Chapter
11: Outside
Winter in New York was hectic. The streets were knee deep in newly fallen
snow, and the traffic was heavy going into Times Square. Alexia patiently waited
in her limo as her driver weaved in and out traffic. She knew it would be at
least half an hour before she reached her accountants office, and decided to
take the time to look out her darkened window at the people standing outside on
the frozen sidewalks. They huddled together trying to stay warm in the nasty
weather. A few more light flecks of snow fell from the sky as she rolled down
the window to get a better view of the shops lining the street.
‘I still need a dress,’ Alexia sadly thought as she looked into the
window of a tiny bridal shop at the corner of an intersection as she went past
it.
‘This isn’t the time to be thinking about that,’ the strong,
overpowering voice in her head calmly replied.
‘Shut up, I wasn’t talking to you,’ Alexia told it. ‘Besides, I
thought you were gone.’
‘Oh, honey, you know I’ll never go away, especially now that you’re
losing that punk and moving on to bigger, better things. You need me. I’m your
only sense of logic. Besides, I always seem to pick the bigger money holders
than you,’ it almost warmly replied.
Alexia shivered. She knew the voice was right. Ever since she told it to
shut up, her life turned into one big mess. ‘Okay, you were right. I was
wrong. I need you. Now will you leave me alone? I have more important things on
my mind.’
‘Alexia, what could be more important that money?’
She waited a moment before answering. After giving it some hard thought,
she finally said, ‘Daniel.’
‘Get him out of your head and out of your heart. After the wedding,
you’re never going to see him again. Is that understood?’
‘Yes,’ Alexia reluctantly answered.
‘Good, now straighten up your outfit and make sure you’re lips are
the right shade of red because when you walk out of this car, you’re going to
march into that bank, get your money in a safer account, and meet a really cute
executive that you’re going to make a million off of,’ the voice ordered as
Alexia pulled out her mirror and began to put on makeup.
Minutes later she entered the bank and headed straight for her
accountants office on the 10th floor. Taking the elevator up, Alexia
spotted a tall, lanky man in a dark gray suit. His eyes were the same color
emerald as Daniel’s, but there was nothing in them that suggested what he was
thinking as he looked at her.
“Hi,” Alexia spoke up in her cheerful, almost birdlike voice.
“I’m Isabella Fredrickson. And you are?”
“Vincent Taylor. Pleased to meet you,” he replied, holding out his
hand towards her. Alexia shook it to feel a hard, sweaty palm.
‘Nothing like Dan,’ she thought to her self. “So, what do you
do?” she asked aloud.
“I’m the CEO of a major corporation,” Vincent sharply answered as
if her knew the question was coming.
“Wow, that’s impressive,” Alexia said, flashing him her eye
catching smile, the same one that she hooked Daniel with. The doors of the
elevator swung open on her floor. “Well, this is my floor. It was nice talking
to you. I’ll see you around, Vincent.”
Alexia slowly walked out of the elevator making sure her moves were
enough to make Vincent beg her for her phone number. Surly enough, he quickly
ran after her like a sick puppy. ‘Gets ‘em every time,’ she snidely
thought to herself, the old ways finally breaking through her softened interior.
“Would you like to join me for dinner tonight?” he asked, taking a
card out of the inside pocket of his jacket.
“Sure,” Alexia replied. “What time?”
“Seven alright with you?”
“Seven would be perfect.”
“Alright! Where should I pick you up?”
“I’ll call you with the details. See you around.” Alexia slowly
turned around and began to walk away from Vincent. She made her way into her
accountant’s office and closed the door behind her.
“I see you bagged another one,” an old feminine voice said from
behind the desk.
“Oh, yeah. This time, he’s the CEO of a major corporation,” Alexia
replied, making her way towards the chair in front of the desk.
“Very nice,” the old woman answered as she slowly swiveled her chair
around. “It’s nice to see you again, Alex. It’s been a long time since our
last chat.”
“I know, Grandma Nina. I’m sorry I haven’t called. I’ve been busy
with another con.”
