Betrayal

by Danielle Steel

  “When are you going to arrest her?” She told him about Brigitte’s trip to Mexico the following week.

  “We’ll get her as soon as she gets back,” he said dryly.

  “Then what happens?”

  “She gets arrested, we take her into custody. She gets arraigned a couple of days later and is bound over to trial. The judge sets bail at the arraignment, or lets her out on her own recognizance, they take her passport away, and then we wait to go to trial.”

  “That’s it?” Tallie looked startled. “She walks around for a year like nothing ever happened?”

  “Yeah, that’s how it works, except in crimes of violence. Otherwise, in white-collar crime like this, she goes on with her normal life until she goes to trial or pleads guilty. Then she gets sentenced, and hopefully she’s gone, to prison for several years.”

  “What if she runs away?”

  “We catch her and bring her back. If they set bail, then she posts a bond, or gives up the deed to her house or some similar piece of property to guarantee she won’t run away. If she’s on her own recognizance, she’s pretty much free till the trial. But they won’t do that if she’s a flight risk. Do you think she is?” Jim asked her, looking concerned. He didn’t think Brigitte was. She had a home she obviously cared a lot about. She wouldn’t just walk away from that.

  “I have no idea,” Tallie said honestly. “I don’t even know the woman. I thought I did, but I surely don’t,” she said, waving at the report. “I have no idea what she’d do in a circumstance like this.”

  “Most people stick around and go to trial or plead. Very few ever run away. I’ve only had one do it in twenty-six years with the Bureau, and we brought him back. We had to extradite him from England on a big embezzlement case, and that was a long time ago. It’ll happen, Tallie, this will be over. It just takes time. And by the time it is over, you’ll feel like it took forever. These things move very slowly. But sooner or later, they get resolved. The main thing for you to concentrate on now is getting restitution, and getting back as much as you can, which won’t be much. Or it won’t be everything you lost. In this case, it sounds like she spends it all, other than her house. Nice house by the way,” Jim commented, and Tallie laughed.

  “I call it Palazzo Parker. I guess it turns out to be Palazzo Jones. It’s a lovely house.”

  “You may find yourself the proud owner of it when this is all over. My guess is that you paid for it.”

  “She told me she paid for it with her trust fund, or her inheritance, I can’t remember which, and of course I believed her.” It was all lies. All of it.

  Jim Kingston stood up then and wished her a good trip, and told her he’d see her when she got back. She hoped that Brigitte would be arrested by then, but Jim couldn’t be sure. He had to wait for the grand jury, the judge, and the warrant, and then they’d be off and running. But they were almost there. Brigitte’s journey into the criminal justice system, and to prison eventually, was about to begin. Tallie felt guilty for thinking it, but after everything Brigitte had done to her, she could hardly wait for it to start, and for Brigitte to pay the price for the crimes she committed.

  Chapter 14

  THE NIGHT THAT Tallie was packing for New York was a busy one at Victor and Brianna’s house too. The war between them had been raging for weeks, and Victor had finally accepted defeat. Brianna had never relented on the postnup or the money she wanted, and Victor’s not getting them invited to the Academy Awards nearly two months before, or any of the parties afterward, was the last straw for her.

  “You know how badly I wanted to go!” she railed at him. “You promised!” She was half-whining and half-shouting. All she had done was accuse him of things for the past months.

  “I didn’t promise, Brianna,” he said reasonably, looking unhappy. He looked even older than he had before. “I’m not a member of the Academy. I don’t get invited to the Oscars. I never told you I could pull that off.”

  “You didn’t even get us invited to the after parties,” she accused him with a fearsome pout.

  “I would have had to ask one of my clients, like Tallie Jones, and I didn’t want to impose. Besides, she has much bigger problems to deal with right now, than getting us invited to the after parties of the Academy Awards.” Vanity Fair always gave the best one, but he had no access there either.

  “So do I.” Brianna looked surly as she threw her clothes into Vuitton suitcases she had spread out on the bed and floor. “I have a husband who doesn’t give a damn about me, who doesn’t want me to feel financially secure, and who broke every promise he ever made about helping me with my career.”

