The Billionaires Too (#2)

Bank Robbery

27 June, 2017

Had it not been for the phone call she received after she left Logan Parker at the harbour, perhaps she would have had the courage to face him the following day, but the more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that she wouldn't have mustered it. She had skeletons, and so did everybody else, but they wouldn't compare to hers. She had closets and closets full of skeletons which were bound to destroy any little relationship she thought she had with Logan.

It had been almost two weeks since she left Cape Town, and she knew that she could not hide forever, especially after Samantha's scandal. The board had called for an urgent board meeting concerning her 'lack' of commitment, and it was in her hands to stop them from having a "No confidence" vote on her, although they would not have succeeded because no matter what; her shares, Jorge's shares and Alastair Cooper's share outnumbered the rest of the members'. However, she could not be so sure after her live conference.

"You have to go back to work, you know. You can't hide from your brother forever." Alastair Cooper said to MJ.

They were currently seated at Ocean Basket in London, eating and chatting about the upcoming board meeting.

"I did not come to talk about that. I came to talk about the messages I forwarded you last night." She said, and he nodded in understanding.

Alastair Cooper was a man in his mid-fifties. He had brown hair with a hint of grey strands, small and light blue eyes, and had wrinkles around his eyes. He was wearing a grey suit and a white shirt that was left unbuttoned at the top, and didn't have a tie. He had his wrists placed on the table, causing his shirt and jacket to roll down a bit, revealing his hairy hands and big expensive watch.

His thin pale lips were pressed together as he assessed his daughter.

"I don't understand though, who would steal from you?" He asked. MJ looked up and raised her eyebrows. "Who stole from you?" He repeated.

"Last month, we went to Ireland to put this whole mess to rest, but there was a girl there and after the meeting; Jorge gave her a total of fifty thousand dollars to pay a debt Sandra Cooper owed to Mr McEnroe." Alastair looked up in alarm.

"The orphanage was never in debt with the McEnroes; I can promise you that, my wife has absolutely nothing to do with this." He said in a panicked voice.

MJ assessed him quietly with a blank face and sighed. "I know that." She said. "At first, I thought it was a message for me, but then I realised that something was up with Jorge; I knew he was generous, but not that generous." She rubbed her eyes due to lack of sleep.

"Who was the girl?" Alastair asked.

MJ folded her arms and leaned back against the chair. "Take a wild guess."

He ran a hand over his face and sighed, shaking his head. He let out a chuckle. "I can't believe this. Are you saying that Esperanza is back?" He asked.

"Yes." MJ said. "And you know what that means, right?"

Alastair paled and looked at MJ with fearful eyes. "That her father is back." He took in a shaky breath and stared outside the window. "Which means Jorge knew who she was and what he was doing." He stated, and MJ nodded.

"Then he stole from me while planning my birthday ball." She said while stirring her empty teacup. "I mean, everything makes sense; the money he spent made sense, considering how huge the event was. But he misled me when he said he bought the hotel, while he actually booked the entire hotel for three nights, from the 30th of April to the 2nd of May; and the money he supposedly spent to buy the hotel, was transferred to a foreign bank account, which I can't trace now. The Maslow Hotel still belongs to its rightful owner; Jorge stole over 500 million dollars from me with that one stupid lie." She said gravely, unable to believe that he had actually done this to her.