Highest Bidder

“I’m sorry honey, but I need to raise sixty thousand pounds by the day after tomorrow, or we’re going to be kicked out of here by the Bailiffs.”

My heart seized, realizing it was worse than I thought. “Sixty thousand pounds. Mom? How long has this been going on?”

“I just thought I’d deal with it later. I didn’t realize it was already a court matter. The court sent the order two weeks ago. I hoped I’d be able to gather enough before tomorrow, but …” She bit her lip, “I barely have eight thousand.”

My jaw dropped. While I’ve been mooning over Brent, my mother has had this axe hanging over her head. I had the money in the bank. I just needed to find a way to tell my mom about it. “Mom, Aunt Bethany is not going to lend you sixty thousand pounds.”

“If Bethany refuses me, we still have some of your father’s associates. Perhaps they’ll be able to chip in a little bit for us. Your father did a lot for them while he was alive. They owe us some help.” She patted my hand. “Don’t worry honey. I’ll handle it.”

She got up to walk away and the ache in my heart constricted my throat. “Mom?” I cried.

“Yes, darling”

“Don’t go anywhere!” I said, rising to my feet. “I’ll get you the money tomorrow.”

She looked at me blankly. “How?”

“I already have it.”

She sat down heavily. “You have that amount of money? Where did you get sixty thousand pounds from?”

I swallowed, and allowed the words to just flow out, “I got a job.”

“That pays you sixty thousand pounds?”

“Uh.” I couldn’t look her in the eyes. “It’s over a period. My course’s work placement begins in January so I asked them for a large advance, you know to help out. It’s more like a student loan. I have to pay it back, of course.” I knew I had started babbling so I snapped my mouth shut.

“And they’re willing to grant you the sixty thousand pounds?”

I didn’t blame her for her skepticism. I sounded like I was out of my mind. “It’s a chartered firm my professor recommended to me. He knows the partners personally so when I made the request today after explaining my situation, he promised to vouch for me. They’ve agreed to grant it to me to be repaid in installments at later dates.”

For the longest time, she was quiet, but Mom was never knowledgeable about finances, so I prayed with all of my heart that she would buy into it.

Then she leaned forward and hugged me tightly. For a while, we just held each other in silence then I felt my coat become damp with her tears. And that was the moment I knew for sure that I had done the right thing to sell my virginity at the club. No matter what happened between me and Brent—I had done right by my mother.

Freya

Five hours later, I was going mad with frustration as I sat in the customer service section of Barclays Bank pondering on what to do next. Over the last one-and-a-half hours I had been passed between departments in a bid to figure out why the hell my account had suddenly been frozen. Until now, no clear explanation had been given to me except some vague statements about investigations, standard procedures at sudden and unexpected transactions, and suspicions of those monies being linked to money laundering activities.

I had tried my best to avoid any involvement with Brent, I eventually had to pick up the phone to dial his number. I listened to it ring and prayed with all of my heart that he would respond.

He did.

“Brent,” I said swallowing my anxiety, “Barclays says that your bank will have to send a swift message confirming that the money you deposited is legal. Please contact them to get this sorted out.”

“Okay,” he said calmly, and ended the call.

A few minutes later, his call came through to relay disheartening news. “They can only do that if Barclays instigates a request. Hand the phone over to the staff in charge.”

I shot to my feet and went in search of help.

Brent got his call escalated to a manager. Her response was simple. She had no authority to intervene in the standard protocol put in place. I could hear Brent losing his temper. He asked her if that was the same procedure they used when they laundered the money of the drug cartels. She went stiff and doubled down on her insistence that there was nothing she could do. She was just a cog in the machinery. She infuriated him so much he cut the line. Red-faced she turned to me and said she would make enquiries and try to hurry the process along for me.

“I don’t have time. I need the money today or else I’m going to lose my home.”

“I apologize,” came her lifeless, uncaring response. “We are instructed by the government to flag down and thoroughly investigate any suspicions of fraudulent activity in our customer’s accounts. Once the investigation is over, your account may be restored if no issues arise, however if otherwise, other stringent resolutions will follow.”

I wanted to tear her skin off her body, but I managed to calm myself and walk out of the bank. Once I was on the bus, I shut my eyes and tried to figure out what to do. First, I called my mother to ensure that she had heeded my warning.

“Did you get the money, Freya?” she asked eagerly.

I hated to disappoint her. “Er … no, but I will.”