Family Bonds- Ava and Seth (Amore Island Book 5)

by Natalie Ann

  “They aren’t mine,” she argued.

  “They are in your name and social security number. I’m afraid it looks as if your identity was stolen.”

  “Oh my God. Things like this don’t happen to someone I know,” she all but wailed. “They don’t happen to me.”

  “I’m sorry. I’d suggest you get a lawyer right away. You’ve got more than enough in your savings to pay this off, but you might want to put a hold on your funds so that creditors don’t come after this.”

  “If you do that then I can’t pay anything? I’ll have no money.” Her mind was racing. “I’ll contact my employers to stop my direct deposit and get a live check, but even then I can’t cash it, can I, without an account?”

  “You can cash it on the bank the payroll account comes from,” he said.

  “I don’t even know what bank that is, nor do I want to walk around with that much cash on me.”

  “Hang on.” He was typing away at his computer. “It’s actually our bank so you are lucky there are so many branches in Massachusetts and you are a satellite office out of Boston where our main headquarters are. You can come here to cash your check.”

  “That’s something, I guess. I don’t suppose I can open another account up, can I?”

  “I wouldn’t advise it right now. Pretty soon creditors are going to come looking for this and take legal action to get the money. The best option is to put a hold on everything so no one can access it.”

  “Not even me? Why can’t I empty it out?”

  “It will look bad if you do. You should retain a lawyer and get everything started and appeal these cards and then try to prove they aren’t yours. Also, you don’t want whoever stole your identity to access your account.”

  She let out a big breath. “‘Try’ is the keyword, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” he said. “You’ll need to make sure no more are set up in your name too even if these are shut down.”

  “But if I’ve got bad credit, no more can be, right?” she asked, wondering how she’d get her name cleared from this. If she paid it off, which she didn’t want to do, it wouldn’t wipe away the damage done.

  “That doesn’t mean whoever did this doesn’t have more waiting to use while these are cut off. Which it looks like four of them are at this point.”

  “What a nightmare.” She was shifting in her chair and then sat up straighter. “My trust fund. Can they access that?”

  “I doubt that,” he said. “Hailey Bond manages most of the trust funds, correct?”

  Her cousin had her own firm in Boston with a smaller satellite office on the island. A practice she’d bought years ago with her own trust fund, or so the rumor went. Hailey came from one of the sides that had more money than the rest. Edward’s side opened Bond Retreat generations ago and it could only be handed down to another male. Antiquated tradition for sure, but right now Hailey’s brother, Hunter, ran it with his semi-retired father. That didn’t mean that Hailey didn’t have a significant amount of wealth just because she didn’t run the hotel though.

  “She does. I’ll call her right after this. I guess I should be happy my rent was paid for this month, but it’s due in a few weeks and it’s an auto deduction from my account.” She put her hand to her head. “All my payments are and if you put a hold on it then nothing will be paid either.”

  “Go get your affairs in order. Find out what comes out and make those calls and see if you can get an advance payment today to cover you for the next month. Then that buys you time.”

  “Okay. That makes sense. Thanks. I think. I can’t believe this is the president’s job to deliver news like this on a loan application.”

  He smiled and even in this chaos she noticed how handsome and young he seemed. He was patient and thoughtful on top of it. “I’ve had a lot of dealings with your family as a whole on the island.”

  She supposed that was true. It was the biggest banking company in the state so she figured her family did their business with it both on the island and in Boston.

  “How did you know I was part of the Bond family?” she asked. “Not many put it together.”

  “I’ve met your brothers. You look like them. They’ve been in here a few times and word gets around.”

  She should have figured. Everyone talked on the island. Which meant if anyone knew about this it’d be everywhere. “Ah, about that and this situation.”

  “Don’t worry. This was flagged when I came in this morning and I locked it down from anyone else seeing it without my authorization. Your loan officer might come in here asking questions, but she won’t get any answers from me. This won’t leave the bank.”

  Ava breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” she said, reaching her hand out for his. “I’ve got a lot of work to do and am glad I was on the island today taking the day off.”

  She’d planned on driving around to look at some of the properties she’d seen online for sale, but that was out of the question now. First thing she needed to do was call Hailey and get legal...something started. The second thing she needed was a good cry. There was only one place to go for that.

  4

  Scuttlebutt of Whispers

  Seth watched Dr. Ava Mills walk out of his office. He’d never seen her before and hadn’t even realized Hudson and Carson Mills had a sister.

  He knew her older brothers, as they did their banking here. When they came in. Most people didn’t come to the bank often or at all anymore. But they’d both been in a few times and he’d been walking around when he heard the scuttlebutt of whispers that occurred anytime any Bond was in.

  Introductions were made. It was good practice for him as the president. This was the biggest branch on the island, located closer to the Romeo port on the north end. The small hospital where the twin brothers worked was mid-island about five miles away. Ava was at the clinic—which he discovered today—that was a few miles south of the hospital. Nothing was far on Amore Island that was about sixteen miles north to south and five miles east to west.