It was true, Alexia did have someone to look after her, but it wasn’t
until her 21st birthday that she actually found her grandmother. She
had been working at the bank where Alexia first kept her money. After seeing her
at the teller’s window, Nina instantly recognized her from old childhood
photos. They talked, and after a while, Alexia decided to take a paternity test
to determine if Nina was actually her grandmother. Lo and behold, it came back
positive, and Alexia found herself a new player in her high stakes game.
It was Nina who told Alexia to keep her money in a Swiss account instead
of an American account. It was also Nina who helped her regain her footing from
many cons gone wrong.
“Who did you bag on that one?”
“A very nice Australian boy named Daniel Jones from the internationally
known group Savage Garden. But something went totally wrong with that one, and I
need your help.”
“Please don’t tell me he found out about you,” Nina begged, the
expression on her face becoming stony.
“No, he didn’t find out. I think it’s worse than that.” Alexia
began to chew her fingernails as her anxiety grew.
“The only worst possible thing could be that you…” Nina’s voice
trailed off as she realized what her granddaughter had done.
“Yes, I fell in love with him,” Alexia began to cry as her head fell
into her arms. “And that’s not all. I’m supposed to be getting married to
him on Valentine’s Day! Look!” She extended her hand to show Nina the
two-carat diamond ring on her finger.
“Oh, he is rich!” A large smile appeared on her grandmother’s face
when she saw the ring. “Maybe you should hold onto this one for a little
longer after the wedding. You could catch him cheating on you and milk him for
all he’s worth.”
“No, Grandma! I can’t do that to him. He’s been so wonderful to me.
In all my life, I’ve never been treated so well. He’s a kind, gentle person,
one that is true to his word when he says ‘I do.’”
“Then you do need my help,” Nina said as she turned her chair around
and began to pull up files on her computer. “By the way, I saw that little
transfer that you made under your name. A million and a half to some man named
Frank Rollins. What was that money for?”
“A house that I bought in Australia with Daniel. We both paid half for
it,” Alexia shyly admitted.
“You’re in more trouble than I thought,” Nina groaned as she kept
pulling up files on her computer. “How am I going to get you out of this
mess?”
~~~~~~~~~~
It was three days before Christmas, and the rain kept falling in buckets
as Daniel sat on his couch in the middle of the spacious living room of the
mansion. With the TV remote in his hand, he turned it on and unconsciously
flipped through the over 500 channels the satellite dish was able to receive
unable to find a thing to watch. But his mind wasn’t on the television; it was
more focused on what he would say to Alexia when she came back from her trip to
New York.
The more Daniel thought about her, the more he wondered why he had been
so blind. He had triple checked his bank account to find that almost half of it
had disappeared in the last few months. There were unpaid credit card bills
totaling over $500,000. With these kinds of figures, Daniel was more than
stressed out; her was about to lose his mind.
‘Could this possibly be all her fault? Could it be her in that picture
that Chance sent me?’ Daniel had asked himself over a thousand times. The
evidence was against her, though, and he knew Chance had been right all along.
‘What am I going to say?’ he began to ask himself. ‘What is she
going to do? Is she going to kill me when she finds out I know? Or is she going
to admit it all and tell me the entire truth? Why didn’t I ask someone to be
here when I told her?’
The sudden creak of the door startled Daniel out of his daze. He shot up
to see who was at the door, and was surprised to find it was Alexia, her luggage
in hand. Trailing behind her was another bag tied to the top of its hanger so
that it wouldn’t drag through the puddles of water outside.
“Honey, I’m home early!” Alexia hollered as she dragged her soaked
self into the house.
Daniel walked into the foyer, his arms folded against his chest and his
face completely expressionless. “We need to talk,” he coldly replied as she
set her stuff down on the marble floor.
“I just got home, Dan. We have the entire night to talk. Let me
rest,” Alexia said while she slipped off her shoes. “Aren’t you even going
to ask me about my trip?”
“We need to talk, now,” Daniel repeated as he took her arm and
dragged her into the living room.
‘Oh, SHIT!’ the voice inside Alexia’s head screamed. ‘He knows!
What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do????’
‘Stay calm,’ Alexia told herself. ‘Don’t let him think you know
what he’s talking about. Just be cool about this.’
“What do you wanna talk about?” Alexia asked aloud sounding as
innocent as she possibly could.
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Daniel frigidly retorted. He pushed her
onto the couch and knelt down so she could look him straight in the eyes. “Is
this you in the picture?” He held up a printed copy of the article in front of
her.
