I guided her to a bench as her face began to grow fearful for a second. This was New York City. Stories abound every weekend of women who believe they have a future with their significant other only to realize he has a wife and family in Kansas City.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I need to tell you something important,” I said, looking down.
“Please tell me,” she said, anxious and breathless.
Almost too much fun.
“I guess, I mean,” I began and I could see the look of impatience on Alicia’s face as she probably waited for me to tell her I was married and my wife lived in Vail. “It’s just that if we’re going to talk about brown rice and Brussels sprouts then I should tell you that … I love you, Alicia Sullivan.”
For a moment, Alicia looked at me with puzzlement. Then delight. And then happiness, satisfaction, and love.
The weather was perfect and it was only 11 am in the morning. A perfect day in a perfect park in the perfect city with the perfect girl.
“Oh my God Derek Lowell,” Alicia said, a broad smile lighting up her face. “I love you so much!”
She brought herself forward and wrapped her arms around me as we kissed for a long moment on the park bench.
When we finally disengaged she looked at me and wrinkled her nose. “And if you ever do something like that again to scare me, I’ll … break both your arms!”
I laughed. We had talked earlier of going to Paris and she had told me she really wanted to see the Venus de Milo more than anything else.
Eventually we began to walk back to my apartment.
“So, do you like your oysters raw or fried?” I found myself asking her.
Yes. I was really in love.
Let's hope she stayed in love with me after this was all over.
176
Alicia
You know, whoever said balancing a career and a love life was easy never probably went up against discovering that the guy they had fallen in love with was involved in an international money laundering conspiracy.
I mean, I'm just saying that if those career women who have time for kids and a love life with their husband every night like they write about in all the magazines ever had the mental worry and anguish I'm going through, they'd either be career-oriented spinsters, or happily married and unemployed.
I mean, I'm sitting here, looking at these trades.
There is no doubt about it. No hiding from the fact.
There is someone at Carter Jeffries or acting for Carter Jeffries that is executing orders from Derek's account moving vast sums of money around the globe to countries and entities that violate so many different laws that it's not even funny.
It's no wonder that whoever has done this hasn't been caught. Derek is a high net worth private client, and the bank has a strict policy on confidentiality. I had to basically get promoted to get special access to see his account.
And had this been in the normal database, what would've happened?
Oh, I dunno ... like 18 different law enforcement agencies would have gotten red flags most likely. They probably would have swarmed our offices with SWAT teams and taken all of our computers.
I need to figure this shit out. I need to tell someone. I'm too pretty for jail. I'm still an ass virgin. I was thinking maybe giving it up to Derek on our wedding night. You know, like a wedding present because obviously I'm not a virgin or anything. That ship sailed a while ago.
But then, what do I d
o?
I could lose my job, my license, and be forever barred from working on Wall Street if I get tagged as an accessory to this. I mean, you read about it in the Journal every day nowadays. Conspiracy to commit fraud and launder money. And I'm sorry babe, but just knowing about it and not saying anything is enough to make you part of the conspiracy.