Perfect Fit (7 page)

Sage nodded, accepting his words but knowing that wasn’t possible. No one could have that much of a memory lapse. What she was seeing didn’t make sense. Erol had his own checking account, and her name was on his account as well; but neither of them used the other’s checking account. And then there was the savings account they had together. Although both their names were on the account, it was mainly hers. She had made a pretty hefty deposit into it last year with the life insurance money her grandmother had willed to her.

Sage frowned as an unpleasant thought began forming in her mind. “Mr. Montgomery, would you check the balance of my savings account as well? In my estimation, I should have over fifty thousand dollars in it.”

He nodded, then quickly left his office again.

Sage’s hand trembled as she reached into her purse for her cell phone. She had to talk to Erol immediately. There had to be a reason he took the money out of her account without talking to her first, or even telling her about it. According to Mr. Montgomery, the money had been removed from her account over two weeks ago. As far as she was concerned, he’d had plenty of time to tell her about it.

She breathed in heavily when the phone to Erol’s office was answered by his secretary. “Hi, Joan, this is Sage. Is Erol in?”

“No, Ms. Dunbar, he had a meeting with a client,
but he should be on his way back to the office. He indicated he would be working late tonight. You may want to try him on his cell phone.”

“Thanks, I’ll do that.” She then tried reaching Erol on his cell phone but got his recording instead. Deciding not to leave a message, she had disconnected the call and placed her mobile phone back into her purse when Adam Montgomery returned. She could tell by the look on his face that he was not about to deliver good news.

“It seems, Miss Dunbar, that all but one hundred dollars was taken out of that account as well, on the same day, and again by Mr. Carlson, who is listed on your account.”

Sage’s blood immediately went cold. She didn’t want to believe what Adam Montgomery was saying. It couldn’t be true. There was no way Erol would have touched her money without first discussing it with her. There was no way.

“Are you sure?” she asked, in a voice that trembled so bad she could hear it.

Sad, apologetic eyes met hers. “Yes, Miss Dunbar, I’m sure. Here is the document for that transaction if you would like to see it.”

Sage took the second document he handed her. She had to see it for herself. When she did, a part of her wanted to believe it was all a mistake and this couldn’t be happening. She tried to think of some explanation, some excuse, but couldn’t come up with anything. She took a deep breath, forcing herself not to panic, not to jump to conclusions. There had to be a logical, acceptable reason why Erol had done this, and she intended to find out just what it was.

She stood on shaky legs. “May I keep these papers?”

“Certainly, and if there’s anything further we can do, please call and let me know.”

Sage nodded and turned and walked out of the man’s office, literally fuming. When the elevator door opened she rushed inside, quickly pushing the button on the console that would take her to the parking garage. She had to see Erol. He had a lot of explaining to do.

By the time Sage walked into Erol’s office less than fifteen minutes later, she was boiling mad. After leaving the bank, the more she had thought about what Erol had done, the angrier she had gotten. Since it was past closing time, she had met his secretary on her way out.

Without wasting any time, she walked down the hallway to his office and immediately opened the door. He glanced up, both startled and surprised to see her. He stood and came around his desk. “Sage? What are you doing here? When did you get back in town?”

She inhaled deeply, again trying to find a logical explanation for what he had done. “I returned earlier than planned,” she said as calmly as she could. “Didn’t your secretary tell you that I had called?”

“Yes, but I assumed you had called from Alaska.”

She clutched the straps of her purse that hung on her shoulder as she struggled for control. Before her stood the man she loved, the man she was planning to marry. Suddenly she was seeing him as a man who had taken over fifty thousand dollars out of her bank accounts without telling her.

“No, Erol, in fact I was calling from the bank. I
went there when my bankcard was declined for a purchase and I couldn’t understand why.” Her heart broke with the expression that suddenly appeared on his face—one of guilt.

“Sage, I can explain,” he said, taking a step toward her.

She automatically took a step back. “Can you? How can you explain taking fifty-two thousand dollars from my account without mentioning a word of it to me, Erol?”

