Chapter 5
“ That’s another thing that I wanted to say to you is that I don’t appreciate you hiring people to keep us out of your banking business.
What right do you think you have in doing things like that?
None, I can tell you. You’re our daughter, and you’ll do as I tell you when I tell you to do it.
” She’d answered the phone ten minutes ago, and her mother had never shut up once to even take a breath.
Finally, she was winding down, and it looked as if she might get to say something.
“ What do you have to say for yourself right now, young lady? I’m not happy, and you know what happens to you when I’m not happy.
I pull out my workers, and they take care of you. ”
“ Are you finished? You’ve been going on about stuff for the last ten minutes, and I’ve not been able to defend myself.
” Apparently, she wasn’t finished and asked her again about her goons.
She didn’t actually call them that, but she knew what she meant.
“ Trent and Sammy are really nice men. They’ve been doing a good job helping me stay out of your way for the last few days.
You should be happy I’m not around you right now.
I have a few things I’d like to talk to you about.
As for my goons. I wish I’d had them all along. ”
“ You ungrateful bitch.” Olivia couldn’t help it, she laughed. “ What the fuck do you find so funny? I’m not happy. Have I told you that? I want you to give me all your money right now before I have to find you and beat it out of you. You know that I will, too.”
“ What I know is that you’re pissed off because you can’t get me the way you want.
Has it occurred to you that it’s my money and I should be able to do with it as I see fit?
And let me clue you in on a little tidbit.
The plan is not giving it to you. So you can either give that up or find yourself in jail.
I’m not above calling my goons in to have you beaten up for trying to hurt me.
I’m sick of you thinking that since you gave birth to me, you own me.
” Her mother sputtered around for several moments.
“ I’m an adult and have been making adult decisions for a long time now.
And believe it or not, I don’t need or want your permission to do anything I do. ”
“ You’re going to regret this. See that you don’t.
” She told her mother that she regretted nothing and would go on saying that to her last breath.
“ Which might be coming sooner than you think. You ungrateful bitch. I’m going to enjoy seeing you get what’s coming to you.
And when you do, I’m going to laugh my ass off. ”
“ Well, I hope you get what’s coming to you as well, mother.
I’ll never be as happy as I am right now to see you get your comeuppance for all the things that you and dad have done to me.
” Her mother said that she was going to hang up.
“ You do that. I’m changing my phone number as soon as I get off the phone with you. ”
The line went dead, and she laid her phone on the table as gently as she could.
She wanted to toss it across the room and bust it, but she’d get a better deal on her new phone if she had one to trade in.
She had to keep telling herself that she was safe here at Zander’s home, and she liked the big house too.
“ Have you figured out what she wanted with your aunt?” She told him that her mother had done most of the talking and she’d never gotten a chance to see what they were plotting.
“ So you think that they’re plotting? I did wonder how they figured out where you were working.
You said that they didn’t know where you lived either. ”
“ No. Thank you for bringing me here. There is no telling what they would have done to follow me home last night. I slept better than I have in a long time, too.” He said that he’d gotten all new mattresses when he’d redone the rooms. “ It was a comfortable bed, and I appreciate you allowing me to stay here. I’ve never been so afraid of them as I am now.
Has the background check come back on Aunt Mae? I wonder if she even has any money.”
“ She doesn’t. As far as I can tell, she’s as broke as your parents, but she’s not in trouble yet with the law.
” She asked him what he meant by yet. “ She’s behind on her taxes as well.
Not as badly as your parents are, but she’s behind all the same.
Also, there are no houses that she owns, either.
That was a lie. I doubt very much she has a will made out.
I don’t find anywhere where she has an attorney that she can afford to do that. ”
“ The things that we’re finding out. I can’t believe that I’ve been so na?ve in thinking that she was on my side all this time.
And all along she’s been in with them from the start.
I guess I’m going to have to be more careful when I’m around them.
I certainly don’t want to be caught alone with them anymore.
They’re dangerous.” He said that they were stupid too for threatening her so publicly.
“ I do wonder at times why they had me. They never wanted me, nor did they, I think anyway, love me.”
“ We’ll get this figured out. And once we do, then we’ll be able to combat them with their own words.
What I mean is, we can use what they say to you against them and have them put away until their prehearing about their involvement in the money laundering deals that are supposed to be going on with them.
” She asked him if he thought they were involved.
“ Several days ago, if you’d asked me that, I would have said no.
But now? I have no idea. It sounds like something that they’d do. ”
“ I believe you’re right. They’ve been up to no good for all of my life, and I’m just now learning that they’re not the parents that I thought they were.
Or they are, and I’m just figuring out how bad they really are.
I’m glad you asked me to come here last night.
And thank you for not telling my aunt. I think her involvement with them is more than I thought.
She was just asking me where I lived when I spoke to you about not telling her.
She seemed put out about it, but I’m beginning not to care what any of them wants. ”
“ That’s probably the best way to handle them.
Just not be around them. But I want you to be careful when you’re out.
Trent and Sammy will continue to follow you around until they’re in jail or your aunt goes home.
I’m hoping that they all end up in jail, but I’m not prosecuting them.
You can bet that I’d make sure they were behind bars.
” She asked him what else he’d be doing to them.
“ Digging deeper into their lives. This non-payment of taxes has been going on for a long time, and it’s small wonder that they haven’t been caught until now.
I know nothing about the money laundering.
I can’t find anything about it on the internet or in the files at the courthouse.
Did you hear about it from them or from someone else?
If they are doing it, which I don’t see because they’re so stupid about money, then they have to be low on the process. ”
Last night, they’d talked about what her parents were into.
Every time money laundering was brought up, neither of them could understand how they made that work for them.
It didn’t seem to him that either of them seemed to understand how it worked, and Zander thought that with the deal that he’d heard of in other cases, they’d have more money than they do right now.
He had no doubt, either, that they’d be skimming money off the top and taking that too.
For all he knew, that’s what they were doing, but he just couldn’t see it happening.
But he didn’t have privy to all their files that were being held against them.
Olivia thought about how she’d gotten here last night.
It was as if she were some kind of spy and was being whisked away by a limo.
As soon as she clocked out, she went out the back door to the place and slid right into a slick black limo that was waiting for her.
Trent and Sammy knew where she was headed, but they stayed behind to look like they were waiting for her to come out.
Zander got a good laugh at the faces of her parents waiting in the lobby for her to come out with their goons, he told her.
She’d been brought to his house and set up in a bedroom that was very nice.
They’d had a lovely dinner together and talked about her family until bedtime.
And since she was off today, she didn’t even mind that she didn’t have much to wear after taking a shower.
“ Your new phone will be here by noon. It was cheaper to upgrade than it was to change your number. However, I have you on my plan now, and that will give us both a discount on them.” She was going to be careful who she gave her new number to.
Olivia thought it was sweet that Zander didn’t assume that she’d want him to have it.
He’d know it anyway on the bill, but she thought he was nice for saying that.
“ Your old one is charging in my office. I don’t know if it’s rang or not, I’ve turned it off.
But I thought if you’re anything like me, you don’t know the numbers of people in your phone.
I certainly don’t know anyone’s number.”