Heart of the Country Read Online Free PDF

each other like a book. And I saw it flash across his face, so fast that had I blinked, I would have missed it. His eye twitched and his lips quivered and then he maintained his expression with such force that I held my breath.
    “Why do you ask?” He poured more wine even though his glass was nearly full.
    I let out a breath. “I was having lunch with Rachel Cohen, and she started   —”
    “What does Rachel Cohen know about a Ponzi scheme?”
    What did Faith Carraday know about one either?
    I kept my voice even-toned. “It’s just that Howard said something to her about the Michov Brothers being Ponzi .”
    “Howard said that?” Luke’s face flushed. He set down his wineglass. “Howard is an idiot! He sells one tech venture, andsuddenly he’s Warren Buffett.” He got off the bed, loosened his tie. “Tell Rachel to keep her mouth shut. Tell her that talk like that can kill a stock on the Street.”
    “I was just asking,” I said, watching him walk to the bathroom. He shut the door. “What is wrong with you?” I yelled.
    It was quiet, and a few moments later, Luke opened the door and sat next to me on the bed.
    “I was just asking.” My voice quivered and I hated it. I looked away.
    “I’m sorry.” He patted my hand. “Look, a Ponzi scheme is when a fund like ours takes the money from new investors and uses it to pay off existing investors’ returns on investments. It gives the illusion of profit when there isn’t any.”
    “Like musical chairs.”
    “Yeah. And it works great until the music stops.”
    “It’s illegal, right?”
    “Very.”
    “Luke,” I said, touching his arm. Tears rushed to my eyes just talking about it.
    “Baby, listen to me. Michov is not a Ponzi scheme.”
    “Swear?”
    “I promise.”
    I laid my head against his chest and felt his breathing. His heart was racing, but even so, I knew he was telling the truth.

6
    LUKE
    T HE AIRY, OPEN CAFÉ typically caused me to lose focus on work, which was good. Faith and I met here, often just the two of us, to get away from it all, even though the vastness of the city loomed everywhere we looked. But today, Maria wanted us to meet her new and slightly older boyfriend, Walter, who seemed to thoroughly unimpress her, so I wasn’t sure why we were here.
    “So . . . are you gonna take it?” Maria twirled her fork over a pasta and shrimp lunch, batting her false eyelashes at everyone but Walter.
    “I don’t know,” Faith sighed, glancing at me for my reaction. I just smiled, tried to seem engaged. “It’s a way bigger mortgage. But it is amazing!”
    “You have to take it!” She jabbed her fork in my direction. “You hear that, moneybags? Buy this place for your wife.”
    “And her best friend,” Faith laughed.
    “Oh yeah, you know I’d be hanging out there all the time.”
    “You hang out at our current home all the time anyway,” I chided.
    “It’s her dream home,” Maria said.
    “Hey, don’t look at me. I say we do it.” I looked at my food, losing my appetite by the second. My mind was engrossed with a run-in I’d had with Jake, a run-in that was haunting me more and more.
    Walter chimed in, “Not like prices are dropping in the Village, you know?” He threw his napkin on the table. “I’ll be back.” He pecked Maria on the cheek.
    Faith whispered, “I like him.”
    “Walter? Oh, please. He’s gone as soon as he picks up this lunch.”
    The conversation continued about Maria’s inability to keep a boyfriend for more than one season, but my thoughts disappeared into a noisy benefit party where I’d run into Jake a few weeks before.
    I’d just left Faith standing before that hideous yellow painting that she’d somehow found the beauty in, and was squeezing and slipping my way through a crowd toward Mitchell Wellington. He was tall, so easy to track in the packed room. Paunchy but well dressed, except his hair shone with oil like it was on a beach trying to get a tan.
    “Hey there, little