Page 34 of All The Wrong Notes

Will paused as she began to protest, but he stopped her. “It’s something I’ve lived with all my life, and it’s hard to shake that concern. So, I went straight to the president of the board of directors. I wanted to stay anonymous, but, to be frank, I’m giving a lot. He had to know. The next thing I knew, I was brought in as an external advisor on some long-term plans. When the funds disappeared, and the board was told to cut contact with you until the investigation was over, that included me. And I couldn’t tell you. I hoped sending Rey to look after you would be enough of a remove. Do you forgive me?”

Elise bit her lip, and he couldn’t help himself. He moved forward to kiss it, so soft and pink and lovely. It wasn’t a sexual move. It was pure affection and comfort. She didn’t move away or slap him. Hopefully that meant she didn’t blame him.

“But what about the rest?” she asked. “What did you have to do with the recovery of the money? It has something to do with Gwen, doesn’t it? She said that you could tell me, whatever that means. Tell me what?”

Will raked his eyes over her, with her tousled chocolate hair and her deep brown eyes, and the intelligence that shone from within, and he knew he could trust her with everything.

“It started a long time ago. Ten years ago, to be exact.”

Ten years ago, he had been close to the end of his degree and starting to work with his father, getting his feet wet with the charitable donation fund. This she knew already. What she didn’t know was that Gwen, at the time, had been a timid fifteen-year-old who’d spent a lot of time at the office. It hadn’t been her choice. Their father had seen a future in business for both his children, and hadn’t imagined for a moment that they might have other ideas. Will had found the world of business fascinating and was ready to dive in. Gwen had been more reluctant. But she’d come to the office, regardless, to do simple projects that her father had hoped would appeal to her.

Gwen had met Kevin, who took care of the accounting, and like so many girls on the brink of womanhood, had found his movie-star good looks and easy charm attractive. She’d had no motives other than to sit in the corner and gaze at him from behind a book, but Kevin, it seemed, had different ideas.

“I had some papers I needed from the office,” Will said, staring into the far distance, the events playing themselves out again before his eyes. “It was luck, pure dumb luck that I did. It was about five-thirty and most people had gone home, but Gwen was there, waiting for our father, who had a meeting nearby. I got to the office and the door was locked, which it nearly never is, and when I stood there, looking for my key, I heard noises from inside. I kicked the door down. Oh, God, I can hardly bear to think about it. He had her backed against the wall, with a hand across her mouth to keep her quiet and his pants undone. Her shirt was torn and he…”

Will had to take a moment to get a grip on himself before continuing. “He let go of her as soon as he heard the door go, and he turned to me with this smug look on his face. ‘She wanted it,’ he told me. And then he swore that if we said anything, he’d tell everyone what a slut she was and he’d bring the company down. I was only twenty-one. I was just a kid myself, and was so horrified that I didn’t know what to do. And if we had told people and pressed charges, Gwen would have been put through hell.”

Elise’s mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened in horror. “Oh my God! The poor girl. I’m sick thinking about it.”

“Thank God, she wasn’t physically hurt. But the damage was still done. Sexual assault is awful that way. The victim is victimised twice. Once when it happens, and again when they have to relive it and tell people and give evidence. She was so fragile. It would have killed her.”

Elise held his hand, a reassuring gesture in the midst of this dreadful memory.

“It wrecked Gwen anyway. She hardly spoke a word for months, stopped eating. She begged me not to tell our parents, and again, not knowing better, I agreed. I should have convinced her to tell someone. But she pleaded with me, and I was the only one she could talk to then. I didn't want her to think she couldn’t trust me either. My parents just thought it was a teenage thing, part of the mess of growing up and the stress of school.

“Eventually she agreed to therapy, when she discovered everything she said would be kept entirely confidential. That’s also when she started to discover her own strengths, and stopped trying to shape herself into the person my parents wanted her to be. She turned to art, which she’d always loved, and started expressing the Gwen I think she’d always felt she had to hide. I’m not sure our parents ever understood the coloured hair and the artsy look, but she was back and happy again, and that was good enough.”

Once again, Elise squeezed his hand. “She’s so amazingly confident now. You’d never know it was ever anything different. She’s so strong.”

Will sighed. “I wish she hadn’t had to discover it like that.”

“What about Kevin? How does that relate to the charity? And, I’m guessing, the arts centre?”

“I told him to leave and never come back, but he’s clever. I'll give him that much. He had access to the financial records and bank accounts, and signed in under my name. He somehow withdrew all the money and made it look like I’d done it. I think, back then, it was just meant to be a slap in the face to me, revenge for stopping his attack. Maybe a threat, too, in case I tried to get Gwen to tell anyone.

“It was also a good warning to us, though, to do things more officially. We closed the charity account and set up a proper foundation for our donations, so this couldn’t happen again.”

“And now? With the arts centre?” Elise sat up straight, facing him as they sat next to each other on the couch.

“I think it was revenge again. He’s never been trustworthy, and he probably had some plans to filter bits and pieces away from the centre over time, just to pad his bank account. But when he saw me at the concert, saw us together, he wanted more. And if getting back at me meant destroying you, he was willing to do it. God, you must hate me!” He threw his head back on the cushions and screwed his eyes closed.

“Never. You trust me. I trust you. That’s how it works.”

Will sucked in a deep breath. “It had to be him. I knew it from the moment I’d heard what had happened. I also knew he’d been around the office when he shouldn’t have been.”

“Gwen saw him. Did she tell you that?”

He nodded. “He didn’t recognise her. I’m amazed she didn’t run screaming or anything. My little sister has balls! Yes, she told me. She told me about the summer house he’d boasted about in the Caymans. So that’s where I went.

“It took me over two weeks, but I found him in this little villa he had bought with the stolen funds. You don’t know how hard it was not to punch him, do real damage to him. But I’m not a violent man. There are other ways to get results. I found him, and I applied suitable pressure, and I got the truth out of him.”

Elise gave him a quizzical look. “Suitable pressure?”

“I know some rather intimidating-looking people, and some very official people. He is, at the bottom of it all, a coward. The threat of being tossed into prison was enough for him to turn belly up.”

Will continued his story.

While Kevin had been hard at work on the arts centre’s books, he had also been gathering information. And when he had been in the office, he was slowly picking up bits and pieces to steal Elise’s identity. By the time of the Christmas concert, he had already set up accounts under her name, and he had used his considerable IT skills to discover and then duplicate her electronic credentials.