To Die For by Miss Irene Clearmont

Book Details

To Die For – Daniel is in trouble. He is so close to making a fortune with his new computer app, but ‘so close’ is not enough. He owes money, he is on the financial brink and his wealthy wife is not going to help him. Money is her speciality and control is the other! Little does he realise that she is sidetracking one of his programmers, stifling him to leave him little choice but to start a scheme to claim on his life insurance and disappear.

For this he needs two people. One is a stranger to make his demise look real, the other is Jasmine, his wife, to cover up for him. The plan does not quite turn out as he expected, because Jasmine is in the driving seat and she has no intention of letting Daniel escape with a penny or his freedom! This is a woman who has designed an intricate scheme that will allow her to live the life she wants to lead.

An insurance policy, a husband who can be declared dead, a fraud that depends on the wife who no longer loves you and a programmer who has joined the wrong side. What could possibly go wrong?

Venture into the mind of a sadist and those that she controls. A journey to a world where everything is for her. Where she is all that there is. Where Jasmine is the goddess who walks her walk through the lives of others guiding, forcing and taking total control. This novel is all about taking control. Utter control. The sort of control that verges on horror…

Setting – UK & Greece

F/m, F/f, BDSM, Slavery, Petplay, Control, Grooming, Corporal, Humiliation.

Strength 9/10 – 41,000 Words

Written 2012 (The Stair) & 2016 (To Die For) Re-edit 2022

Excerpt: To Die For

Part One – The Plan

01 Uncoupled Couple

‘It’s really quite simple, you are bankrupt,’ said Jasmine as she leaned back in her chair. ‘Of course, legally speaking, you are not actually bankrupt until you file with Companies House, but in the next few weeks your loans will have to be renegotiated when the bank will call them in and at that point you will have no choice but to file for personal bankruptcy.’ Daniel sighed and made a small movement with his hands that symbolised resignation. ‘I should also remind you that you owe me eight thousand pounds as of this meeting and I would be grateful if you paid the bill before you make a move!

‘I just need another three months,’ said Daniel in a tired voice. ‘Is there no way that we can delay this until I can prove the concept?’

‘Two weeks at most…’

‘Shit!’

‘Look, this has been going on for a year now, Daniel,’ said the accountant as she opened the files in front of her and lifted the top sheet to slide it over to him. ‘The loans are a hundred thousand, give or take; outstanding bills are another fifty and that includes my fees. You have two thousand in the company accounts but owe another thirty in overdue invoices. The mortgage on your house is three hundred thousand and you have maybe another hundred thousand in capital locked up in the house. Of course there is the patent, that could be worth something…’

‘Jesus, I’m just a couple of months from being able to finish the software, that’s all I need.’

‘Daniel,’ said Jasmine. ‘Well over a year ago, I warned you that this was coming and you said the same then. It’ll be just a couple of months and then the work will be done. Admit it, the whole thing is just vapourware, you’ll never finish, it will always be just two months more.’ Daniel looked at the balance sheet, ran his finger down the line of figures and came to a stop at the final figure. Ninety thousand in debt… ‘You have to do this now, before it gets much worse. Find a programming job while there’s still a chance of sorting it all out. We can’t go on living like this, hanging off the edge of a cliff.’

‘If I have to sell the patent now, before I can prove that it works, I’ll get just pennies for it,’ said Daniel. ‘It’s worth millions, darling!’ He looked up at his wife and shrugged before pushing the balance sheet back to her. Wife and accountant, Jasmine sighed as she regarded her husband. Her failed husband…

‘You could buy the house, buy me out and then I can pay off the loan and then…’

Jasmine shook her head. ‘I have been so careful not to entangle this venture in my own finances,’ said Jasmine. ‘We agreed that this was your baby. Hire two programmers, test the algorithm, write the software to make it saleable and then sell the company. I am not even a director, I have no debt liability, that was the way that you wanted it!’

Daniel looked at his wife and shook his head slightly. Her reminiscences were not quite the same as his. She had insisted on not being part of the project and he had argued that she should share the risk, but Jasmine had just said ‘no’ in the end and that was that. ‘So what happens now?’ he asked.

‘You file the company as bankrupt and then you settle with the bank. As director you will have a personal liability which you will pay off in the next few years and then it will all be straightened out.’

‘And the house?’

‘Sell it!’

‘Jesus, darling, how can you be so coldblooded about this? We sell my home, I go bankrupt and all the while you are sitting on a whole pile of money. You even have a house that you’re renting out. You could buy the house for a good price from me and rent it back or something. Whatever happened to ‘creative’ accounting?’

‘You know that I’ve always hated the house we live in. There’s no way that I want to own it! I hate Wembley, I hate London, I want to buy in Suffolk or Surrey, not in the suburbs.’

Daniel looked over at his wife and felt a rising tantrum in his mind. This was his dream, the realisation of years of work, the fulfilment of everything that he wanted and she stood blocking him at every turn. Even demanding the payment of a bill that she could delay forever as the senior partner in her accountancy firm. Her voice became soft, ‘Darling, you have to face the fact that no matter what I do with my money, this whole wild goose chase is over. The software will never be finished; the company owes far more than it could ever possibly pay and you need to get a regular job, just like I have always argued.’

‘Maybe if we worked all the hours under the sun, in a couple of weeks we can have something to show the concept,’ he said. ‘Maybe a couple of weeks and then I can get some support from one of the giants…’

‘Google, Oracle and Microsoft?’ she laughed. ‘You won’t get anything from them. They are vultures; they’ll just copy what you’ve already done. They know that you can’t possibly take them to court for years and fight this out. That’s assuming that the whole idea is even worth anything at all…’

‘How long have I got?’

‘At most a couple of weeks. After that you will have to file, in fact, I will have to put up a warning flag, I cannot afford to risk my charter. I’ll not have you dragging me down with you!’

‘You would do that? To me?’

‘Darling, it’s business. When you gave me the accounts, that’s what you signed up for!’

‘Doesn’t our marriage count for anything?’

Jasmine pulled the papers together and closed the folder. ‘Our marriage has nothing to do with this… but no, you’re right. It counts for nothing.’ Her tone was flat and uncompromising.

‘It does, we should be helping each other through problems, that was the vow ten years ago. It wasn’t ‘abandon ship when your husband needs help’!’

‘Don’t make this personal,’ said Jasmine. ‘I don’t.’ Daniel threw up his hands and reached over to pull the file to his side. Perhaps if he looked through it he might find something. ‘There’s nothing there but debt,’ said Jasmine. ‘If I were you I would wind up the office and then go to see the bank. They will have no hesitation in calling in the debt when it is due. All that you’ve been doing is to pay the interest, the capital sums come due in two weeks. You have until then…’

Jasmine stood and looked down at her husband. He was so naïve, a fool really. She wondered why she had married him. What had she seen in him all those years ago? A weakling and an over spender! ‘Go back to the office, darling,’ she said, the word ‘darling’ no longer really relevant. ‘Speak to the two women that you hired and tell them that they’d better find other jobs. At least be honest with them, they deserve it.’

Daniel stood and looked from the window onto the streets far below. Her prestigious office in the City was just another slap in the face. He wondered just what her bank balance looked like and guessed that she probably had hundreds of thousands sitting doing nothing while he scratched for pennies.

How could he know that he was wrong by a factor of ten?

Excerpt from: To Die For