Save Her, Abigail Osborne [ebook reader for surface pro txt] 📗

began to pace up and down, unable to believe what she was hearing. ‘Sophie is one of the most loyal, brave and amazing people I’ve ever known. Not the sort of person to try and beat herself up. You are going to have to get a better defence than that when it goes to court.’

Greg sank back in his chair ‘What’s the point? You are never going to believe me. You’re too caught up in her spell. You can’t see her for what she really is.’

‘Stop saying that. How dare you try and drag Sophie’s name through the mud when you’ve been threatening her; stopping her from leaving. You would use all the money at your disposal to bring her back or kill her.’

Greg laughed darkly. ‘That’s what she told you? That I was using my money as power over her?’ He stood up and walked to the window. ‘I no longer have any money, Flora.’ He began to laugh hysterically, wiping a tear from his eye.

‘What are you talking about?’ Flora asked, unnerved by his barking laughter.

Greg wiggled the computer mouse on his desk, bringing his computer screen back to life. He tapped a few keys and clicked a few times, then swivelled the screen around so she could see it. He backed away and turned to look back out of the window. On the screen was a list of various accounts and each of them was showing a balance of £0.00. ‘Click on the joint account,’ he ordered.

With a shaky hand, she moved the mouse and clicked on the joint account. The last four transactions on the account showed four separate withdrawals of fifty million pounds. Two hundred million pounds?

‘She got into my online banking and transferred all of my money into the joint and then sent it all to herself. I tried to get it back, but it’s an off-shore account that can’t be traced. This is our investors’ money. Do you understand that?’

Flora was flustered. Her mind was trying to put the pieces together. Why would Sophie hide money at her house when all along she had millions of pounds? Flora looked at the date of the transaction, it was about two weeks ago. All this time, Sophie had taken Greg for all he had. The fight between Sophie and Greg at the barbecue sprang to her mind. Had Greg realised what she’d done then?

‘This proves nothing. Maybe she took the money in retaliation for the beatings. She took enough to ensure she could get away from you.’ Flora felt like she was swimming underwater in a dirty river. She couldn’t see clearly. She didn’t understand what she was seeing and hearing. Nothing made sense around her.

‘We are rich, Flora. But not rich enough to replace that much money. Everything we have is tied up in assets. Plus, she stole it from the business. We could get done for fraud if someone found out. She has me by the balls. She controls everything. She says if I do what she says she’ll put the money back, but I don’t think she has any intention of doing that.’

‘This makes no sense. Why would she do that to you?’

‘Flora, Sophie has been making my life hell for years. It has just ramped up lately. I don’t know why. We haven’t been happy since–’ He stopped abruptly, as if realising what he was saying. ‘We haven’t been happy in a long time. But recently, it seems taking this money wasn’t enough. Now she has been threatening to tell the world that I am abusing her. She even threatened to go to the police. Do you understand the damage that would do to the company? To everything that my family has built? To everything that I have worked for? It would all be torn down and ruined by lies. I swear to you…’ Greg came over and knelt in front of Flora. He took her arms in his giant hands and looked up at her beseechingly. ‘I swear to you, Flora, I am not an abuser. I admit, I have got angry with her and sometimes had no choice but to retaliate in self-defence when she goes crazy. But I am not a wife-beater. Sophie is lying.’

50

The road was quiet. Sophie sat on the bonnet of her car, pulled over on the side of the road with her hazards on. Any cars that came would have to drive around the crazy woman sitting cross-legged on the bonnet of her car, chain-smoking like it was her last day on earth. But it was the middle of the afternoon and it seemed she had the road to herself. Sophie needed space. She needed breathing space, and this is where she came. This place was special to her. It reminded her of where she had come from and what was important in life.

Sophie was grieving. All of her best laid plans had failed. Nothing had worked. She had tried so hard to fix everything and keep Flora safe, but it wasn’t enough. She looked at the phone screen again, unable to believe what she was seeing. What was it they said? Eavesdroppers hear no good of themselves.

Whenever she couldn’t get hold of Flora, she flicked to her Find My Friend app. Today it had shown she was at Cavendish Head Office. Sophie had navigated off the app and on to her Spy Cam App. No one was more grateful than she for the development of the spy camera. She had actually lost track of the number of cameras she had installed. But the things she had learnt were worth their weight in gold. Flicking through the cameras she had checked Sam’s office, but it was empty. Next, she had tried her own office wondering if Flora was trying to find her.

Eventually, Sophie had spotted her friend’s chocolate-brown hair flashing into view on the camera she had hidden inside an air freshener in Greg’s office.

Sophie held the phone with shaking hands and watched