“Ms. Jeffries, your little sister screwed up.” I have always hated the way Kelsey calls me Ms. Jeffries. It’s a dig, not done out of respect. Kelsey Kane, the daughter of a former stripper and a rich guy with more money than sense. She is a spoiled brat who has zero empathy and doesn’t care about anyone but herself.
I’ve hated her since the moment I met her two years ago. But I never said a word to Bethany. Kelsey could be generous, when it suited her, like buying clothes for Bethany so she could have someone to go shopping with or covering dinner, so she had someone to eat with, and even the apartment they’re sharing. Bethany pays five hundred for rent and bills because all the costs are covered by Kelsey’s father.
“I understand that, Kelsey. I know she’s apologized and so will I. I’m sorry. Let’s not go around in circles here. What is it going to take for you to drop the threat of reporting it to the police?”
“A new car, the one I wanted. Fifty thousand dollars.” The little bitch was waiting for it—it’s clear as she spits it out.
I can’t stop the gasp; it feels like someone kicked me in the stomach. Is she fucking crazy, fifty thousand dollars? I don’t have fifty thousand dollars. Where the hell am I going to get that amount of money? My eyes search out the two windows on my screen, wondering how the hell I could make it happen.
“I’ll give you until Friday, or I go to the cops. I recorded Bethany apologizing and admitting she was drunk.” Any hope it was all a bluff, a sick joke to pay Bethany back for wanting to move out, is gone. Kelsey sounded malicious, she wanted to hear I couldn’t come up with the money.
“Tuesday, I need until Tuesday. I have a trade I need to make, the money won’t settle until Tuesday. I’ll have it wired to you by then.”
“Fine, Tuesday. No money, I go to the cops.”
I can hear Bethany crying in the background. Then she’s on the phone sobbing. “I’m sorry, Alicia. I’m so sorry. I only have about fifteen hundred dollars saved up. What are we going to do?”
“I’ll figure it out. I will handle this. Right now, I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.” I hang up as I fight the urge to scream. There’s no way. If I liquidated everything, there is just no fucking way I can do it. Even if I used every penny from my checking account and the savings account to make the trade, it wouldn’t net me enough.
Opening another account I don’t use often, I check the balance. It’s the old account my grandmother had, her name was on it. I had access to cash my checks when I was a teenager to pay her for my food and things Bethany would need, even though she was getting money from the state for our care. I’ve used it as an account to hide money from myself in case of emergencies, but there is only three thousand in it. I would need at least another twenty grand to make everything I would need from the trade, enough to pay the fifty thousand and put back the money in the savings accounts. I’m beyond screwed.
I take a deep breath. What if I did nothing? Let the clock run down on Kelsey and let Bethany deal with the fallout. The thought makes my heart ache. I know Kelsey will keep her word—someone has to pay for the anger and hurt she feels at Bethany saying she didn’t want to live with her anymore. I don’t have the slightest doubt Kelsey would be willing to burn down everything Bethany has worked so hard for, the dreams she’s had since she was only nine years and never wavered from once. Even when things got hard in high school, she spent hours after school getting the tutoring she needed. While I had been proud of her, I hated the way the goal consumed her so completely she missed out on the fun of being a teenager. She had few friends, and considered boys a waste of time.
Seeing how committed she was to the goal she had set for herself, I knew I had to do everything I could to support her. For me, there were no huge aspirations, not even as a young child. For so long all that mattered was keeping us fed, and safe. I didn’t have time for things like dreams and wishes—those were for others. But Bethany had them, and she deserved them. Not because of the way we grew up, but because those dreams weren’t about having a big house or a fancy car; they were to help others, to give the comfort and care she had received when she so badly needed it. No. I needed to figure this out.
To do something, I move the money into the trading account and make the buy of stock. It’s one of the few stocks that doesn’t swing and slide with the turmoil of the market. I do a rough calculation. Twenty-five thousand, I need twenty-five thousand, and I need it no later than tomorrow to deposit the money and make the trade before it does its thing.
Where the hell can I get twenty-five thousand dollars by tomorrow? I look at the icon of my bank but I’m already shaking my head, they’ll never approve a loan fast enough and not on me alone. How the hell have I lived in Chicago all these years and not know a loan shark? There are a few people I could ask if they knew a loan shark. I could ask Cesare for his uncle’s information. No, he’d think I was asking for him to save me.
An email comes through from Cesare requesting a phone number for a client. I click out of the windows I’m in and try to focus on what he’s asking for. It doesn’t take too long to get the information and send it to him. For a long minute I stare blindly at the screen, then the icon becomes bolder and bolder. No, don’t.
I focus my gaze on my email icon instead, except I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s an account for the purchase of company properties. The account is massive, it holds over six hundred and fifty million dollars, money comes in and out of it on a daily basis. Only five people have access to the account: Cesare, Dante, Hannah, Martin, the head of accounting, and me. Twenty-five thousand in and out would be a blip, it would probably go unnoticed. Out and right back in, right back in. A loan, that’s all.
Oh god, what the hell am I thinking? But I would put it right back. I swear, as soon as the money settled. I would only have it out for five days. If anyone noticed they would think it was a buy that fell through. Hell, actually the amount was so small it might be noticeable in how small it was. Stop it. If you borrow money from this company, it would change you from an employee to felon.
I’m going to give my notice at the end of next week on Friday. The money will be out and back by then. Would Cesare press charges if I simply borrowed it and had already quit? Am I willing to take the chance? Even as I’m shaking my head, I’m signing into the account. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Close the window and think of something else. Then I see it. The last entry is for a credit of twenty-five thousand dollars. It’s a sign. It’s a fucking sign. I take a deep breath.
12
Cesare
“Well, I hope you’re happy. You got your way,” Dante says as he slams into my office.
I sigh. Happy? What’s that emotion like again? Rubbing my eyes, I look up from the contract to find him wearing the carpet in front of my desk. He’s picking at the edge of the cast on his left wrist. “I’m not a mind reader. Care to explain what you’re bitching about now?”
“Alicia came into my office before she left today and gave her notice. Her two weeks’ notice. She says she already has her replacement in mind if I want her to select someone.”
The words slam into me like a freight train. Air, icy cold, fills my chest. I shake my head, trying to clear it. “What did she say?” I can barely form the words.
“All she said was she needed to leave, she appreciated me giving her a chance, but it wasn’t working out. She’s going back to that nothing job. After only six weeks it will be like she never left, but I’m not going to let her. I’ll find her something better.” He’s gone with another slam of my door.
With a few clicks I’m in Dante’s email. It’s there, the last email he received. She sent it twelve minutes ago, her formal two weeks’ notice. It’s professional, simple, not a hint of what had really driven her to quit. Me. How the fuck can it be what I’ve hoped she would do for so long, yet also the reason I’m hollow inside? After that day almost two weeks ago, holding her while she cried I have worked hard to not be an asshole to her. But I guess it was too little too late.
A long time later, my phone rings, pulling me out of my stupor. I see it’s Enzo. “Yeah.”
“Are you okay? Dante just told me, he’s asking me if I can find something for her in my company. He’s also getting wasted. Do you want me to put him in a cab and come see you?”
“I’m fine, watch him. Don’t let him take any of the painkillers the hospital gave him if he’s loaded.”