Separating Riches Read Free

know what she wants? This would be so much easier if I were drunk. “Help him out how?”
    “He was a deejay at a radio station but got laid off a few months ago and hasn’t been able to find a job here in San Francisco. I know that your father owns several radio stations; maybe you could put in a good word for him?”
    “Does Johnny know you called me?” I asked.
    “Oh, no. He would never forgive me if he knew that I was talking with you. And you mustn’t tell him either,” she replied.
    “Uh, excuse me, lady, but—”
    “Teresa. My name is Teresa Mooney,” she said.
    “Well, excuse me, Teresa,” I said snidely, “but how in the hell can I keep from it? You’re kind of tying my hands here, you know. It sounds like he wouldn’t want help from me anyway.”
    “I don’t know how, but if you truly want to make amends, I know you’ll find a way. Look, I’m not asking for a handout,” she repeated vehemently. “I’m asking you to invest in my husband. He’s a good man, and after what you did to him, he deserves your consideration.”
    “All right. I’ll have someone check into it, and then I’ll let you know if I can help Johnny or not.”
    She wasn’t happy with the delay, but I’m not a billionaire because my father blindly walked into a deal with his wallet opened wide in his hand. Just as I hung up, Chris walked over to me.
    “Everything all right, honey?” she questioned. “Your face is flushed.”
    “I think we just got our next pay it forward case,” I replied.
    “Really? That’s great,” she said. “How did they know about us? I thought we were keeping it quiet.”
    “We are, and they don’t know about our little side program. The call came from the wife of a man that I sort of got kicked out of college.”
    “Sort of?”
    “Yeah, well apparently I was drunk at the time, so I don’t remember a lot of it. Anyway, she saw me on our commercial and I guess the call center forwarded her call to me. She wants me to make up for what I did by helping out her husband, but the problem is, John hates me I’m sure, and probably has a major chip on his shoulders. But honestly, if he walked through that door right now, I wouldn’t recognize him. The only thing I remember about him was that he had terrible acne and was good at chemistry.”
    “Well, he doesn’t know me, so maybe I could be your front man, so to speak,” Chris suggested.
    “That’d be great if I knew what you were fronting. He lives in San Francisco and just lost his job at a radio station. That’s about all I know right now.”
    “Do you want to help him out, Melinda?” Chris asked.
    “Yes, actually, I do. But I don’t want to just shove money at him, apologize and walk away. That would be the easy way out. Besides, the way his wife sounded on the phone, I’m pretty sure he’d tell me to shove it up my ass. But after watching you try to make restitution to that asshole faker— uh, I mean your victim— I need to at least try to do the same for mine.”
    “I’m so proud of you, honey,” Chris said with a smile. “So what can we do to help him?”
    “I don’t know, but I promised his wife that I would have someone check into his situation. Want to be that someone with me?”
    Chris nodded. “Absolutely.”
    “Good deal. I’ll have the pilot ready the jet and we can leave tomorrow. Want to stay at my parents’ house again?”
    “Well, um,” she hesitated. “Will your parents be there?”
    After the way my father and I got into it the last time we were together, I don’t blame Chris for being gun shy. “No, they’re in Napa Valley this month. But I just had a brilliant idea. Why don’t we rent a house and move everyone to San Francisco for a month or two. No telling how long something like this will take, and there’s still so much more to show you.”
    Before we were engaged, Chris and I visited my parents’ home in San Francisco, where I stupidly tried to impress her with all my expensive toys. It