Dressed To Kill Ch. 15

More story. Things are getting interesting and I'll try and squeeze some sex in the next chapter. Stay with with me and I'll reward you with some very steamy stuff.

Noella's heartbeat was racing when she returned home. After finding the envelopes, she was very distracted and didn't enjoy the remainder of the party so much. Arriving home, she made her way straight to the kitchen and turned on the coffee machine, wanting to try and compensate for all the booze she had drunk.

As the coffee machine whirred away, she kicked off her heels and retrieved the letters from her clutch bag. With a mug full of a triple latte she sat at the kitchen bench and picked up the first envelope.

It was nondescript with no clues where it came from except for a return PO Box number from the Cayman Islands. She ripped open the envelope her heart beat racing. She pulled the letter from the envelope and quickly unfolded the letter. She scanned it quickly. It was an invoice to Manta Pty. Ltd. from a bank in the Cayman's for 'banking services', whatever that they mean. Noella checked if there were any references to names or addresses. To her disappointment it was addressed to the 'CFO- Manta Pty. Ltd.' She looked at the account. The invoice was for $2342.

Damn! It doesn't tell me a thing!

She took another long swig of coffee before attacking the second envelope. It like the first, had no distinguishing marks, but the PO Box was different. She opened the letter.

Damn! Another fucking invoice! $3456! What are all these fees for?

This time it was a different, but still in the Caymans. Hoping for a better result she picked up the last envelope and this time she opened it in a more restrained way. Slowly she unfolded the sheet of paper which this time looked like a formal letter..

Thank god it's not an invoice.

Her eyes moved to the addressee box.

My god!

She couldn't believe her eyes.

Mr D. Nicholson
Manta Pty. Ltd.
3/125 Fahrenheit St.
Brighton

Her eyes moved to the body of the letter.

Dear Damien,

Subject: Asset Protection

Here at Parkinson & Smiths we are appreciative of the recent business you have put our way. We would hope to build our relationship for our mutual long term benefit. In light of this we are in the position to offer services at our Cayman Island subsidiary at new discounted rates.

To take advantage of this special offer..............

The letter went on with the usual suck ass bullshit from a business house trying to secure business.

What the hell is Damien doing with 'asset protection' in the Cayman Islands?

Noella sat there trying to make sense of it.

Why and how did Damien have her car taken away. Why would he try and sell her house?

What did he need offshore banks for? Was it a grab motivated by greed, just revenge or was it something bigger?

The numerous cocktails that she had drank that afternoon had removed much of her usual sharpness and so she struggled to make headway with these questions. She grabbed her I-pad and zipped of an e-mail to Steven asking to see him first thing in the morning. She felt guilty for monopolising Steven's time so much, but the ever escalating tide of events in her life gave her little choice.

At ten minutes to nine she bustled into the legal office wearing a sassy looking suit with black and white vertical stripes. She said 'hi' to the receptionist Justine who told her Steven was expecting her in his office. Noella headed straight for the office.

The door was open and she strolled right in.

"Hi Steven."

"Hi Noella. What's happened now?" he asked in a half laugh.

Noella explained that her neighbour has been receiving these letters and she thought it was important for him to see them, as she put the letters on Steven's desk.

"My God!" he exclaimed. "They're for Manta!"

"Look at the last one!" urged Noella.

Steven picked up the third letter and examined it closely.

"Damien? Damien is behind Manta!"

"It looks like it. What would he be doing?"

"Whatever it is, it'll be no good if he's trying to use offshore banks for 'asset protection'! That's just code for tax evasion or stealing!"

"Damien was always a sharp operator. Tax evasion maybe, but stealing?"

"What do you think he was trying to do with your car and your house?"

"Maybe he still feels he has rights over my things? He always treated me like a chattel!"

"Well you can give him the benefit of the doubt if you like, but it looks particularly dodgy to me!"

"If you say it's dodgy I'll believe you."

"I'll give this to my young guns. I'm sure they'll find something."

