Holly
Holly rubbed her forehead as she stared at her bank statement. None of it made sense. She prided herself on balancing her checkbook every month, both her personal one and the one for the business, but this month, there were charges she hadn’t accounted for. Had she just been so busy with the wedding that she’d forgotten to document them? It didn’t seem likely, but she didn’t have another answer.
She scrolled back to the top and focused on all the charges this time instead of just the ones she’d forgotten to mark, and that’s when she saw it. Two gas charges in the same week. Courage was a small town and Holly didn’t leave it much. She rarely had to fill up more than once a month with her economical car. So why were there two charges so close together? It had to be a mistake with the bank. Then a second withdrawal caught her eye. She never withdrew money more than once a month. At the start of every month, she would take out her “fun” money — two hundred dollars that she could spend each month guilt free. Everything else was paid with a card or check so she could track it. Usually, the money went to manicures or hair appointments, but occasionally coffee and books won out. But she never pulled it out more than once. Yet there were two withdrawals this month, and the second one was for way more than two hundred dollars. Had she had to pay cash for anything related to the wedding? She didn’t think so.
Holly pulled out her phone and dialed the bank. It had to be some sort of operator error. When she reached a human on the other end, she explained her situation, but the woman insisted that the charges were not a mistake and had been made with her card.
“It’s not possible. I only withdrew money once.”
“Do you still have the card?” the woman asked.
Holly opened her purse and fished out the wallet. “Yes, the card is inside. It hasn’t been stolen.”
“Is there any possibility you gave someone permission to use the card and simply forgot?” the woman asked. Her tone was polite, but it irritated Holly nonetheless.
“No, I did not give anyone my card to purchase anything. I don’t know who would even have access to it.” Though she realized she did leave her purse in the office while she worked. She didn’t want to think it was possible, but an employee could have come in, taken it, used it, and returned it without her noticing most days. But that made no sense because not only did she screen her employees but none of them would know her pin code.
“Well, we do have a camera on the ATM,” the woman said. “You can come see the videotape and see if it helps.” Clearly the woman thought she was crazy, but that was exactly what Holly planned to do.
“I’ll be right there.”
Ten minutes later, she walked into the bank and toward the customer service desk the woman on the phone had informed her to check in at. After explaining her situation, the woman nodded and led the way to a private office.
“Mr. Jenson, this is Ms. Bingman who called earlier. She’s here to see the ATM video.”
“Ah, yes, come on in.” Mr. Jenson was an older man with silver hair and a sharp nose. He extended a hand to shake Holly’s and then pointed to one of the seats across his desk. “We did pull up the video of the withdrawals using your card. One, is definitely of you, but the other,” he shrugged, “perhaps you can help us figure out who it is.”
He turned his screen so Holly could see the video and then hit play. A barrage of emotions flooded her as she watched the transaction occur on the screen. Shock, denial, anger, sadness. They came so quickly that she could barely keep up with them all.
“I can tell from your face that you recognize this person.”
Holly nodded. “But I didn’t give him permission to use my card.” She couldn’t remember even giving him her passcode, but then she remembered a day about a month ago when they’d stopped at the ATM on the way home so she could deposit some money. He’d been driving, so she’d given him the code so she didn’t have to go inside. She’d never imagined something like this could happen.
“If he had access to your card, I’m afraid there is little we can do, but you could probably press charges with the police.”
“Thank you. I’ll think about it.”
Holly left the bank in a daze. How could she have been so wrong about him? She felt stupid and used. Why would he steal from her after everything she’d done for him? Money. Everything boiled down to money. He’d feigned not having access to any, even asking for a job when he decided to stay in town, and she’d given him one. She had paid him a salary and let him keep tips while he’d been taking her cards and stealing her money. And she’d paid for everything for the wedding.
The wedding? What on earth was she going to do about that? She couldn’t marry him now, but she was going to lose all of the deposit money she’d put down. Maybe if she explained what happened, they would have pity on her and at least give her some of it back. Or maybe…
Her eyes fell to the ring on her finger. Was it even real? It certainly sparkled like it was, but Holly hadn’t had it appraised. Perhaps it was time to do that. If it was real, then maybe she could sell it to recoup some of the costs, but if it wasn’t, it was one more piece she would have in her arsenal when she decided to confront Frederick.
