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He chuckled and squeezed her hand, and she felt herself relax. She could tell Colt anything. All of her past mistakes, and the future consequences, would be heard without blame or judgment. She could trust him.
“I’d decided giving myself a solid financial foundation was more important than trying to find a husband and start a family,” she said. “I guess I was so young when things really started to take off that I figured I had plenty of time for that. I told you before being free from my parents’ home was my priority.
“And then the week before my thirtieth birthday I was jogging in Central Park like I always did. You get to know the regulars. Not that we ever spoke or hung out, because New Yorkers like to pretend they’re the only ones who exist in whatever world they’re living in at the time, but you see familiar faces and give a civilized nod. I don’t know what it was about that particular day, but I stopped to stretch by a park bench and I really started to look at what was around me.
“Even at that time I’d already started thinking it was time for a change. I’d visited Laurel Valley for a book signing years ago, and I’d fallen in love with it from the moment I got here. There was nothing that tied me to New York. It was just a familiar place, and I’d bought a great apartment on the Upper West Side in an eclectic building filled with celebrities of various mediums.
“It’s when I really stopped to look that afternoon that Todd came into focus. He was…dazzling. He said all the right things and he was so handsome. Apparently he’d done some modeling in his early twenties before he’d become a consultant on Wall Street. I still don’t know if there’s any truth to any of the stories he told me.”
She watched the clouds and felt the weight of relief lift as she continued to speak. She’d never shared her life—the secret places in her heart—with anyone, not even with a girlfriend or her attorney during the divorce. She’d had no one.
“He told me he’d been waiting for me to notice him for weeks, but I never did so he’d just jog past me and look forward to seeing me the next day. And the next. He made me laugh, and he was spontaneous, surprising me with concerts in the park and weekend trips to Paris or the wine country.
“He didn’t bother my work schedule and I didn’t bother his, but it was those flutters of first love. Endless text messages and phone calls late into the night. He made my head spin. Which was the point, I guess. And I agreed to marry him only a few weeks later.
“It wasn’t a big wedding. Neither of us had a close circle of friends or family. So we did everything at the courthouse and then sent out announcements. He moved into my apartment because it was bigger than his and more convenient. Of course, I’d never even seen his place so I couldn’t make a comparison. But I didn’t really care one way or the other.
“He was good at entangling our lives and finances very quickly. I started thinking something wasn’t quite right about a month after the wedding, but I didn’t have any experience with con men. I just had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that he wasn’t everything he said he was. But I still wanted to believe him. I let the charade go on for months, knowing in my gut he was lying to me.
“So one day I decided to do what I do best. Research. And I started with his work. It’s the first and only time I’ve ever called my father, but he was happy to help because I was talking about what he loves most—money.
“Ironically enough, he’d never even opened my announcement about the marriage, so he didn’t recognize Todd’s name when I asked him if he’d ever heard of his consulting firm. I just told him Todd said he was an independent broker on Wall Street and he wanted to invest some money for me. A packet was couriered to me from my father’s office a couple of hours later with all kinds of information. It turns out Todd had been investigated by the SEC and had gone to prison for a while. He’d also been married twice before, to women who had very nice portfolios that he’d helped himself to.
“I felt so stupid,” she said, a familiar hollowness inside her chest as she remembered how devastated she’d been in those first days of understanding she’d married a fraud. “I confronted him, of course.” Her laugh was brittle. “I didn’t realize how bad things were going to get.”
“He targeted you?” Colt asked.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “Just like he had his first two wives. He’d recognized me running in the park one day, and I’d been in the paper because my latest book had been chosen for a celebrity book club and I’d sold the movie rights to her production company. I wasn’t completely vulnerable because I am my father’s daughter in some sense of the word. And early in my career I’d had the foresight to reach out to one of his financial managers to set up LLCs and trusts and different real estate investments under different companies.
“Todd didn’t know all that at the time, so that was at least a nice surprise when he tried to take me to court for half of everything I owned, including the books I’d written and all investments. The discovery packet I received was insane. I had to send it to my financial guy to fill out because even I didn’t know all the answers to all the questions.”
“I guess that’s the thing about con men,” Colt said. “They do their homework.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m not sure I ever had a chance. It turns out he’d even read all my books. He told me when he read them what he saw between the lines was a woman who was lonely, with little self-confidence and abandonment issues. Apparently, I have common themes about a longing for family, no matter what story I’m writing.”
“Seems like he could have used skills like that in a law-abiding way,” Colt said.
“I guess there’s not as much money guaranteed doing it that way. The divorce proceedings took more than two years. He even tried to get hold of all my future rights of books or movies. It was unbelievable. In a heartbeat, I saw everything I’d worked for go down the drain. All the promises I’d made myself to never have to rely on my parents again or be under their thumb or roof—I thought I was going to lose it all.
“My financial advisor worked for my father’s firm, and he fired me as a client. He told me the orders came directly from my father. Apparently Richard Green doesn’t want clients or daughters who are going to bring him bad press. And their name was brought up many times in depositions and newspaper articles.
“He might have fired me, but he did a great job of protecting all my assets. The judge eventually ruled that the trusts several of my LLCs were in couldn’t be touched. But Todd was still entitled to half of our combined accounts, my retirement funds, and the apartment we’d shared for the few months we were married. By the time it was all said and done and the apartment was sold, he walked away with about twenty million dollars. Not too shabby for a con that lasted less than a year.”
“My God,” Colt said. “I can’t even imagine the emotional turmoil of dealing with that for so long.”
“The book I just turned in,” she said. “That’s the first book I’ve written since Todd and I were married. It was all just too much. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t concentrate. I didn’t even know who I was anymore. And I was scared to death to start writing again and maybe discover that I could no longer do it. That he’d taken that part of me just like he’d taken my material possessions.
“That day you met me,” she said, licking her lips. “I’d just gotten the final divorce papers. After all that time it was finally done. The judge had ruled against him getting half of my work or any future work, but in exchange I have to pay him alimony for five years.”
“I’m so sorry, Zoe,” he said. “I don’t know what to say other than I’m glad you’re free of him.”
She sighed. “Almost free of him.” That was the hardest part. Realizing there would be a tie with Todd for the next five years. How could she move on while they were still connected?
“I think he hates me,” she confessed. “He’d had more success with his first two wives, and he wasn’t expecting that he’d be denied more of my assets. I’ve been paying spousal support since I filed for divorce, and every month he runs out of money so he’ll text and text and text, asking for an early payment or telling me how I owe him so much more. Apparently, I made his life miserable for the months we were married and I’m terrible at everything—my writing, the clothes I wear, the makeup I don’t wear, and the way I make love.”
“Don’t let him have power over you,” Colt said fiercely. “He’s a liar.”
“Because you have so much experience where I’m concerned with all those things?”
