I thought a moment. “Was it a check? If it was a check, you could see the name on it, right?”
“A check this large would have taken several business days to clear. This was an immediate transaction,” he said. He hummed quietly as he clicked around on his computer, squinting at the screen. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t identify who completed the transaction. This can sometimes happen if it’s a foreign deposit, or if the funds arrived from an offshore account.”
“Which also means I can’t give the money back.”
The man gaped at me as if I’d said his children looked like goblins. “Why would you want to dothat?”
Good question, I thought.
He scratched his chin. “Seems like you didn’t expect this money?”
“I didn’t. Not at all.” I sat back, dazed. I felt like I should have been asking all sorts of clever financial questions, but I couldn’t think of anything to say.
He smiled. “The best gifts are the ones you don’t expect, right?”
I nodded, a thousand miles away. “So . . . I guess I’m a millionaire.”
“Looks that way,” he said with a chuckle.
I made a move to get up, then stopped. “If I spend this money, there’s no way I’ll get into trouble, right? The bank can’t come after me in a couple weeks once they’ve realized theydidmake a mistake, or if the person?—”
vampire
“—wants their money back?”
“No mistake has been made, Ms. Taylor. Banking doesn’t work that way. Once the funds have been cleared and deposited into an account, it belongs to the account holder. The payer can’t take the money back if they change their mind. I can give you a printout of the information if it will make you feel better.”
I said it would.
Back at the car, I sat staring at the printout, feeling sick, hurt, and angry.
Pitiful as it was, some small, deluded part of me had been clinging to the hope that Robert’s abrupt disappearance was truly a result of foul play. Now, I had a million reasons to believe it wasn’t. A kidnapped man typically didn’t wire funds into his ex’s account.
It was ridiculous, anyway, to entertain that Serena had somehow managed to kidnap Robert and then subsequently forced him to break up with me. Why would she do that, anyway? Though I loathed the vamp, even I could see that she could have any man she wanted without having to resort to kidnapping.
No, Robert was with Serena because he wanted to be. To think otherwise would only be a sad act of desperation. And the million dollars? Guilt money for dumping me, obviously.
I shook my head, so angry that I’d broken out in a sweat despite also being shivery and cold. Was that what Robert thought of me, a woman he could buy off?
What was he trying to do, pay for my silence so that I’d go quietly and without a fight? Clearly, he didn’t know me as well as he’d thought. Thefucking coward.
I snapped up my phone and instinctively called his number. I was going to demand an explanation, and he was going to give it to me whether he wanted to or not. After all we’d been through—after allI’dbeen through because of my association withhim—I deserved at least that.
It rang once, and I realized my error.
I pictured Robert’s phone back at the house, buzzing away on the dining room table. Mocking me. You’re a fool,buzz-buzz.He won’t ever be picking up for you again,buzz-buzz.He’s with Serena now,buzz-buzz.
I tucked my phone into my handbag, wondering how many more soul-crushing indignities I needed to suffer before it finally sunk in that it was O-V-E-R. How many times would I reach across the sofa to hold Robert’s hand before I remembered that he was now holding Serena’s? Or go to the fridge and pour a glass of blood before it dawned on me that I had no vampire lover to serve it to? Or roll over in bed, only to grasp empty space?
10
As I drove home, I debated what I was going to do with the money.
Irate as I was about being dumped and cheated on, my knee-jerk reaction was to leave a check for exactly one million screw-you-and-your-pathetic-attempt-to-buy-me-off-dollars for Robert to find on his bed once he returned home—which, I was certain, wouldn’t be a second before I moved out.
With more than a little satisfaction, I imagined the look on his face when he realized I was stronger than he’d thought and that I couldn’t be bought off like an employee he’d fired. I’d be lying, though, if I claimed I didn’t want or need to keep the money. Call me practical, but giving it back would be like cutting off my nose to spite my face. The only person I’d be hurting was myself.
Before the money had landed in my account, I’d been dangerously close to destitution. Again. It didn’t take an accountant to understand how much I needed the funds.
