Angela Agranoff - Sophia O'Malley 01 - Organized Blackmail Read Online Free

sound anxious.
     
    Placing the journal down in her lap, Eleanor retrieved a letter from her dress pocket. “Please read this,” she pleaded with Sophia. Feeling her chest tighten, Sophia cautiously took the letter from Eleanor, opened it, and began to read.
     
    “Is someone is accusing Michael of stealing paintings? I thought these painting were done by him?” she gasped finishing the letter.
     
    Eleanor nodded her head in grief. With great control of her emotions she began to reveal certain secrets about her husband.  “Michael was a very loyal son. His father had a horrible gambling problem, this is of the utmost importance to understand. Oh, the shame that would have been brought on his father if certain debts went unpaid.”
     
    Sophia eased her mind deeper into Eleanor’s words and listened the way a true friend listens to someone she deeply loves. “I’m listening with an open mind and an open heart. My job as a professional organizer is to support you.  I’m not here to judge. I’m also here as a friend and confidant.”
     
    “It was well known in London that Michael was a brilliant artist. This was many years ago, in a time much different from your own. But the hearts of men haven’t changed very much, I’m afraid. The hearts of men are still violent and greedy.”
     
    “I understand.”
     
    “Michael loved his father very much. So in order to pay off his father’s debts, he agreed to paint paintings for the men who needed payment. The men would take Michael’s paintings and sell them. Unfortunately, Michael’s father could not escape his gambling habits.  This cost Michael a great deal of misery feeling he could never catch up with the debt that needed to be repaid. Michael’s father died owing a great deal of money. By this time we were married. He was ordered by his late father’s lenders to either keep painting until his debt is paid, or my life would be harmed. I mentioned to you in the hallway how I wondered why Michael settled here instead of London, and oh how he loved London, but now you know why.”
     
    “To protect you,” Sophia whispered.
     
    “Yes,” Eleanor wiped at a tear. “He loved me, dear. He gave up his life to protect the ones he loved. He was a very brilliant man, but he made a very tragic mistake.”
     
    Sophia braced herself for the worst. “I’m here, Eleanor. You can talk to me.”
     
    Eleanor stood up from the old chair she was sitting in. With agony torturing her face she walked to a dusty painting hanging on the far right wall. Keeping her back to Sophia she paused at the painting. “Michael made a deal,” she spoke in a barely audible voice.
     
    “The man who wrote this letter says you still owe him?  After all these years, how is that possible?” Sophia asked.
     
    Eleanor nodded her head. “His name is Lionel Quinn, and his father was the lender.  He thinks that he can continue to take money from me, and has threatened to reveal Michael’s father’s secret gambling problem.  It would seem that since both Michael and this man’s father are both dead that this debt would have died with it.  However, he seems to think that I am his free ride, and he continues to threaten to reveal Michael’s secret.”
     
    “What is it that you want to do Eleanor?” Sophia asked.
     
    Eleanor responded as she stared at the innovative paintings, “I wish to bring this debt to an end. ”My husband and I owe no one anything. Yet, in order to protect Michael’s artistic reputation, I must pay.”
     
    Sophia fell silent. Her eyes strolled around every dusty painting in the room. How many millions of dollars’ worth of artwork was stretching out before her eyes? “Eleanor, the man in the letter is demanding payment or he is taking your husband’s secret public. What are your intentions?”
     
    “Lionel Quinn’s father is dead, dear. He died three years before my Michael. I’m dealing with a ghoul of the present instead of the ghost of my past.