Premier Deception (18 page)

Soon they reached London and headed into
South Kensington. The houses became grander and grander the further
into it they travelled until they pulled into a gated driveway. The
gates shut behind them and the tree lined avenue led to the most
magnificent regency style house that Charlotte had ever seen. What
on earth was going on? Luke looked equally as puzzled and they both
looked extremely out of place in their training gear amongst the
opulent surroundings. The car stopped in front of a huge front door
with marble steps going up to it. Huge trees stood either side of
the entrance and everything was spotless. Before they reached the
top step the door opened and a butler stood there to one side.
“Welcome,” he said grandly. “Please follow me.” They walked across
a magnificent hallway where a sweeping staircase took centre stage
splitting into two directions at the top. The floor was made of
white marble and there was a fantastic abstract painting hanging on
the wall that was almost the length of the wall. Charlotte couldn’t
take it all in and felt more and more nervous with every step that
they took. The Butler held open another huge wooden door to reveal
a beautiful room bathed in light with huge windows that opened onto
a generous veranda. However before they could take in the rest of
the surroundings they both got the shock of their lives for there
waiting to greet them was none other than Gloria!

Charlotte looked bewildered and the
colour had drained from Luke’s face. Gloria’s face as usual was
blank with no expression. She was alone in the room with no sign of
Max or Sylvia. “Thank you for coming,” she said in her low voice.
“I am sure you are now very confused so let me take you to the
others and we will shed some light on it all.” Others! thought
Charlotte, who on earth could they be? They ventured out onto the
veranda and headed towards a pool house.

The surroundings were the most beautiful
that Charlotte had ever seen. There was a huge swimming pool made
to look as if it had been carved out of a rock, with a waterfall
and beautiful plants around it. There were sun loungers with
sumptuous cushions and canopies with little tables dotted around to
house drinks and sun cream. The pool house itself was huge. A large
wooden building with bi fold doors that opened onto the pool area.
As they stepped inside it took them by surprise as the room opened
up with a bar along one side and comfy seats all round. There was a
pool table to the rear and a little kitchen with a huge American
fridge freezer, with a breakfast bar running alongside it. However
Luke took none of this in because there sitting on a white sofa was
Sylvia, looking gorgeous as always with tears running down her
cheeks as she saw Luke come in.

He ran to her and pulled her up into an
embrace and it looked like he would never let her go. His arms were
protecting her and she clung to him the tears flowing as they held
themselves against one another. A Lump formed in Charlotte’s throat
and she was so glad to see that they had found each other. She
hoped that they could work it out and be together as it was obvious
that they were meant to be. However on looking around there was no
sign of Max which was a huge disappointment to her. She had so been
looking forward to seeing him and the emptiness in her heart
increased as she realised that he wasn’t there.

Gloria took in the scene and after a
moment said, “Please sit down there are some drinks on the table,
please help yourselves and I will explain everything.” Charlotte
interrupted her. “Where’s Max? I thought he would be here.” Gloria
waved her hand dismissively. “Oh he’s around somewhere. He
shouldn’t be too long. I’ll start as he knows it all anyway.” Luke
sat down next to Sylvia and held onto her as if he would never let
go. They looked so happy to be together but there was also a sense
of confusion and uncertainty.

Gloria began to speak in her low voice.
“I am sorry for the intrigue but what you hear must stay within
these four walls. Nobody else knows we are here and I am relying on
you all for your discretion and loyalty.” They all nodded and she
continued. “In order to get to the point of all this I must start
at the beginning. As you may know Mitchell has rather a weakness
for gambling. It started off innocently at first but then spiralled
out of control. Subsequently he owed thousands of pounds and was
facing financial ruin. Not being one to give in though he came up
with a plan to pay off his debts. The idea was to sell his shares
in United which at the time were worth a lot of money.”

