The Sicilian Heiress

The leather seat felt cold against my back as the taxi weaved through downtown traffic. My fingers drummed against my purse while I stared out the window at the passing buildings.

Two years. Two whole years I had given Justin everything I had and he threw divorce papers at me like I was nothing more than trash.

"No reason at all," I whispered to myself, remembering how he had looked at me with those empty eyes when I asked him why.

The driver glanced at me through the rearview mirror but said nothing. Good. I needed silence to process what had happened just three hours ago when I went to Justin's apartment to try talking sense into him.

I should have knocked. I should have announced myself instead of using the spare key he had given me months ago when we were still pretending to be happy.

But I walked right in and there they were. Justin with Sophia, my best friend since college, tangled up with Josh, his roommate, all three of them on his couch doing things that made my stomach turn.

Sophia had looked right at me when I stood there frozen in the doorway. She did not even have the decency to look ashamed. Instead she smiled like she had won some prize I did not know we were competing for.

"Joye," she had said, not bothering to cover herself, "this is awkward."

Justin had scrambled for his shirt but Josh just laughed. And he actually laughed while I stood there with my world crashing down around me.

The taxi hit a pothole and jerked me back to the present. The airport was getting closer and I could see planes taking off in the distance. Good. I needed distance between me and this city that held nothing but lies and heartaches.

How could I have been so stupid? All those times Sophia came over when Justin was working late. All those conversations where she listened to me complain about how distant he had become. She was preparing. Planning to be the devil. The devil I'd been too blind to see. Learning my weaknesses so she could move in when the time was right.

And Justin. The man who promised to love me forever had been sharing that love with my so called best friend and his roommate like it meant nothing at all to us. Like I meant nothing at all. The taxi pulled up to the departure terminal and I handed the driver his fare without looking at him.

My suitcase felt heavier than usual as I dragged it through the automatic doors into the busy airport. People rushed past me with their own destinations and their own problems. At least their best friends were not sleeping with their husbands.

The check in counter had a short line and I found myself face to face with a young attendant who took my passport with a professional smile. She scanned it, looked at her computer screen, then looked at me with confusion written all over her face.

"Is something wrong?" I asked when she kept staring between me and my passport.

She hesitated for a moment, typing something on her keyboard before looking up again. "I'm sorry ma'am but there seems to be a restriction on your travel. I won't be able to process your boarding pass."

"What kind of restriction? I bought this ticket yesterday and everything was fine."

"I'm not sure of the details. You'll need to speak with security about this matter."

My heart started racing but before I could ask more questions, I heard a voice behind me that made my blood freeze. "There she is. That's the one you're looking for."

I turned around and there was Sophia walking toward me with three men in expensive suits following close behind. She pointed directly at me like I was some kind of criminal she had been hunting down.

"She's the one responsible for siphoning the funds," Sophia announced loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.

I stared at her in complete shock. Siphoning funds? What was she talking about? I had never stolen anything from anyone in my entire life. The most illegal thing I had ever done was return a library book two days late.

The men in suits moved closer and I noticed they were not police officers. They wore no badges and carried no official identification that I could see. Behind them, actual uniformed officers stood at a distance, watching but not interfering.

Then another man appeared, much older than the others with white hair and a white beard that made him look like someone's grandfather. But his eyes held no warmth and when he smiled at me, it sent chills down my spine.

"Miss Joye," he said, his voice carrying an authority that made everyone around us stop and listen.

"How did you manage to siphon twenty million dollars from my account?"

What… what was he talking about?

I found my voice finally, it came out shakier than I wanted. "I have no idea what you're talking about. If I had stolen twenty million dollars, do you really think I'd be standing in a public airport trying to board a commercial flight? Wouldn't I be on some private jet heading to a country with no extradition laws?"

The old man studied my face for a long moment, then shook his head. "You're going to play innocent? Even when we have all the evidence we need?"

"What evidence? I've never seen you before in my life!"

"The evidence that your dear friend Sophia provided us with, of course." He cut me short.

I looked at Sophia and saw something in her expression that made everything click into place. This was not about any money I’d stolen. This was about money someone had stolen using my identity, and Sophia was the only person who knew enough about my personal information to pull it off.

"You did this," I said to her, my voice rising. "You stole from h