Sleep did not come for me, of course. I laid in bed for God knows how long, wishing that the blissful ignorance of a dreamless slumber would roll over me and keep me under for a few hours. But it did not happen, which was just as well, considering if I fell asleep I might risk Adrian visiting and I couldn't bare to face him yet. When I realized the effort was futile I rose from the bed and went to find the file that I'd gotten from Ambrose. I hadn't looked through it last night, since I'd grown distracted with the appearance of Victor's necklace.
I scrutinized every piece of paper in the file, poring over the details until my vision began to blur and separate the words so that I saw everything twice. When that happened I paused momentarily to blink or to get up and pace around the room, before delving right back into the fray of information.
The information that the files contained was interesting, if anything. I could certainly see how the queen had come to the conclusion that there was an illegitimate Dragomir out in the world.
Eric Dragomir had a room at the Witching Hour that he always rented. Every time it was the very same one: room 632. The records from his check in and check out days indicated that he would go to that room for only one night every two weeks. He would keep the room the full day and then check out again exactly twenty four hours from when he had checked in. Unfortunately, the date of his last check-out was thirteen years ago. The implication there was that Eric must have stopped visiting his mistress when he found out she was pregnant. That would put Lissa's remaining sibling at about fourteen.
There were hefty deposits into a bank account in some small town called Grosse Ile located in Michigan. I took that as a good sign; A small town would suggest that locating the proximity of the Dragomir wouldn't be too hard. How many Moroi could there be in a small town? Unfortunately, the name on the account wasn't listed; the words Jane Doe were typed in brackets, as Sydney had mentioned. So the account wasn't Eric Dragomir's. It belonged to a woman. I looked over the deposit information. It appeared that there were annual deposits of $600,000 dollars going into the account. The last deposit was listed as June 29th of last year. After scanning the list, I came to the conclusion that the deposit was made every year on the 29th of June. That would mean that whoever Jane Doe was, as of tomorrow, she would be $600,000 dollars richer.
I sighed, my mind muddled. That was such a large amount of money. I didn't know how much it would cost to raise a child, and frankly I had no intentions of figuring that out any time soon, but $600,000 times fourteen years was approximately 8.4 million dollars. That seemed a bit excessive, but who was I to judge? My guess was that some of that money would be bribe money; the kind that says I'll make sure you have a good life if you don't tell my wife I got you knocked up.
I felt a sense of doom as I thought about it. I was probably going to have to find some stuck up, prudish bitch and convince her that she was a Dragomir. I didn't have any tolerance for spoiled people; Sure, if they didn't act like it, I could manage, but the people that flaunted their wealth in front of others? I didn't stand for that shit.
I looked through the list of withdrawals, surprised by what I found. The last withdrawal had been made five years ago, in the amount of $16,489 dollars. Prior to that, there were very few withdrawals in the account, and none of them were even in excess of a thousand dollars. I dismissed that information, looking at the remaining balance: $7,998,665.42. As of tomorrow that number would increase to $8,598,665.42. Of course, I didn't know how much money Lissa had to her name, but I didn't estimate it to be anywhere near that much.
I wanted to tell Lissa that, but I still hadn't explained to her that she had a half-sibling that was still alive somewhere. I should probably drop the bombs one at a time. Besides, I didn't have any way to get a hold of Lissa, except to call Abe, which she had insisted I not do. I was nearly finished reading the files when a knock on the door made me jump. My mood turned dark as I thought of Dimitri, and I decided if it was him I would slam the door in hi face. But when I opened the door, Christian came in instead.
"What happened in here?" He asked, looking at the table. I had spread the files out everywhere. The pages were grouped together in whatever random order my mind had come up with, covering the table and the floor. The bed was over-run by pages and pages of typed papers, the print too small and close together. There were also hand-written observations there, which I hadn't yet looked over because of the miniscule, cramped writing.
"I got the files that the queen had stolen from the alchemists." I said, looking around the room. "We've got a good lead now. The bank deposits are made to a Patriot Savings in Grosse Ile, Michigan."
"So Lissa's dad was a regular at the Witching Hour in Las Vegas, but he had a bank account in some backwoods place in Michigan? Sounds to me like he might have had more than one mistress." I frowned. Leave it to Christian to point out that things could always be worse than I thought.
"I don't think so. There's only one bank account listed in here, which is odd. I wonder where he kept his family's money?"
"In his mattress?" Christian suggested, his voice full of indifference.
"He was a little smarter than that." I said brusquely. I was staring at the papers on the bed, thoughtful. "Whoever the last Dragomir is, I think they're better off than Lissa."
Christian looked at me doubtfully. Lissa was financially well-off, as the only heir (except for the illegitimate child, of course) to the Dragomir fortune. I couldn't say how much money she had, but I don't know that it was anything like eight million dollars. I frowned, wondering where the annual $600,000 came from. And then a thought occurred to me.
"This bank account gets a yearly deposit of 600,000 dollars. It happens every year on the 29th of June." I pointed at the paper that showed the deposit record.
"That's tomorrow." Christian remarked.
"Yes. But the money has to come from somewhere; If it's automatic then that means it comes straight out of one account and goes into another."
"Congratulations on learning the ways of automatic banking." Christian said dryly. He was not nearly as excited as I was by the prospect.
"This money is coming out of Lissa's account!" I felt like I'd solved a murder mystery or something. I suddenly let go of those negative feelings I'd been holding and let myself feel like I was happy again.
"You mean her parent's account?" Christian tried. Legal litigations had wrapped Lissa's money up into one account. She received an allowance of sorts, but now she was able to take care of her own fortune.
I shook my head. "No. Lissa is eighteen now, remember? She has the full rights over the Dragomir fortune and estate. It's all hers."
"Yeah? So, I'm dating a millionaire."
"That's not my point. If Lissa has control over it, she can stop the funds from being transferred."
"That's a little rude, don't you think?" Christian asked.
"When the hell did you find morals?" I looked at him in mild surprise. "I mean to say that if she can stop the money from going into that account, then she can also find out details about the account, right? She deserves to know where half a million dollars of her money is going every year."
"So then we have to get Lissa to talk to whoever previously controlled the estate. She must have a lawyer of something who controlled her finances, right?"
I nodded. I had read the name of that person in the papers somewhere. "Yeah. Damon Tarus."
Christian sucked in a breath. "I don't like that man."
"Do you even know him?" I almost laughed. Christian gave me a look that suggested he knew him a lot better than I might think.
"He was supposed to control my parent's money. His job was to keep it locked up in the account and preside over my annuities until I turned eighteen. Instead of getting me my money, he kept it locked up until I turned eighteen. All that time I lived off of Aunt Tasha's income. I don't think the amount I have now is the full amount I should have."
I sighed. "Wonderful. We need to get that information from him."
"We'll have Lissa do it. Like you said, she has a right to know."
"I can't tell Lissa until I know for sure. Christian, this is going to hurt her. She would have never figured her father would have done something like this." Hell, even I never would have imagined he would have a child with another woman.
"If we don't tell her, how are we going to get that information? Tarus won't just give it to us."
"I guess we're going to have to get crafty."
A/N: A short, boring chapter. But it was crucial information that they had to get one way or another. I meant to post last night and the internet wasn't working, so you might possibly get another chapter later tonight. Thank you so much. I checked my reviews on my phone while I was waiting for Eclipse (I'm such a dork) and I nearly died of laughter...and excitement! I appreciate all that you guys do and you make my day so entertaining. =] I Lovelovelove you guys.