AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He digs a little further. “I have banking details for you for where your brother’s funds were allocated, and the transfers of his assets into your name.”
I shake my head, meeting Ezra’s confused stare. “What address were those letters delivered to?” Ezra questions.
“I have an address in Michigan,” Martin confirms as the blood drains from my face.
“My father,” I breathe, my hands starting to shake as realization dawns on me. “He received the letters and signed on my behalf. He stole my inheritance, everything Axel worked for. He stole it from me.”
“Fuck,” Ezra grunts, reaching for my hand. “What about the assets that were transferred into her name? Does Rae still hold the titles?”
“I will have to do some title searches, which may take me a few hours,” he tells us. “I’ll get my associates started on this. In the meantime, I’ll look into the funds transfer and find out where your inheritance is, and once we have something concrete to work with and some answers, we can start putting a case together. Don’t worry, Miss Stone. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“Okay,” I say, letting out a shaky breath.
Ezra wraps up the rest of the conversation as I just sit here, unable to take in another word.
My father has already stolen so much from me, and to realize he’s taken everything of Axel’s as well is beyond devastating. Axel would never have wanted this, and granted he didn’t know just how vile our father had become, their relationship was strained since the moment he came home drunk and told us that Mom was never coming home.
He hated our father, and if he knew who he really was, I have no doubt that Ax would have ended his life.
Years later, and the asshole is still fucking with me. When is it going to end? He should be incarcerated by now. He should be locked up with the worst of the worst, spending the rest of his miserable life suffering at the hands of the men he’s imprisoned with. But instead, he’s out there somewhere living the high life off the money my brother left for me.
Fuck. I’ve never hated someone more.
Ezra’s hand falls to mine, bringing me out of the torturous thoughts circling my mind. “You good?” he questions.
I let out a heavy breath and shrug my shoulders, not willing to let on just how much this has messed with me. “I’ll never escape him,” I admit. “Even a million miles across the globe, and he’s still right there, taking anything good in my life. He’s not happy unless I’ve been stripped of everything that’s worth living for.”
Ezra pulls me in closer. “He can’t hurt you, Rae. You’re the one who has the power here. You’re not some scared sixteen-year-old girl anymore. You’re a woman now, and I won’t let him take your power. This is your chance to finally take him down. I know you’ve always hated that you’ve never had the evidence of what he did to you in that house, but we can get him for inheritance theft, and he’ll be sent away for the rest of his pathetic life.”
“I want him to suffer,” I tell him.
“Don’t you worry about that,” he promises me. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Ezra swipes his thumbs across my face, wiping away tears I hadn’t realized were tracking down my cheeks. “Come on,” he murmurs. “Game face on. Let’s get this meeting done, get to the stadium, get the show over with, and then I’ll spend the rest of the night loving you.”
A stupid smile pulls at my lips. “You better make it worth my while.”
“Just you wait, baby.”
We make our way back to the function hall, and just as the door opens, Lenny’s words flow through to us. “The paps are searching for a story, and we won’t be the ones to give it to them,” he says. “We’re here to put on a show, not to insert ourselves directly into Raleigh’s story. She’s been through enough to have to worry about one of us feeding the media about her past.”
Ezra pauses by the door, his gaze shifting to me, his brow arching and silently asking if I’m ready to walk in there, and I let out a sigh. “What did I tell you?” I murmur, stepping over the threshold to the function room. “I can’t escape it.”
Ezra’s hand finds mine and gives it a firm squeeze, and as we walk across the room to where Dylan and Rock sit, Lenny goes on. “Despite this story breaking two weeks ago, it is still making headlines, and we will not be the reason for it to continue. When asked—which you will be—you are to divert your answers back to the show. We have brought a team on board who are able to give a crash course in media training if any of you would like some guidance on how to answer these questions.”
A heaviness settles into my chest, somehow feeling like I’m a burden on the rest of the team, and I try to keep my expression neutral. The last thing I wanted was to be a distraction to the team or to try and take any attention off the band. This is about them. The headlines should be about how magnificent the boys are, how they’re unstoppable in their prime, not about the lead singer’s girlfriend who was abused.
“We are still unaware of where these stories are coming from—” Lenny continues, making me cringe. We haven’t exactly told him our thoughts on that. I’m almost certain this is my father’s doing. It just doesn’t make enough sense for me to come forward with it. Why the fuck would he go bragging to the media about what he’s done? Does he think he’s untouchable? Does he think it’s something to be proud of? “—and until we’re able to get to the bottom of this, we all need to do our part. Raleigh is family, and we protect our own. Is that understood?”
There’s a unanimous yes that sounds through the room, only a soft scoff has my gaze flicking to the left, and unfortunately for the dancers, I wasn’t the only one who heard it. “You got a problem?” Rock asks, already on his feet.
“Come on,” Jessica says, her gaze flicking toward me. “You don’t think this is getting a little over-the-top? Everybody has stood by and watched Raleigh throw herself at Ezra, and that lap dance on stage? She’s not even a dancer. Clearly this . . . behavior is typical of her. She’s provocative. We’ve all seen it.”
My blood runs cold as every eye in the room turns toward me, horror sweeping through my body.
“If you’re trying to make a point, you better hurry up and make it,” Rock grunts, shifting closer to me.
Jessica lets out a sigh before waving her hand toward me. “She’s been acting like a whore since the moment she arrived,” she states. “She’s clearly in love with the attention she gets. Don’t you all see what’s happening here? She’s the one who’s leaking these stories. I bet they aren’t even true to begin with. Nobody fucking touched her. She’s just making up bullshit sob stories to keep her name in the media and have everybody feeling sorry for her. It’s embarrassing, and she should be fired for bringing all this heat down over the band. It’s making us all look bad.”