  “I did everything I could,” he said unhappily, as she emptied racks of platform shoes into a suitcase, and the bed was piled high with her furs. This was more than just a statement to impress him. It was the end, as far as she was concerned. “Where are you going, Brianna?” he asked with a worried look.

  “I reserved a suite at the Beverly Wilshire.” Her announcement filled him with terror for what it would cost him, and even more so for the location. It was across the street from all her favorite stores on Rodeo Drive, which was why she had reserved there. The expense for Victor didn’t bother her at all. She turned toward him with an angry look then and confirmed what he had known was coming at him ever since she brought up the postnup, and he no longer believed it had been suggested by her lawyer. The concept was typical of her.

  “Victor, I’m getting a divorce. You’re not the man I thought you were.” He felt her words like a physical blow, but he was no longer surprised. He knew that there was no way he could keep her, and he hadn’t been able to afford her for many months, or even the past two years. What frightened him now was what kind of settlement she would want, and how much alimony she would demand. Even with a prenup, he knew that the divorce was going to cost him a fortune. Brianna had been a disaster in his life. He quietly left the room while she was packing, and went to sit in his study alone. All he could do now, he knew, was let her leave, and hope that he would survive the aftermath of the war.

  Brianna packed all night, and when Victor woke up in the big leather chair in his office in the morning, she was gone. It was over. He felt a thousand years old, and numb. She had left no note, no message. Leaving financial chaos in her wake, and closetsful of empty hangers, Brianna had moved on.

  The early flight from L.A. touched down at JFK in New York at three in the afternoon. With the time difference, Tallie lost most of the day getting there. And after she got her bags off the carousel, and took a cab into the city, she was at her New York apartment at five o’clock. Max had said she’d be back from class at six. And the apartment was dark and empty when she let herself in. It was a spacious, sunny apartment in a high-end modern building in the West Village with a doorman and security. Tallie liked the fact that she felt Max was protected there, and she had agreed to let her stay at the apartment instead of the dorms. It wasn’t showy, but it was a nice building, and the neighborhood was safer than most. And the apartment was bright and sunny, and simply decorated.

  There was the usual student debris lying around, clothes in her bedroom, books spread out on the table, full ashtrays, some empty Coke cans, and a pizza box from the night before. Tallie tidied up while she waited for Max to come home. She threw the garbage away, made Max’s bed, and ran a bath for herself. She was wearing a cozy pink terrycloth bathrobe and lying on her bed when Max walked in, gave a squeal of delight when she saw Tallie, and took a flying leap at the bed and lay laughing next to her mother in tattered jeans, a red sweatshirt, and flip-flops. She looked no different than she did in L.A., or than Tallie did anywhere. They almost looked like clones.

  “I missed you so much!” Max said as she clung to her mother. They had big plans for the week ahead. Dinner out, meeting Max’s new friends, all the places, shops, and restaurants Max had discovered since living there, and Tallie was dying to see at least one Broadway play.

  “I missed you too,” Talli
e said, holding her in her arms. She suddenly felt as though she had come home. Being with Max was like sinking into a big cozy feather bed. For the first time as she lay there, she realized just how brutal the past few months had been, and what a toll they had taken on her. Max could see it too. She thought her mother looked tired, although she didn’t say it to her.

  “You’ve been working too hard, Mom,” her daughter scolded her. “I’m so glad you came!” And then a minute later, the question Tallie had been dreading. “How’s Hunt?”

  “I guess he’s okay,” Tallie said, sounding vague.

  “What do you mean you ‘guess’ he’s okay?” Max sat up on the bed and looked down at her mother. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is he away?” Tallie didn’t answer for a minute, searching for the right words.

  “Kind of.” And then she took a breath and plunged in. “I didn’t want to tell you till I saw you,” but she had hoped this question wouldn’t come this soon in her stay, “Hunt moved out.”