She looked around at them her voice
devoid of any emotion. She carried on with her story whilst they
sat riveted. “He did so gradually so as not to draw attention to
them and was soon able to clear his debts. He told nobody not even
his brother and carried on business as usual. The idea was to buy
them back gradually at a greatly reduced price. To achieve that
price it was necessary to de-value the shares which in turn meant
running the club down.” Luke and Charlotte looked shocked and
almost couldn’t take the news in. “So he enlisted the help of
Ronnie who he knew he could trust. Ronnie’s career was coming to an
end and Mitchell knew that if he promised to make him the manager
it would be enough to guarantee his loyalty and help. Between the
two of them they came up with a plan to fix the matches so that the
team had a disastrous season and the shares went down. As the share
price fell Mitchell bought them up gradually. He couldn’t risk
buying them in his own name in case somebody twigged so he used my
maiden name and put them in an offshore account. Maurice knew none
of this and couldn’t believe the declining fortunes of the
club.”

She stopped to take a drink and let the
facts sink in. Luke and Charlotte were in shock, it was like
something out of a film plot and their heads were spinning. She
continued. “However they were in danger of losing their lucrative
sponsorship deals which they would need when they took over control
to make the club the profitable one that they knew it could be. It
was a fine balancing act and so Mitchell came up with the idea of
appointing a female manager that would cause a buzz around the club
and delay the loss of the sponsors. He knew that he had to keep
control so they needed somebody who knew nothing about football and
wouldn’t question their decisions. That was where you came in
Charlotte.”

“But I thought that they had a European
Manager lined up and the only reason that I was offered the job was
because he was involved in an accident,” she said confused. Sylvia
looked at her with a hard expression on her face and said, “that
was all made up, there was never any other manager, Mitchell made
up the story to trick you into taking the job.” Charlotte sat back
in her chair as the realisation set in. “However they didn’t
realise just how good you were to be, people began to warm to you
and you were not the push over they thought you were. The share
price began to rise and they needed something to cause an upset to
bring them back down again. So they came up with the plan to link
both of you and cause a media storm which they could use to
discredit you both and keep the club in disarray.” Luke looked up
angrily and Sylvia put a comforting hand over his.

“The night that you were set up Ronnie
and Sylvia came to our house for dinner. Unfortunately for Sylvia
she overheard them both talking about it and confronted them. She
was angry and said that she would tell everyone the truth and that
they wouldn’t get away with it. Mitchell pulled me aside and said
that they would need to silence her and that I was to distract her
whilst they prepared the video camera.”

Tears were rolling down Sylvia’s face
and Gloria stopped and looked concerned. “Are you ok?” she said
softly and Sylvia nodded, “It’s ok, go on.” “They were going to
teach her a lesson as only they knew how. The idea was to drug her
drink with a date rape drug; Mitchell has a supply of these for his
own perverted pleasure. They would engineer a group session for
want of a better word and we would film it. If Sylvia threatened to
tell he would release the video on the internet and she would be
publicly humiliated. She has such strong ethics and values and it
would kill her. They knew that she wouldn’t tell for the sake of
her reputation and her son’s feelings. For Mitchell it was like
Christmas, he loved his group gatherings and the thought of having
such a prize was almost too much for him.” Luke’s face was
murderous, if the two men had been there at that moment Charlotte
knew that there would be no stopping him. “I couldn’t let that
happen. Just because I had to put up with a pervert for a husband I
couldn’t let it happen to Sylvia who was so kind and unspoilt. I
told Mitchell that I would prepare the drink and take Sylvia in the
other room to calm her down whilst they prepared the camera. I
quickly told her of the situation and called Max to meet her at
their house and take her to a safe place out of harms way. Sylvia
fled out of the back door and took their car whilst I went in and
told them that she was freshening up. They started to get impatient
so I tried distracting them by suggesting that we get warmed up.
This bought a bit more time but they soon realised that she had
gone. I played the innocent and Ronnie called a cab to get him
home, however by the time he got there Sylvia had left.”

