sorry. Rachel just sent messages to several investor groups. She said anyone who helps you is deliberately participating in fraud against Weston Group. My husband’s company is waiting on a round of financing. We can’t afford the fallout.”
The call ended.
I went to three banks, trying to use the old house my mother left me as collateral for a loan. The first said the property records were incomplete. The second cited my unstable income.
At the third, the manager scanned my state ID. A fraud alert filed by Weston Group flashed on his screen. He stepped out to make a phone call, then returned and had security escort me from the building.
Someone had gotten to everyone who might lend me money before I ever had the chance.
That evening, I saw a sign near an overpass.
CASH ADVANCE. NO CREDIT CHECK. SAME-DAY PAYOUT.
I called the number.
The man on the line asked, “What do you have for collateral?”
“My body,” I said. “Plasma, a kidney, whatever you’ll take.”
Half an hour later, Derek sat in the back of a car on the way to his office in the Loop.
The car was silent.
He loosened his tie, and that voice echoed in my head again. Even from miles away, I could still hear him.
[Why hasn’t she come back yet?]
[When she said she’d sell herself… that wasn’t just anger, was it?]
[Did I push too hard? No. She lies as easily as she breathes. She won’t tell the truth until she hits a wall.]
Rachel, in the front passenger seat, handed him a bottle of water.
“Don’t worry. She’s always been stubborn. Once she realizes no one else will pay, she’ll come back and sign.”
Derek gave a cold laugh.
“She took that much money from me, and now she comes back playing the destitute mother?”
He hit the car’s call button and dialed the group CFO, Henry.
“Pull every record connected to Erin and that relocation fund. Accounts, trusts, authorization logs. Everything.”
“If she still has money hidden somewhere, notify the banks and freeze it on a fraud dispute. I want her back in that hospital tonight.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end.
“Derek, I was just about to call you.”
Rachel’s hand tightened on the water bottle.
Henry continued, “The bank just sent over the original records. That account was never activated. There’s never been a single transaction on it.”