  “When?” Max looked shocked.

  “About three months ago,” she said gently.

  “And you didn’t tell me? How could you do that?” She was suddenly angry at her mother, for keeping a secret from her, especially something as major as this. She had lived with Hunt since she was fifteen, and he was the closest thing to a father she’d ever had, even if he had arrived late.

  “It was complicated. It’s really been kind of a difficult time,” Tallie admitted, and there were tears in her eyes. She didn’t want Max to be angry at her too. The rest was bad enough.

  “Complicated how?” Max wanted to decide for herself.

  “Well, a lot of stuff has come up in the last few months that I didn’t know about. It made it impossible for me to go on living with him.”

  “Like what? Stop being so mysterious about it. I’m not a child. I’m eighteen.” It sounded like childhood to Tallie, but she could still remember how grown-up she had felt at Max’s age. She’d had a baby two years later. But Max was nowhere near that, and had no intention of getting married and having a baby at twenty in whatever order.

  “To be honest, I don’t know where to start. It’s a long story, but we had a new Japanese investor for our next movie, which I’m not doing with Hunt, by the way, since you want to know everything. The investor wanted an audit, so we did one, and our accountant discovered that I had quite a lot of missing money, as in close to a million dollars. Someone had been stealing about twenty-five thousand dollars in cash from me every month for several years. So that was the beginning. My accountant was worried. I couldn’t understand it. I asked Brigitte about it, she said she didn’t know anything, although she should have since she took care of all my bills. And finally, a couple of days later, she told me that Hunt had been stealing money from me, or having Brig get it for him, and swearing her to secrecy-” Max interrupted her before she could go on, and looked irate.

  “Mom, that’s bullshit! And you know it. Hunt would never take any money from you, or anything else. He’s always giving me money. Hunt would never steal anything from you. Was Brigitte crazy or what?”

  “Actually, that turned out to be the case. Brigitte is crazy, and Hunt wasn’t stealing money from me, but someone was, and I didn’t know who. Brigitte really did convince me it was Hunt, for a while.”

  “That’s shitty of you,” Max said, looking annoyed, as she lay down next to her mother on the bed again, and listened to what had happened. It sounded like a long story, and totally insane to her.

  “Anyway, aside from the money, Brigitte gave me more bad news.” She took a breath before she continued. “She said that Hunt was involved with another woman.” With that, Max rolled her eyes and shook her head.

  “That’s bullshit too. Hunt would never do that to you, Mom. What’s wrong with Brigitte? Why is she saying all this stupid stuff about Hunt? Is she mad at him or something?” Max had always loved Brigitte, but the whole story sounded ridiculous to her, and mean to Hunt.

  “Yes, she is mad at him. But it turns out she was right. He was seeing someone else, he had been for the last year. I didn’t believe her either, so I went to a private investigator, and she showed me pictures of them. To cut the story short, he was involved with this other woman, he’s in love with her, and they’re having a baby, so that’s not such great news,” Tallie said with a lump in her throat as Max sat up again and stared at her mother.

  “You’re lying,” she said, wanting that to be true, but it wasn’t.

  “No, I’m not, sweetheart. I’m sorry, I know you love him, and I do too, or I did… but he lied to me. He admitted it about the other woman, though. I asked if he’d stop seeing her and he wouldn’t. He loves her. So he moved out.” She made it sound matter-of-fact, but it was an ugly story, and that wasn’t lost on Max, who was crying by then, as her mother put her arms around her. It was a huge disappointment to them both. “I don’t know what happened to him. He just kind of went off the deep end, I guess. But it was very dishonest of him. And as much as it hurt, I’m glad Brig told me.”

  “How did she know?” Max asked, cuddled up next to her mother like a child. She was badly hurt by what she’d just heard.