He breathed in and said, “I was trying to find the perfect time to tell you. In fact, I had planned on telling you everything when you got back.”

Sage became livid. “When I got back! What was wrong with telling me before you did it!”

“I knew you wouldn’t go along with the reason I needed the money.”

“Which was?”

For a long moment he didn’t say anything; then he said, “An investment deal. Edwardo told me about this hot investment tip on this invention that could be worth billions of dollars, but you had to have at least sixty thousand dollars to get in.”

Sage inhaled deeply, trying to keep her anger in check, but was failing miserably. Edwardo Anders was one of Erol’s frat brothers who was an investment broker. “So you took every penny we had and invested it without talking to me about it first?” she asked incredulously. She couldn’t believe this. She didn’t want to believe this.

“Like I said, Sage, I knew you would be against it, and all I could think about was getting in on such a great technological opportunity and being like one of those individuals who had the foresight to invest in Microsoft on the ground floor. I figured
that in the long run, I would make back at least a hundred times the amount of my initial investment.”

“So you took it upon yourself to make a decision such as that for the both of us, Erol?” she asked angrily. “You had no right to do that. At least you should have given me the opportunity of saying no, and you didn’t do that. For all you knew I may have gone along with it, although I doubt it. I trusted you, Erol. How could you have taken advantage of me that way?”

“But don’t you see, Sage? I thought I was doing something that would ultimately benefit the both of us. Even Edwardo didn’t know the investment wasn’t on the up-and-up and—”

“Whoa, back up,” Sage said, suddenly becoming angrier. “What do you mean the investment wasn’t on the up-and-up? Are you standing there telling me that you lost every single penny you invested?” Sage tightened her hand on her purse straps as she felt the floor beneath her feet begin to shift. She knew the answer to her question before Erol’s lips formulated a response. The look on his face said it all. He had lost all of their money. Every single penny of it.

“I’m sorry, Sage.”

Her heart felt heavy in her chest. The words he had just spoken had been the same ones he had whispered to her after they had made love over a week and a half ago. Now she had an idea why he had apologized, but she still needed for him to confirm it.

“That night we made love and you apologized afterward … You were apologizing for this, weren’t you? You were apologizing for losing all that money.”

He hesitated only briefly before answering. “Yes.”

Sage fought back the tears she felt forming in her eyes. The next morning she had asked him about it, giving him the perfect opportunity to come clean and tell her what he’d done, but he had chosen not to, leading her to believe things were all right. Instead, she had to find out this way.

She had put Erol’s name on her bank accounts not thinking she could not trust him to do the right thing. She suddenly felt like a fool. Pain, the likes of which she had never felt before, went through her when she thought of the money her grandmother had left her. Paula Dunbar had left all three of her granddaughters fifty thousand dollars. And now Sage felt that because she had been stupid and naive, her grandmother’s gift of love was lost to her forever. How could Erol have done this to her? To them? How could he have hurt her this way by taking away something so special? For that alone she doubted that she could forgive him.

Tears blinded her as she took off her engagement ring. Crossing the room, she walked over and offered it to him. “I can’t marry a man I can’t trust, Erol.”

He refused to take the ring. “No, baby, you don’t mean that. I know you’re upset, but that’s no reason to give up what we have. I’ll make it up to you, Sage, I swear I will. If I have to work day and night, I’ll replace the money, every penny of it, you got to believe that.”

Sage blinked back more tears. “Money can be replaced, Erol, but trust can’t. There can’t be a relationship or a marriage without trust, and you destroyed whatever trust I had in you by doing what you did.”

Since he wouldn’t take the ring from her, she placed it on his desk, then turned and walked out of his office.

After driving around for nearly an hour with no specific destination in mind, Sage pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot and brought her car to a stop. She couldn’t do anything but rest her face against the steering wheel as the tears continued to flow, still not believing what Erol had done. It was bad enough he had used the money in her savings, but then he’d also used money in her checking account, money that should have been used to pay bills. If he had needed sixty thousand dollars, that meant he had used eight thousand of his own money. It was obvious he had gotten so caught up in that investment deal he hadn’t thought rationally. How had he planned for them to pay the bills for this month? They both had large car payments, not to mention the rent on the apartment which was no small amount.