"Good. I just want to get to the bottom of this so I can get some calmness in my life."

"I can understand that. You haven't had much calmness lately! Now in light of this you need to check all your bank accounts, shareholdings and any other assets you have, to make sure nobody is trying to steal those. Okay?"

"Okay. That gives me a job for today!"

"It sure does. Go to the banks and check that nobody has been added as a signatory and get your broker to check there's been no attempt to transfer your shares into different names."

"Yep I can do that."

"And change all the passwords on your computer and I wouldn't do financial transactions on the internet until we get a handle on this. Okay?"

"Yep. Got it." replied Noella as she made some notes on her phone.

"Good. So get going and we'll see if the attack dogs can work this out."

"I know I sound like a broken record, but thanks."

"You know you're welcome. Now go and fix all those things up."

"Okay. Bye."

Noella started off at her bank where she was on a first name basis with the bank manager, Tony. He was pleased to see her without an appointment. She explained what had happened with her car and the house and so the purpose of the visit was to check that she was the sole signatory on the account and that there had been no unexplained withdrawals on her accounts.

Tony got out her file and started flicking through the papers.

"That's strange." he said. "There's all these letter saying there's a claim over your assets."

"What?" she exclaimed.

"See here." he said pointing to a number of letters from a legal firm called Poole and Moore. He pulled a couple from the pile.

"What are they saying."

"They are saying that Poole and Moore are acting for a client who is making a claim on Noella Howson's portion of the "estate of Mildred Brown" and is seeking to freeze all monies, assets and accounts until the claim is settled.

"No way! That was all settled months ago!"

"Apparently not. Somebody is after your slice of the pie."

"That can't be!" cried Noella.

When is this bullshit going to stop!

"Sorry Tony. I'm going to need make a call to my Lawyer."

She quickly rang Steve and almost in tears she explained the situation. He told to stay calm and they would fix it. He asked to have all the letters faxed to him. Tony quickly faxed the letters to Steven.

A couple of minutes later Noella's phone rang. It was Steven.

"Hi. Can you stay there for five minutes?"

"Sure."

"I'm sending some letters instructing the bank to not process any transactions without your express permission. Sign them and leave them with Tony."

"Will do."

She left the bank after signing the letters wondering what the rest of her stops would bring.

She soon found that whoever was behind this had been very busy as her as the other bank where she had an account, stock broker and real estate who managed her rental properties, had all received letters. Each time she had rung Steven and each time he had faxed letters ensuring Noella's assets were protected.

Exhausted she made her way back to the law office to speak to Steven. He ushered her straight into his office.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm exhausted Steven! What is going on?"

"I've rung Poole and Moore and asked them why they are placing claims all over your assets."

"What did they say?"

"Your not going to like this."

"Why what's wrong?"

"Well they are making a claim against your share of your aunt's estate."

"That was settled and dispersed months ago."

"You're definitely not going to like this but they're acting for.....wait for it ....Manta Pty Ltd who is trustee for none other than....?"

"Fucking Damien!"

"You said it! Your prick of an ex-husband!"

"But how can it be? I gave him a shit load of money in the divorce! And he still wants more! Fuck me!"

"That's a very nice offer Noella, but may I remind you I am your boss and legal counsel!"

"Sorry!" she laughed."You know what I mean."

"I do!" he said laughing with her. "The argument is that apparently the will gave you a greater share if you were married with children. Twenty five percent instead of twelve and half percent."

"So I received more because I was married. A million went to Damien and a million went into the children's trust. So! I have hardly benefited from the extra twelve and half percent! He has!"

"Their argument is that because you were married to Damien, he brought to you an extra $2.25 million and therefore he is entitled to 50% of the extra you got because you were married."

"That sounds like crap to me!"

"Well the argument is that your $875000 better off because you were married to him and therefore he can make a claim for half of that."

"But the will and the divorce. They were all settled. How can he come back for more?"