  “Someone told her. Anyway, the story’s not over.” Not by a long shot. “When I went to the private investigator, she also told me that Hunt had had an affair with Brig for three years before that. He cut it off when he started seeing this other woman, so you’re right. She’s pissed at him. Meanwhile, if you add up his three years with her, and the year with this other woman, that means Hunt cheated on me for all four years we were together. Brig claims he forced her into it, he says she did, but you don’t force anyone to do something they don’t want to do for three years. They were having an affair behind my back. Hunt’s a very sweet guy, but he’s a cheater and he lied to me. And even if you love him, I couldn’t stay with him.”

  “Of course not, Mom. I understand,” Max said, wiping her eyes and hugging her mother. “That’s so sad. How could he do such a terrible thing to you? And how could Brig? You’re always so good to them, and she’s been your friend forever.”

  “Yeah, I know. I felt pretty bad for a while, a little better now. And there’s more. The money. Since they both lied to me, I didn’t know who to believe, so the private investigator sent me to the FBI. They investigated the whole thing. Brig has been embezzling from me, maybe for a few years, maybe longer. It turns out that nothing she ever told me about her history is true, she’s a liar, and a thief. She’s been ripping me off.” Max looked totally shocked.

  “Oh my God! Mom! How awful!”

  “Yes, it is,” Tallie said quietly.

  “Is she going to give it back?” To Max, it was all so simple. If she took it, she should give it back. Tallie wished she would, but Jim Kingston said that wasn’t likely to happen, or not in full anyway, probably only a fraction of what she lost, if that.

  “I don’t know yet,” Tallie said with a sigh. Telling the story to Max, even in a simplified version, made her realize again how truly awful it was. “They’re going to arrest her next week. There will be a trial in about a year, and I’m going to sue her to try and get some money back, or her house or something. And she’ll probably go to prison.” Max was shocked into silence. The man who had been her hero and father figure had cheated on her mother for the whole four years and lied to them both, and the woman who was like an aunt to her was an embezzler, a cheat, a liar, and was going to prison.

  “Did you fire her?” Max asked in a hushed voice.

  “My lawyer is doing it this week.” Tallie made it all sound so straightforward, but it wasn’t that easy. “And you know all those gifts she always claims she gets, all the jewelry and furs and Prada bags and stuff? It turns out she was buying them with my money. So that, my love, is what’s been happening at home. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the performance?” She tried to put a note of levity into it, but Max looked as shaken as Tallie had been herself, for months.

  “Shit
, Mom. How did you get through all that? It must have been so awful for you, with Hunt and Brig and everything.” She looked appropriately and profoundly shocked, about all of it.

  “It was pretty bad,” Tallie admitted. She wondered herself now how she’d gotten through it. And it wasn’t over yet.

  “Why didn’t you tell me? It must have been terrible for you to go through all that alone.” Max looked sympathetic and hugged her closer.

  “It was too much to tell you on the phone. I wanted to wait till I saw you. So there it is. Not a pretty story.”

  “Will Brig really go to prison?” Max couldn’t imagine it, and neither could Tallie. It seemed unthinkable, but Brigitte had done it to herself. More important, how could she have stolen money from Tallie day after day, and year after year, and look her in the eye, not to mention sleeping with Hunt?

  “The FBI says she will.”

  “I’ll bet Brig is really shocked when she gets arrested. Does she know she’s in trouble?”

  “Not yet. I think it’s all going to happen pretty quickly in the next couple of weeks.” But nothing had gone quickly so far. Everything had seemed to move in slow motion to Tallie. And it would be a long time before she got any money back, if she did.

  “Do you still talk to Hunt?” Max asked her quietly. She was very sad about him and she could see that her mother was too.

  “Not really. I try not to talk to him. Our lawyers communicate about business issues. That’s all. There’s nothing left to say.”

  “Can I talk to him?”

  “If you want to.” Tallie didn’t want to just cut her off from him. If nothing else, she needed some kind of closure, or maybe she needed to keep contact with him. If so, Tallie wasn’t going to stop her. She was eighteen, and had a right to do what she wanted about him, as long as she didn’t bring him to the house. He was a weak man who had taken the easiest course of action, and the most painful for her. “It’s up to you. If you see him, don’t bring him home.”