Alexia scanned the picture and skimmed through the article. Circled with
a red pen and highlighted in yellow was her name. She gulped and put her head
down.
“Is this you in the picture?” he repeated a little more loudly than
before signaling his rising anger.
Alexia slowly nodded her head as tears began to stream down her face.
‘Oh, God!’ she thought. ‘This is it. My life is over.’
“Why have you been lying to me?” Daniel hissed.
“Dan, I can explain,” Alexia started as she turned her head away from
him.
“Look at me!” he almost yelled. She turned to face him, her eyes deep
red and swollen from crying. “Where is my money?”
“It’s in a Swiss bank account along with all the other money I’ve
conned out of many other people,” she almost mumbled.
Daniel stood up and began to pace the room. ‘This is unbelievable. My
fiancé is actually admitting that she stole money from me,’ he thought to
himself as he tried to sort everything he head through his head.
“The rest of your money I’ve spent on stuff, so I won’t be able to
give that back,” Alexia continued. “Dan, listen to me. I’m so sorry for
what I’ve done to you. I wanted to tell you so badly about my past, but then
you told me it didn’t matter. I told you I was a horrible person, but you
didn’t care. I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“Well, how was I going to find out? On our wedding day?” Daniel
exploded. “’Oh, honey, I forgot to tell you that missing money in you
account, I put it into my Swiss account because I was conning you out of
it.’”
“That was not when I was planning to tell you,” she sharply answered
back.
“Then when!”
“You remember that night a few months ago when I said I wanted to tell
you something important and Rebecca ended up interrupting our conversation. I
was going to tell you then,” she admitted.
“But you didn’t! I had to end up finding out from a newspaper
article! How could you do this to me, Alexia? And after all the things I’ve
done for you!”
“I’m sorry!”
“Sorry isn’t going to cut it. I’m calling the police.” Daniel
walked over to the phone and began to dial. Just as he heard the first ring,
Alexia stood up, grabbed the heaviest object she could find beside her (a
crystal vase on the coffee table), and just as she was about to hit him over the
head with it, he said, “To think, if you had only asked for the money, I would
have given it to you.”
Two seconds later, Daniel was on the floor unconscious along with bits
and pieces of shattered crystal from the vase. Alexia dropped to her knees
beside him and sobbed to the point where no more tears could be shed.
“What have I done!” she screamed into the empty room, her echo being
the only response. Alexia looked at Daniel and wondered how she could be so
cruel. “Why!” she burst into tears again. “I loved you so much. I’m so
sorry I hurt you. Please, wake up! Don’t die!”
Alexia lay beside him and felt the shards of glass beneath her. She sat
up again and picked up a large piece. She rolled the sharp object around in her
hand getting a feel for its razor like edges. ‘What’s the use in sticking
around here? I’m only going to end up in jail,’ she thought, holding the
glass to her neck and gently pressing it against her skin. ‘If I killed myself
now, I’d never have to face this terrible life again.’
Daniel began to slowly come around as Alexia toyed with the idea of
suicide. He looked in her direction to see her back towards him. He made an
attempt to push himself up, but only ended falling on the ground again.
Alexia didn’t notice that Daniel was awake behind her. She kept running
the knife like object against her neck, each time cutting deeper into her skin.
The pain was her only comfort for this tragedy she called her life.
“Alexia,” Daniel mumbled, getting her attention. She turned around,
and he saw the blood that dripped down her neck from her self inflected injury.
“I’m so sorry for what I’ve done. I’ll never do it again. I
promise,” Alexia said, her voice sounding distant.
“Don’t do it,” he pleaded with her as he sat up, his head throbbing
from the blow he had just taken. “Put it down. Death isn’t the only way
out.”
A goofy smile came across Alexia’s face. “Death…” she replied.
“Such a strange thing. Nobody knows anything about it, yet they fear it so.
Why do we fear death? Is it that bad to die?”
“Alexia, stop talking nonsense,” Daniel said. Just then, sirens
blared down the driveway towards the house. Alexia gazed at him with sad,
heartbroken eyes. A cop burst through the door holding out a gun.