"They'll argue that it wasn't adequately considered at the time and therefore Damien is experiencing hardship."

"Hardship my arse."

"Well it's all about what you can convince a judge. He'll say he's looking after the kids. He needs extra help and he's under great stress."

"But he's put claims over everything I own. That's worth a lot more than the half million he's after."

"Ah yes. They would just say they're being thorough. We will argue they need to clear some of your assets. But this will take time."

"So they've tied everything I own up and then my make life difficult."

"I think that's the whole point."

"Why."

"Well I think their chances of winning in court are at best fifty fifty. But they hope they can make life hard for you so that you'll either capitulate or negotiate."

"That sucks."

"It does, but that's how things can work."

"So what do we do."

"For the moment we remain patient. We can work this out. Trust me."

"I do." she answered truthfully. "And this is all for five hundred thousand."

"Maybe it's about revenge." suggested Steve. "I mean we got the car back. Then they try and sell the house. But they know we'll stop them. So maybe it"s about making life hard for you?"

"They are certainly doing that! But he was the cheating bastard! He helped himself to a large slice of my money! I'm the one who should be seeking revenge!"

"So maybe revenge is the whole point."

"Maybe you're might right. Damien is an unforgiving and vengeful bastard!"

"He's certainly proving that!"

"So where do I go from here?"

"I think we've got everything covered at the moment. Have you got enough money to get by on?"

"I've a few hundred in cash and my credit cards. I'm sure my Mum will help me out with some money If I need it. Especially when she hears what Damien's doing! She hates him for what his done to me!"

"Okay. That's good."

"Now go home and don't stress."

"That is easier said than done!" she laughed.

"I know, but take care. I promise we will fix Damien up good and proper!"

"Good! I'll see you on Wednesday!"

"See you Wednesday!"

It had been a stressful and busy day and she felt confident that Steven was on top of it now and would ensure a good outcome for her. As she drove home she decided needed a pick me and so she took a detour to the Chadstone shopping mall and spent an hour touring the shoe shops where she saw in the window a beautiful pair of towering black sandals with little high ankle straps adorned by beautiful purple satin bows.

So sexy! An absolute must have!

She knew she she probably be more conservative right now.

What the hell. I need these shoes! I'll just put on the credit card.

She walked out the mall with a beautiful gold shopping bag containing her "new" favourite shoes!

I feel better now!

As she was getting into her car her phone beeped. She got her phone out of her handbag and looked at the screen. It was Josh!

Hi! Thanks for Saturday. Truly amazing. Am going to miss you!

Love Josh.

Her heart sank as she knew that she really wanted Josh to stay, as her feelings for him had grown quickly.

Fuck! Seems to be a recurring theme with men in my life.

She messaged back.

I'll miss you to babe! Take care.

Love Noella.

Maybe need to think about when I can go to London. That would be fun!

The kids came over for dinner Tuesday which was a great distraction for Noella. She made the kids favourite tacos for dinner and they sat around the dinner table having a fine old chat which proved very illuminating.

"Dad's in such a good mood!" offered Sarah.

"It seems he's even forgiven me about the trust stuff!" Marcus told her.

"It's really strange." Emily began. "He keeps asking if I've spoken to you and he's always asking how your! He never wants to know how you are!"

This all made Noella suspicious, but she didn't say anything and they enjoyed playing ten bowling on her Wii, which the kids kept telling her was so out of date! But they had fun anyhow.

After they went home, she sat watching her favourite DVD, "Notting Hill", for probably the fiftieth time whilst sipping on a tumbler of scotch. She mulled over the situation with Damien. It seemed to make sense that all these disasters in her life were of all of Damien's making. He certainly would enjoy making her life difficult. It seemed divorcing her after he was the unfaithful partner and manipulating the kids into living with him allowing him to swipe a large amount of inheritance from her was not enough, for old Damien.

He just wants to make her suffer forever. Well Damien if that's the way you want to play?

For the first time since her divorce, vengeance filled Noella's mind and body.