Chapter 102: Shocking news
1052words
Drake's soothing, deep voice woke me out of my slumber as I smiled and stretched. He was clearly in the other room talking to someone on the phone. Who was he talking to? His boss? Dakota? But then I heard another voice; a familiar one.
I jumped out of bed and ran into the living room to find Luis standing there with Drake. My heart leaped with excitement as I lunged forward and threw my arms around his neck.
"Luis!! What are you doing here?!"
He hugged me back and grinned when I looked at him. "Oh, ya know, I missed you too much."
I giggled. "We were only going to be gone for a few days, but I'm glad you're here. I missed you, too." I winked.
Then I looked over at Drake and sauntered up to him next, giving him a good morning kiss. His lips were soft but I noticed how the kiss was different. He kept his mouth closed and simply gave me a small peck before he leaned back and smiled down at me.
My eyes moved between them and my heart sank. Something was wrong.
"Tell me," I demanded. "You two both look like someone ran over your puppies. Spill." I crossed my arms over my chest and glared between the two of them. I hated secrets and Luis is the first person who should know that.
Drake blew out a breath as he ran a hand through his hair and rocked on his heels.
"Lynn, I, um-" he cut off and stole a glance at Luis.
The silence crackled in the room and I was about to explode.
"Why don't we take a seat," Drake offered.
But I slapped his outstretched hand away and was about to demand answers when Luis piped in.
"Drake called me here because he found out that everything is a lie! Jason never gave your parents that money. He's the one who owes money to loan sharks. Your parents aren't your real parents because your real parents died in a fire and your fake parents are under investigation for embezzlement after stealing money from your real parents. They're all trying to play you and Drake." He inhaled a deep breath after speaking so quickly that he ran out of breath.
He spoke so fast that I tried to ingest everything that he had just said. Jason didn't give them money? Loan sharks? Fire? Not my parents? I felt my legs go weak and I almost fell.
Drake came to my aid and wrapped me in his strong arms and held me up.
"Nice, Luis," Drake sighed.
"I'm sorry! I got nervous!"
"Come on, babe," Drake whispered to me as he led me over to the couch and sat down with me.
"What is he talking about, Drake?" I looked up into his worried eyes and silently pleaded with him to tell me. "I'm not as fragile as you think. Please, tell me what the hell is going on!"
Drake took a deep breath as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone.
"I made a call last night to a guy I knew years ago. He helped me find some things out about my own family when Dakota first came to me." He waved his hand. "That's not important right now, but this is." He clicked a few things on his phone and then handed it to me. "My guy is a private detective and he sent me all the files he found on Jason and your parents. It starts here..." He tapped the first PDF file as I watched it open on the screen.
I read the first line and already felt overwhelmed.
"Jason owes money to this guy in New York? For what?" I kept reading when Drake looked down at the phone. The words gambling and loan came up all over the page. According to this, Jason owes this guy in New York 1.3 million dollars. Then there was a list of dates of when Jason borrowed money or lost gambling debts to this man. Some of them were dated back to when I was married to him.
"He never gave money to your parents," Luis stated as he took the seat in front of me.
"But what about his father's factory? Is that all a lie, too?" I asked.
Drake sighed again. "The second PDF is that transaction. It looks like Jason did, in fact, get his father's factory but quickly went bankrupt and lost it. He took money from the company to pay the loan shark back but it wasn't enough. He lost everything."
"Jesus," I breathed as I continued onto the second PDF to see when he took over the company and lost it. "Two months? Wow."
Then I opened the next PDF and noted that it was a document for a local charity, but my parent's name was on the roster right next to Jason's. They all ran the charity together and that confused me. For as long as I've been alive, I've never seen my parents do charity work and I never thought I'd see them working alongside Jason. According to this, they raised $203,500 but that amount never reached the charity. An embezzlement case was raised against them for the loss of funds. Then I noticed a second embezzlement charge against my father and the company he worked for for years. He retired from that company. I kept scrolling through the documents and noticed that my father was under investigation for missing money. $600,000 to be exact. The money was found in an offshore account under the name lynn Tuffin. All assets had been recovered and Mr. Martinez spent six months in jail.
My heart sank into my chest as I remembered that time period very well. My mom said he had gone to Houston for six months to work down there at their sister facility. He wasn't in Houston at all. He was in jail.
I felt like my head was spinning and there were no words to how I felt reading all of this. It felt as if my entire life had been a sham and I was the pawn. And who the hell is this lynn Tuffin? Was that supposed to be me?!
