5. Michaela #2
“Even though Uncle Ian was dying to expose her as the lying and cheating piece of shit she is, he didn’t feel it was the kind of conversation to have over the phone. He wanted to tell me face-to-face.”
“Did you confront her when she got back from San Diego?”
“I didn’t.”
“Why not? She’s a cheater.”
His green eyes turn stone cold. “She’s far more than that.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You know the saying, when it rains, it pours ––”
“She was cheating on you with several men?”
“That wouldn’t have been as scandalous as what she did.”
“Please don’t tell me she fired staff without your knowledge.”
“Thana was embezzling money from the hotel.”
My mouth drops open and my eyes bulge out of my skull.
His loaded words are the equivalent of being pushed off the roof of a New York City skyscraper.
I pick up my jaw from the floor. “Wh—what?”
“She was skimming money from me and lying to my face,” Daddy says.
Hearing it a second time doesn’t soften the blow. “How?”
“She had access to all the accounts and she had signing authority. Unknowingly, I had handed a coldhearted thief everything I owned on a silver platter. And the bitch took full advantage of it.”
My eyes widen in shock. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m as serious as a heart attack?—”
“Daddy, don’t say things like that. That kind of talk frightens me.”
“Sorry, ladybug, it’s a figure of speech.”
“In your case, it isn’t.”
“You’re right. To answer your question, no, I’m not kidding.
Since Thana took over running the hotel after my heart attack, she had her filthy tentacles everywhere.
By the time I recuperated and I was strong enough to get back to work, she had a nice little setup that allowed her to skim money from me practically undetected. She was good at covering her tracks.”
“How did you find out?”
“It turns out her cheating on me—and wanting to spend time with her lover—was a blessing in disguise.”
“That doesn’t even make sense. How can a cheating wife be a blessing?”
“After Uncle Ian left my office, it was a struggle to contain my rage and conduct business as usual. When I managed to regain my composure and lose myself in work, I received a phone call that unraveled my world.”
“Who called you?”
“A new bank manager was assigned to our account,” he says.
“I thought it was a courtesy call, but it wasn’t.
He was calling to inform me I was overdrawn on the business account and I wouldn’t be able to cover the employees’ direct deposit wages and pre-authorize payments to vendors.
I argued and told him he was mistaken. I explained I had deposited money on the previous Friday.
He told me a large sum had been transferred that morning to a foreign account.
I practically laughed in his face. He stood his ground, stating he was looking at the transaction on his screen.
Everything in my body was tingling. I requested an urgent meeting. ”
“And?”
“I came back from the bank confused and angry. Things weren’t adding up.
I confessed everything to Ian, and he suggested I hire an investigator.
That was two strikes against my wife, and he felt it was important to find out what other skeletons were hiding in her closet.
Demanding an explanation from Thana was pointless.
No way was she going to be forthcoming about the discrepancies in our bank accounts.
I needed ammunition before confronting her. ”
“Private investigators are expensive. I thought the hotel was on shaky ground?”
“Ian fronted me the money,” Daddy says.
Uncle Ian manages all the computer technicians and the team responsible for preventing hackers from stealing students’ personal data at the NYU School of Law. No wonder he would know who to approach to secure the services of a reputable PI.
“Thank God Uncle Ian was able to help.”
Daddy nods. “I’m not her only victim,” he says.
“No way.”
“The investigators tracked down three former employers she embezzled money from?—”
“Why didn’t those employers say anything when you called to check out her references?”
“They’re all married men,” he says.
“So?”
“Thana manipulated them into having an affair, which she meticulously recorded as an insurance policy. She was blackmailing them. They paid her off to buy her silence. Since I was a widower, she used another tactic to steal from me.”
“What an evil witch.” I’m raging with anger. “She conned her way into our family.”
“She did, but I’m her last victim,” Daddy says.
“What do you mean by that?”
“By the time Thana came back from her little lovers’ getaway trip, the investigators had placed surveillance equipment in the hotel and at our house.
There were detectors on all the electronic devices—phones, laptops, and computers.
Extra cameras were installed in every blind spot of the hotel.
And, they requested access to our archive of surveillance footage.
My wife had no idea she was walking into a trap.
We were ready for Thana Annunziata to hang herself.
It didn’t take long for the truth to come out. ”
“What did they find out?”
I’m eager to know how the bitch duped my father.