“Goodbye, Daniel Jones,” she said, plunging the glass shared into her
neck and cutting it open. Blood spilled out onto the carpet as Daniel tried in
vein to close the hole.
“Alexia!” he cried. “No! Don’t die! Please, don’t die!” His
hand pressed down hard on her neck as the blood kept spilling out onto the white
carpet.
The cop who had burst through the door called for backup and soon
advanced towards the scene he had avertedly witnessed.
“Help me!” Daniel called to him. “She’s bleeding!” He looked
back at Alexia to see her lips turn blue. He knew she was dead, but refused to
accept it. “She’s dying!”
Paramedics soon arrived and gently pried Alexia’s dead body away from
Daniel’s grasp. The cop who had seen Alexia take her life walked over to
Daniel and sat down on the floor beside him. He was short, and a little chubby
around the waist, but his face showed how concerned he was about the situation.
“I’m sorry to be giving you the bad news, sir, but your fiancé is
dead,” he spoke gently.
Daniel looked at him then down at his blood stained hands. He couldn’t
believe what he had just seen and instantly began to cry again. “Why?” he
sobbed. “Why did she have to take her life? I don’t understand. This is all
my fault. I shouldn’t have told her I knew who she was. I shouldn’t have
told her about the money. I shouldn’t have said a word. Why did I have to open
my mouth? Why did I let her slip away? The only woman that I ever loved who
loved me back just as much, and I let her slip away.”
More and more police officers began to show up as Daniel sat on the floor
looking at his hands and wondering how he could have prevented this. The officer
beside him stood up and began to talk with his squad about what he saw.
Reporters and news crews soon began to show up at the mansion.
The paramedics treated the lump on Daniel’s head at the scene. He
slipped upstairs unnoticed, washed the blood off his hands, and changed his
blood soaked clothes. He packed some extra clothes and things in a small
backpack and went back downstairs to where the police were still conducing
interviews. They took down Daniel’s version of the story, which perfectly
matched what the officer had seen, and he was off the hook until a further
investigation was conducted in Alexia’s suicide.
Daniel walked out of the house only to be bombarded by reporters and
photographers. He ran back into the house panting and white as a ghost. A few
officers were called to escort him away from the mansion. With one police car in
front and one in back, Daniel climbed into the Navigator and headed away from
the last place he wanted to be.
~~~~~~~~~~
Rebecca had just sat down to a nice quiet dinner in her small apartment
on the other side of Brisbane when she heard a knock at her door. Looking
through the peephole, she discovered a very distressed and very tired Daniel
standing outside her door. She quickly opened it and let him in.
“Dan, what are you doing here?” Rebecca asked calmly.
“She’s dead,” he broke down and cried.
“Who? Chance?” she replied quickly.
Daniel shook his head. “Alexia,” he sobbed.
Rebecca wrapped her arms around him and gently rocked him back and forth
in the doorway as she tried to figure out what was going on. After taking a few
minutes to calm down, she led Daniel into her living room and sat him down on
the couch to get some more information.
“Danny, what happened?” Rebecca softly asked.
“She was conning me out of nearly half a million dollars. I confronted
her about it and she told me everything. Then she hit me over the head with a
vase. With a broken piece of crystal, she slit her throat in front of me even
though I tried to stop her,” Daniel explained, breaking down again. Rebecca
wrapped her arms around Daniel once more and held onto him for more than an hour
as he tried to stop crying.
“Shh… It’s okay,” she comforted. Rebecca let go and stood up to
find a blanket and a pillow. She returned to the couch a few minutes later after
retrieving her items and placed them on the couch beside Daniel. “Get some
rest tonight. I’ll be right here if you need me,” she said, walking back
into the kitchen. He laid out on the couch and was soon fast asleep.
Rebecca, thinking that he’d be asleep for the rest of the night, went
to bed in her room beside the kitchen. She fell into a restless sleep wondering
what she would do about Daniel’s situation and praying to God that he
wouldn’t try to kill himself.
Daniel woke up in the middle of the night unable to sleep. He picked up his things and made his way out the door quietly so he wouldn’t awaken Rebecca. Sneaking downstairs to his car, Daniel drove off into the night away from all the mess of his life. He headed for Sydney where he’d make a $100,000 withdrawal from his bank account and board a plane to Tokyo.