She jumped when her mobile phone rang. Knowing it was probably Erol, she refused to answer it. There was nothing he could say to her now.

Sage sighed deeply when the phone stopped ringing. She had to pull herself together. Going to their apartment was out of the question, since that would be the first place he would look for her and try to talk her out of breaking their engagement.

As much as she wanted to, she didn’t want to go to her parents’ home either, as least not yet. She wasn’t ready to tell them what Erol had done.

When the phone began ringing again, she ignored it. She needed someone to talk to and immediately
thought of Rose. Turning the car’s ignition, she pulled away from the parking space after deciding to go to Rose’s place. Even if Erol called Rose looking for her, there was no doubt in her mind that after telling Rose what he’d done, she wouldn’t tell him a thing.

Rose opened the door, took one look at her and asked with concern, “Sage, are you all right?”

Sage tried holding on to her smile. “May I come in, Rose?”

“Sure,” Rose responded, stepping aside. “Sage, please tell me what’s wrong.”

Sage nodded. As she turned toward Rose’s living room, she heard a noise coming from Rose’s bedroom. It was then that she noted Rose was wearing a robe, and it was obvious she didn’t have on anything underneath.

“Oh, Rose, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come. You have company,” she said, moving toward the door to leave.

Rose reached out and grabbed her arm. “Whoa, slow down. You aren’t going anywhere. Besides, he was just leaving.”

No sooner had Rose spoken those words, than a man walked out of the bedroom, buttoning up his shirt. Sage blinked, and her mouth nearly dropped open. It was Mr. Poole. He glanced up, surprised to see her as much as she was to see him. He was wearing the same clothes that she had last seen him in earlier, which meant he had come home with Rose straight from the airport.

Sage racked her brain trying to remember if she had noticed something going on between them
while they were in Anchorage or on the flight back home, and for the life of her, she hadn’t detected a thing.

“Ms. Dunbar,” he greeted, after clearing his throat.

“Mr. Poole.” Goodness, she thought, the man was their boss, yet he stood in Rose’s living room with obvious signs of what he and Rose had been doing. What on earth could Rose have been thinking to sleep with him? But then, Sage decided, she had problems of her own to deal with and couldn’t get involved with anyone else’s.

“Are you all right, Ms. Dunbar? You seem upset about something.”

Sage felt her cheeks heat up. From the way both Rose and Mr. Poole were staring at her, it was obvious they could tell she’d been crying. “Yes, I’m fine, but a personal matter has come up. Will it be possible for me to have tomorrow off?”

He nodded as he continued to look at her. “Yes, sure. And if you need more time, let me know.”

“Thank you.” Sage nibbled on her lower lip, suddenly feeling awkward when he walked over to Rose and whispered something in her ear. Whatever he said made Rose smile.

“I’ll see you when you return to the office, Ms. Dunbar,” he said, holding her gaze.

Sage nodded as she watched him open the door and walk out, closing it behind him.

Rose didn’t waste any time crossing the room, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the kitchen where she pulled out a chair from the table. “Now sit and tell me what the hell is going on, Sage,” she ordered, taking a chair across from her.

At first Sage couldn’t say anything, but her hesitation
lasted for only a moment. She could feel fresh tears spring into her eyes when she met Rose’s gaze and said, “Erol took nearly every cent I have from my bank accounts without telling me.”

“How could he do such a thing!” Sage didn’t think she had ever seen Rose so mad. After telling her friend the entire story, she had watched Rose silently get out of her chair and walk over to the sink to make coffee. She had said nothing during the process, but after setting a cup on the table in front of her, Rose evidently had gathered her wits and had quite a lot to say.

“I just can’t believe he would do that to you, Sage. What on earth could he possibly have been thinking about?”