Page 78 of My Craving

“The one we already found?”

“Yes. Whoever sent the money moved it through several accounts before it reached the women, but the trail is there. I gave everything to the attorneys so they can get the records through the proper channels. They won’t have to touch anything Colton found in the emails.”

“Can you figure out who owns the offshore account?” I ask.

“Not yet. Whoever set it up buried the source behind enough transfers that I can’t get back to a person. I can prove all four women were paid from money that came through the same account. I just can’t prove who put the money there.”

“What about Alina?”

“I checked everything we have on her. Nothing connects her directly to it.”

I glance at Duncan. He’s reading through whatever Ronan sent him with the same expression he uses when he’s reviewing a report from work.

“When were the payments made?” Duncan asks.

“They weren’t all made at once, but the first one was several weeks before the complaints became public.”

I stop and work backward through the timeline. “So she was already doing this before you ended things with her.”

Duncan looks up from his phone. “Aye.”

Alina made her feelings about me pretty fucking clear the first time we met, and when Duncan ended their arrangement, I assumed I was the reason she started coming after him. Except she’d already paid at least one of those women before any of that happened.

Whatever she originally wanted from Duncan had nothing to do with me. I just got in the way of a plan that was already in motion.

“Do the attorneys have everything they need?” Duncan asks.

“They have the records and the account information. They’re talking to the district attorney now.” Ronan pauses, and I hear more typing through the speaker. “Colton and I are still working backward through the offshore account, but whoever set it up knew what they were doing. We might get farther, but I wouldn’t count on finding a name attached to it.”

“Keep looking.”

Ronan hangs up, and I finish unpacking our dinner while Duncan reads through the files he sent. The accusations have been everywhere for days. Every time I open my phone, there’s another headline, another story or another comment from someone who decided Duncan was guilty the second the accusations became public.

Duncan has handled all of it the same way he handles everything else. The morning the story broke, he went to work, met with the attorneys, dealt with companies threatening to pull their business and answered questions from people who’d worked with him for years. Then he came home and carried on like he hadn’t spent the entire day being called a sexual predator.

I haven’t been nearly as calm about it. I’ve sat across from too many real survivors to stomach someone turning that pain into a weapon. Some could barely get the words out. Others still blamed themselves for something another person chose to do. Now someone has taken that same kind of pain and used it to manufacture accusations against Duncan.

He closes the file on his phone and looks at me. “You’re angry.”

“Yeah, I fucking am.” I shove one of the containers across the island harder than necessary. “Someone paid those women to accuse you of something people actually survive every damn day. They’re using that pain as a weapon.”

Duncan comes around the island and closes his hand around the back of my neck, drawing me against him. “Ronan and Colton will keep working on the account.”

I wrap an arm around his waist and lean into him. I have enough to believe Alina is behind the accusations, but believing it and proving it are two different things. We can connect her to Maria, the identity she stole to get close to Duncan, and the photographer who followed his family. We know someone broke into my apartment and left those pictures for me, and now we know all four women were paid from the same offshore account. We’re getting closer, but there’s still nothing that puts Alina’s name directly on the money.

Duncan’s phone rings again before we start eating. He checks the screen and answers when he sees it’s one of the attorneys, putting the call on speaker.

“I just got off the phone with the district attorney’s office. They reviewed everything we provided this afternoon. Between the problems with the complainants’ timelines and the financial records showing they were paid, they’re declining to move forward with the complaints.”

The breath I’ve been holding leaves me slowly, taking some of the tension in my shoulders with it.

“They’ll issue a statement confirming the allegations were investigated and that you’ve been cleared,” the attorney continues. “We’re keeping the details of the financial investigation out of it for now. Until we know who controls that offshore account, there’s no reason to make that information public.”

Duncan gives a slight nod even though the attorney can’t see him. “Agreed.” His attention immediately shifts to the company. “What about the clients that pulled their business?”

“We’ll start contacting them as soon as the statement goes out. I expect some will come back quickly. The rest may take more work, but having the complaints dismissed puts us in a much better position.”

“Handle it.”