Charlotte’s head was spinning, poor
Sylvia, just thinking about what could have happened sickened her.
She shot Sylvia a look of compassion and Sylvia gave her a shaky
smile and said, “I owe Gloria a great deal. Without her help who
knows what would have happened. I will be forever grateful to her.”
Luke suddenly chipped in and said. “What I don’t understand is why
you are telling us this Gloria. What do you want us to do and why
do you want to disrupt their plan when it may mean trouble for
you?” Gloria nodded and said, “I understand your concerns. Like
Sylvia I have had enough of being married to a bullying, self
centred, ego-centric domineering man. He has no regard for me or my
feelings. He treats me like a slave both in and out of the bedroom.
I have to play a part in his sick fantasies and there is absolutely
nothing in it for me at all. I have met someone who is caring and
compassionate that I want to spend the rest of my life with, but I
need to take Mitchell down and stop him from ruining the club and
people’s lives. I need to know that I can get out without him
haunting me. I don’t want the money if that’s what you are
thinking, I just want to regain some self respect and do what’s
right.”

There was silence as they digested all
of this information. Charlotte suddenly pulled herself together and
said, “Gloria, I think that you are very brave and deserve our
loyalty and help. I for one will do whatever I have to in order to
help you, you can count on me.” Gloria smiled and thanked her and
Luke also agreed although he said, “It will be very difficult to
contain myself around those two vile men, I am not sure if I can
keep it together.” Sylvia once again took his hand and said, “You
will find the inner strength with the knowledge that you can bring
them down in a way that will really hurt them where it will hurt
the most. We will all do what we have to. Gloria please tell us
what you want us to do.”

Gloria nodded and carried on. “Sylvia
and I will return to our husbands,” Luke jumped up and shouted,
“No! I will not have Sylvia put in any more danger from that mad
man.” “Don’t worry Luke,” Sylvia said softly. “I have invited
Ronnie’s parents to stay, he won’t try anything with them in the
house and when Jackson goes off to boarding school I will go and
stay with my parents. I have to go back otherwise things can’t go
back to how they were.” Luke looked really angry about it but sat
down and Gloria continued. “Sylvia will say that she has thought
about it and for the sake of their son she will keep their secret,
in return Ronnie mustn’t come any where near her and she will in
public remain the dutiful wife. They don’t know about my
involvement in all of this so I will carry on as normal. Charlotte
you and Luke must also carry on as normal but you must do your best
to keep the share price up by winning games and thwarting their
attempts. Mitchell nearly has enough shares to gain full majority
control of the company and that would mean that you both lose your
jobs. We must gather as much evidence against them of match fixing
and deception as we can and then when the time is right call in the
authorities. They would go to prison and Sylvia and I could get our
divorces and them out of our lives.”

Before they could say anything else they
heard someone approaching. They all looked towards the door and to
Charlotte’s great delight Max walked into the pool house. Her
stomach lurched and her heart soared. He looked incredible. His
dark hair was swept back and he was wearing a black shirt exposing
his rippled chest. He was wearing white trousers and as he came in
he removed his sunglasses and fixed her with that penetrating stare
that he always used around her. Purposefully he strode towards her
and gently took her hands in his, he spoke in his deep sexy voice.
“Charlotte, are you ok? Please excuse the secrecy and I am sorry
that I had to desert you, can you please ever forgive me?” A lump
formed in her throat and Charlotte nodded, too overwhelmed by her
feelings for him to speak. He turned to Gloria. “Your driver is
ready when you are, to take you and Sylvia home. I will take Luke
and Charlotte back.” Luke stood up. “I would rather go with Sylvia
if that’s alright. I want to make sure that she is ok and I don’t
want to let her out of my sight.” Gloria replied, “That’s fine. My
car is at the multi story in town. The driver can drop us off there
and Luke can get a cab back from the town.” Luke turned to
Charlotte. “Will you be ok Charlotte? I don’t like to abandon you
here.” He turned to Max. “Take care of her she has had quite a
couple of days.” Max smiled at him and they shook hands. The three
of them then headed off outside leaving Charlotte and Max alone in
the pool house.