Hot tears burned in her eyes as she drove toward the jewelers, and she blinked to keep them at bay. She would not cry now, not until after she gave Frederick a piece of her mind. Then she could curl up with a pint of ice cream and let the salty tears fall. Normally, she didn’t like being ruled by emotions, but she let the anger burning inside her grow into a hot rage. It kept the tears at bay and gave her the strength to do what was needed to see just how far this deception went.
The jewelry shop was quiet when she entered, and Holly breathed a small sigh of relief. She was a roller coaster of emotions, and she was afraid she might break down or have an outburst if too many people even looked at her right now. She took a deep breath and hoped for a normal voice as she approached the older man who was cleaning jewelry behind the counter.
“Hi, I’m hoping you can help me. This is probably going to sound silly, but I was given a ring and I was hoping you could tell me about the diamond.” She held the ring out to him, hoping he wouldn’t ask for more information.
“Sure, I can take a quick look.” He took the ring and put on a pair of glasses with some weird black attachment. Then he held the ring up and turned it left and right. “Hmm, well the first thing I can tell you is that this isn’t a real diamond.” He lifted the glasses and handed the ring back. “I hope it wasn’t considered a family heirloom or anything because it isn’t worth much, sadly.”
Holly tried to hide her disappointment though deep down she’d suspected. She’d paid for so much believing his excuse that he’d been saving money to buy her a ring, but she’d been duped and it stung. “No, I don’t think so. Thank you so much.”
She didn’t bother to put the ring on her finger as she left. The engagement was over. She fired off a text to Frederick telling him she needed to see him and then headed to the office to begin the arduous task of calling all the vendors for the wedding and canceling them.
Holly pulled into the back parking lot when she arrived to avoid seeing any of her staff. She knew they would ask her what was wrong, and she couldn’t answer at the moment. The phone calls, as much as she was dreading them, had to come first. With a sigh, she pulled up the name and number of the first vendor and picked up the phone. Her fingers felt heavy and clunky as she punched in the buttons.
“Hi, this is Holly Bingman, and I need to cancel a booking.”
When the calls were finished, Holly dropped her head into her hands. The tedious work was done, and thankfully many of the vendors were acquaintances who not only offered their condolences but part of her deposit back as well when she gave them an abbreviated explanation for the cancellations. Still, she could feel her body wanting to succumb to the sadness, but it wasn’t time yet. Not until after she kicked Frederick to the curb. She should check her phone to see if he’d responded to her message, but she couldn’t bring herself to care enough to.
A knock sounded at the office door and she glanced up expecting to see Frederick. Instead, she saw the concerned look of her assistant manager, Ashley Carmichael. Holly’s stomach clenched. If Ashley was wanting to talk to her, it couldn’t be good.
Ashley had shown up just after Merribeth’s wedding a few years ago. She was smart, talented, and had taken a lot of the restaurant load off Holly’s shoulders which allowed her to have more evenings free and also pick up more catering jobs. Ashley had also been helping balance the books for the past several months. Holly had no intention of retiring yet, but when she did, she hoped to leave the restaurant in Ashley’s very capable hands.
“What’s wrong?” Holly could tell it was more bad news but there was no use avoiding the question. Besides, bad things tended to happen in threes. She was due at least two more hits before things started looking up again.
Ashley sighed and sat in the chair across from her. “Nothing good.” She opened up the laptop she’d been carrying.
“It’s already been a pretty crappy day,” Holly said, massaging the worry lines that were etching deep creases in her forehead. “I’m not sure it could get much worse.”
Ashley’s lifted brow said otherwise. “So, I’ve been going over the point of sale information and we’ve got a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” The POS software was designed to catch inconsistencies that would normally go undetected. Gone were the days when employees pocketed a few dollars from the registers. Now, it was much easier for them to take extra money and without the proper tracking software, thefts would go virtually undetected.