  He knew most of the Bond family that lived on the island and did their banking here. He was close to the casino and the amount of cash flowing from there alone made it good for public relations to get to know them.

  And when he came in and saw that alert, he knew right away he had to handle this situation delicately. He’d locked Ava’s application and secured it, then personally called her to come in. He hadn’t expected her to be on the island today though, after seeing her address in Plymouth.

  Nor had he expected the vision of loveliness that had walked through his office door.

  Dirty blonde hair that was long and flowing down her back. She had on stretchy jeans that might be illegal in some states and tan UGG boots. It was close to fifty out today and she was wearing an olive green North Face fleece over a shirt he couldn’t see.

  She was in her early thirties but looked to be closer to a college kid the way she was dressed.

  She was ruffled—he knew and he expected it—but she tried to control it when many others would have been in tears discovering their identity had been stolen.

  By the time she walked out the door, he’d given her his card and told her to call him personally when she was ready for the hold on her accounts.

  He felt bad for her. For anyone else this could be a crippling situation, but for a Bond, not so much. With her family and the resources at her disposal, she’d be fine. She wouldn’t be left on the street with no money. She could probably even buy a house with her trust fund, but who was he to mention that. Everyone’s personal financial planning was their own business.

  Either way, things like this didn’t go away easily, even with lawyers and all the money in the world. The fastest way to take care of it was to find the person who’d stolen her identity and have them arrested. But the chances of that were going to be slim.

  At least she didn’t have a job where this could jeopardize her career like it would for many others. Himself included. He had to maintain a cert
ain credit standing and never thought he’d have a problem.

  He had his social security number locked down so that no loans or credit cards could be taken out in his name without his knowledge. He was guessing Hailey Bond was going to inform Ava of all those steps she could take now, though it wouldn’t change the past six months.

  There was a knock at his door and he glanced up to see Carolyn Sanders standing there. “You’re here because of Ava Mills?” he asked.

  Carolyn was the loan officer that had filed the application. Carolyn also had an eagle eye and a blabbermouth. No, she wouldn’t talk about a client outside of work, or at least he hoped not. But she’d find it interesting if she knew what was going on and then start gossiping about the rest of the family.

  “I am. I saw her leaving the building and then went to check the status of her loan. I’m not able to access it.”

  “No,” he said. “I’ve taken it over and will deal with Ava directly.”

  “Oh,” Carolyn said. “Typical of the Bonds to do that.”

  He sighed and wasn’t going to get into a pissing match. “I called her myself. You know that I maintain a relationship with most of the Bond family members on this island.”

  “Deep pockets,” Carolyn said. “Good for business.”

  “It is,” he said. “I hadn’t known she came in for the loan, but you know I see all applications and I reached out to her.”

  Carolyn nodded as if what he was saying was common enough. It made the most sense though he wouldn’t have done this if her credit hadn’t come back so bad. “No worries. I don’t even know why she is taking out a mortgage when she probably has enough money in the family somewhere or her trust to pay cash.”

  “How she wants to spend her hard-earned money is up to her,” he said. “As long as she keeps banking with us, it’s not our concern.”

  Carolyn snorted and he knew it had to do with the hard-earned comment. “Most Bonds are born with that golden spoon in their mouth. Catherine’s line—where Ava comes from and most of the doctors in the family—and Patricia’s line don’t have the money that James’s and Edward’s lines do. William’s doesn’t have much compared to the rest of them.”

  He sighed. “It’s not our place to make those comments or judgments. Their money is green like ours whether they’ve got more of it or not.”

  “A lot more,” Carolyn said. “But you’re right. I’ll just take this off my desk then if you are dealing with it.”

  “Thanks,” he said and watched the older woman leave. She’d been here thirty years or more as a loan officer and started out as a teller. She’d lived on the island her whole life. Plenty did that weren’t related to the Bonds but you wouldn’t think that if you didn’t know the facts.

  Seth had been coming to this island for years on vacation and weekends. He always enjoyed it. Ellen did too. They talked about getting their own place one day if they could afford a second home. But with two kids and Ellen wanting to take a year off of teaching after the baby was born like she did with Adele, summer homes were way off into the future.

  None of that happened though. Not the year off to stay at home with their son. Not the summer home he’d share with her in their retirement. Instead he sold the home they had in Boston and then was able to move into the house the bank owned on the island. It was here for the bank president since it was so hard to get anyone to move to the island due to limitations.

  There were schools on Amore Island, but not a lot of sports for the kids or other activities unless you wanted to be running on and off the ferries. Many did but just as many didn’t want to be bothered.

  Real estate was hard to find here, jobs were limited to tourism. It wasn’t the life for many and the bank was thrilled someone his age was willing to take the job rather than a candidate closer to retirement having one foot out the door.