“Hindsight is 20/20, but at the time, there was no reason for me to suspect my wife was backstabbing me. In her role as accountant, Thana had access to our bank statements, and she was the front person for our vendor relationships. Giving her more signing authority made sense—we were married. I trusted her. As I was getting back on my feet, I never changed the signing authority on our accounts. I didn’t think I had to.
According to the investigators’ findings, she started skimming money from the accounts while I was still in the hospital, recovering from the heart attack?—”
“What a lowlife.”
Daddy smirks and nods. “A little more digging revealed she was also faking vendor payments and pocketing the money.”
I let out a strangled grunt of anger.
Not that I condone violence, but right now, I want to fly back to New York and kill the bitch.
I rub a hand over my face and let out a long sigh.
“I know, I know.” My father’s dejected expression says it all. “Thana was cooking the books, falsifying data to hide her treachery and theft. Since I was on shaky ground, this was the kiss of death for the hotel. She stole a lot of money from us. A lot.”
“How could she?”
“I’ve asked myself that question a million times, ladybug. I’m so angry with myself for being so blind. I admit, things weren’t looking great, but her treason did me in.”
I knew the woman was two-faced, I didn’t know she was a criminal. “You’re going to press charges, right?”
“Without the investigation, I wouldn’t have enough proof. But there’s a mountain of evidence against her. I’m going all the way. I want Thana to pay.”
“I’m a hundred percent behind you. Is she still living at the house?”
“When she got back from San Diego, I pretended like nothing had changed until the investigation was wrapped up. Since we hadn’t been intimate in a while… it didn’t change much?—”
I lift a hand to stop him. “I don’t need to know that part, Daddy.”
“All that to say, it was a struggle to bite my tongue and not lash out at her, but I wasn’t going to do anything to cause her to become suspicious.”
“Please tell me you’re going to ask for a divorce?”
“I’m done with her. I served her with divorce papers this morning. I’m giving her until tomorrow night to pack her shit and get out of our lives.”
“Good for you.” I nod my approval. “You’re too good for her. She doesn’t deserve you.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Daddy says.
“I gather she didn’t take being served with divorce papers well.”
“She came barging into my office, livid. She had the audacity to deny her wrongdoings. I promised myself I would keep my cool, but I lost it and it turned into World War III. That’s why you couldn’t get a hold of either of us this morning.
When Thana started throwing lamps, chairs, and whatever she could get her hands on at me, my executive assistant called the police.
I’m glad she did. God knows how things would’ve turned out. We were both so angry.”
“At least it’s over,” I say. The news of my father kicking Thana to the curb and out of his life should make me want to celebrate. However, Daddy shared so much heavy stuff, it’s impossible to rejoice. “That’s why you said earlier it was the two of us against the world again.”
“There’s more.”
That’s not the answer I expected. “Daddy, your cheater of a wife was stealing money from you. How can there be more?”
My father considers me for a long beat. “This is… pretty bad, ladybug.”
“Daddy, you’re scaring me. Whatever it is, tell me.”
“You know I’m behind this morning’s PR stunt.”
“You’ve already confessed that much.”
“But you don’t know why I did it.”
“You’re going to tell, right?”
“We no longer own the Villiers Grand.”
Everything pointed to it, Phoenix alluded to it, and although not yet mentioned, it was implied in the conversation. Still, hearing my father say it without sugar coating it is like having my heart pierced by an arrow.
“Phoenix Konig was willing to buy the hotel as is,” Daddy says.
“As it stood, I would’ve had to put in money I didn’t have to get it up to par to secure the most from the sale.
” He falls silent. “Phoenix is the only buyer I approached who was willing to accept all my terms––even the most outrageous ones.” Another pause.
“It may seem like I sold you to a powerful billionaire to save the hotel, but I have my reasons?—”
“I’m not marrying that man. He’s a complete stranger. How could you, Daddy? This isn’t the early nineteen hundreds.” The floodgates open. “You can’t marry me off like that. I’m not a commodity. How come I don’t have a say in this? Why would you do that to me? Is it that you don’t love me?”
“I love you with every piece of me, ladybug. I did this for you?—”
“No. Just no.” I shake my head.
“It’s the only way, ladybug.”
“I am not marrying Phoenix Konig,” I say through clenched teeth like a pissed off three-year-old.
“Listen to me, Michaela.” The sudden edge in Daddy’s voice causes my head to jerk back.
“Phoenix agreed to one of my particular demands—one I was willing to die for to ensure it was part of the deal. If you back out, nothing—and I mean, nothing—will save the Villiers Grand. We can’t do that to Mom. ”
Good Lord. My father has never guilt tripped me before today.