  This wasn’t the life he thought he’d have, but maybe his mother was right when he talked to her a week ago. He had to make the best of things and he had to move on. He wasn’t hardwired to do this alone and three years had felt like thirty to him.

  And why was he thinking of any of this after his meeting with Ava Mills?

  5

  Make A Plan

  “Ava. What are you doing here?”

  Ava sniffled a little and wiped her hand under her nose when she walked into her parents’ house. She didn’t see her father’s car when she peeked in the garage and the tears started to fall. Her mother would comfort her like she always did. She’d let her cry it out and then they’d get down to business.

  Lacy Mills was the wife of a successful surgeon and she held their family together while her father worked the long hours he did. Her parents met when her mother was a nurse and the love was instantaneous and long lasting. She’d heard the story for years.

  Ava and her brothers grew up in Boston but spent a lot of weekends and summers on Amore Island. They all had the same plans to end up here and her brothers were lucky enough to make it before her. Not by much though.

  Hudson, the older of the twins by six minutes, was an ER doctor. They had a greater need for that here and an opening came much sooner. He’d been living on the island for almost two years.

  Carson, a radiologist, slid into an opening a year ago and her brothers were currently living together in the house Hudson had purchased. She found it funny that at thirty-five her brothers still didn’t like to be separated.

  “I just got the worst news ever.”

  “Come here, baby,” her mother said, opening her arms. “Come tell Mom all about it.”

  She went into her mother’s arms only because there was no one else home to witness it. Times like this she felt like the little kid that needed someone to tell her it’d be okay.

  When she was done explaining everything, her mother pulled her over to the couch. “Sit here while I get us some coffee and we’ll make a plan. First step is we go back to the bank and I’ll open up a new account in my name for you to deposit your paycheck and pay your bills out of. Get a debit card too. No one looks at names anymore, just sign mine and it won’t seem like this is going on.”

  “I can’t ask you to do that,” she said, following her mother to the kitchen.

  No reason to sit on the couch in the family room when she could sit at the island and chat. Her parents’ house on Amore Island wasn’t as big as the one they owned in Boston. The house she grew up in. This one still had three bedrooms and two and half bathrooms with an office, formal living room, family room and bonus room upstairs. More than enough space for them.

  “You didn’t ask, but I’m doing it anyway so don’t argue. I’ll transfer over twenty-five thousand for you so you can get your affairs in order, set up all your automatic payments and have plenty in case it takes time for your check to go through direct deposit. Not only would you feel uncomfortable having that much cash lying around, but it will make life difficult to manage without a bank account or credit cards.”

  “I don’t need that much,” she said, grabbing a tissue. “I’ve got about fifteen thousand in my checking, the rest all in savings. I can pay this debt off, but I shouldn’t have to. I didn’t do it.”

  “Of course you didn’t, and no, you aren’t going to do that. That might prove your guilt and let this person get away with it. I want you to call Hailey right now and talk to her. She will advise you on the next step. Put it on speaker if you don’t mind and we can listen and formulate the next step together.”

  “Thank you,” Ava said. “I’m usually calm and always in control, but right now I’m just so mad and upset.”

  Her mother set the coffee down in front of her and patted her hand. “Of course you are, sweetie. I’m feeling all those things for you. What was that man’s name at the bank again?”

  “Seth. Seth Young. He gave me his card and told me to call him once everything was set and he’d put a hold on all my accounts so that the credit card companies couldn’t try to extract payment.”

  “Smart. W
e’ll call him as soon as we talk to Hailey. Call her now and tell her secretary it’s an emergency.”

  “But is it?” she asked, taking a sip of the creamy coffee that no one made better than her mother.

  “To your sanity it is. And it’s family. You’ve always wanted your own identity away from the Bonds and now that it’s being threatened you’re having a harder time, aren’t you?”

  She was shocked her mother knew that about her. That there were times having the Bond relation around her neck felt like weight threatening to break her back.

  Many thought she should have a free ride in life. Others thought she could get away with murder.

  “I am. I just never thought this would happen.”

  “No one does. Hailey will be annoyed if you don’t have her paged. If you call her cell she won’t think it’s an emergency either.”

  She knew her mother was right. Hailey was one of the little pit bulls of the family. She didn’t take crap from anyone and probably never would.

  She hit the button to make the call, then waited on hold. “Ava, what’s going on?” Hailey asked.

  “I’m on speaker with my mother. I’m in a bit of trouble.”

  “Not trouble she made,” her mother said. “Trouble has found Ava and we need your help.”

  As always, her mother was the voice of calm.

  By the time she was done explaining everything and then got a lecture from Hailey that she could have locked her social security number or put alerts on things to prevent this, she was feeling somewhat calmer. “Go to the bank with your mother and do what she suggested. You’ll feel better and more in control knowing you have money at your disposal. If you can get a list of these accounts that are fraudulent and send to me, I’ll get working on my end,” Hailey said.

  “I think she should hire a PI to find this person too,” her mother said.