“Fuckin’ hell.”
Chapter Eighteen
I know I should feel relieved that I’d told someone, finally for the first time since I left, I’d opened the flood gates and told one person what was going on. I searched for relief but didn’t find it, I felt on edge because my natural conditioning was to hide it. I’d experienced every emotion over the years, a freak growing up in a class because academics were so easy it was boring. When my teachers wanted to accelerate my learning my father refused, he made it very clear that our family did not need that special attention or unwelcome spotlight. I remember being seriously disappointed, this was something I could do and I wasn’t being allowed. My brothers had football and baseball and were allowed friends and the one thing I could do and enjoyed, learning and taking on knowledge, I wasn’t allowed.
It wasn’t a challenge to ace my way into college, I was encouraged to apply for the best places available and finally when I thought I’d be able to have some freedom and find my place in the world, have a life, I was stopped. My father wouldn’t entertain the thought of me socializing, living life like a normal girl and God forbid I should even consider a life that included boys or dating.
So there went that dream and glimmer of hope, I wasn’t going to get the typical college experience, it was one of things that I absolutely went nuts about and in an effort to appease me, my father stipulated his conditions. I was to live in a private home, alone, surrounded by guards, using an approved driver, attending pre-approved social events and I’d have a bodyguard enrolled in the same classes escorting me everywhere. That was certainly no dream, more like another nightmare and there was no way in hell, I was living my life with henchmen and shadows following me.
My role as the family accountant came about by accident and it was then that I realized my father never really understood the full extent of my ability. My mother was partially gifted, but she only chose to use it at inopportune moments, the thought that I may be more talented scared the shit out of him. It was a real stretch for him to be forced to accept it.
The old guy, who I only knew as Uncle Morty, was around one day doing some work in my father’s office, things were getting heated and I chose the wrong moment to wander by with my lunch. “Antonia, get in here,” my father snapped, “even my fucking daughter can do simple math.” I wasn’t brave enough to deny him, so like a foot soldier I acquiesced to his command. “I want you to add that column up and tell me how much is missing.”
I did as he asked, but at the same time glanced at the previous page in the ledger, the page my father was all worked up over was fine. “There’s nothing wrong with those numbers,” I told him and Uncle Morty smiled at me. “It’s those on that page you need to be concerned about,” that pretty much wiped the smile off Uncle Morty’s face and in its place was a look of horror.
“Explain. Now,” my father ordered in a manner I was used to. It was calm and controlled and it signified that he was building up to something bigger, something more frightening.
“There’s an entry on November 15th for $750,000, if you add that to the amount entered on December 1st, the running total is incorrect. There is around $75.000 missing. All the numbers are then consistently out by $75.000 until they hit the page you’re concerned about. That page is fine, if, you’re happy that the starting point is right.” I turned and exited the room as quickly as possible, I was well aware that the mood had plummeted based on my statement. The last thing I heard was my father ask Uncle Morty why his math was so bad that his own fucking daughter could spot a mistake at a quick glance and that the missing money had best appear or be accounted for, like yesterday.
A week later my father decided it was time for me to give back to the family. I was presented with an office and boxes and boxes of ledgers, he wanted me to do a money audit, simply assure him that things were in order. When he left me in the room I wandered round taking things in, the boxes were dusty and dated back decades but all I could feel was elation. Overjoyed that I was finally being included. I had something to do, something that could show my father I could be part of our family and the life he shared with my brothers. For so long I’d felt like an outsider and for the first time, this was my chance to prove I was one of them and could belong.
I took on my challenge with vigorous energy and relished the command over my domain as I sat down and began at the very start of my father’s long reign over his empire. Over the next few weeks he would pop in and check I was OK and then once he was satisfied I was on board, he passed the management mantel to Guiseppe. Seeing my terrifying older brother appear in my office only spurred me on, I knew what he was capable of and I didn’t want to complain or argue. Luca, Vale and Leo called to see me, beside themselves that I was finally in the fold, whereas Mattia would come to spend time with me, eat his meals in my office or just hang out. There were times when he looked worried and would hint at what I was really getting myself involved with, but I was so soaked up and consumed by actually having something to do that I dismissed him.
At the end of the eighth week I was ready.
I’d been through every box and ledger twice and because I couldn’t believe what I had found, I made the rare decision to triple check with a calculator and mark out the discrepancies with sticky notes. Feeling extremely nervous, I knocked at my father’s office door located on the ground floor of our luxury mansion and told him I was ready to share my findings.
“Well Antonia, are things in order?”
“Not really,” I replied my nerves becoming completely frayed after just one question.
My father shouted in Bobby, his main body guard, who rushed to meet his request, “Get me Guiseppe now, I have a feeling he’ll need to hear this too.” That only made me more nervous, I’d seen what he was becoming and my big bad brother could switch off his emotions with a blink of his eyes. Getting it wrong would be disastrous for me, but also probably for Mattia.
“Antonia has finished the book audit,” he announced, his excitement became obvious when he started to rub his hands together. In that moment I knew he didn’t expect me to deliver bad news.
“This should be fun,” my brother mumbled, clearly he wasn’t a fan of me being involved, or he doubted my ability to rise to the task in hand.
“Uh… um… There are either some missing entries over the years or some missing money. The pattern is well hidden, easy to spot once you’re onto it though.”
“Must be if you’ve found it,” Guiseppe said with a distinct lack of faith in my ability to add up numbers.
That really pissed me off. I may have been afraid of him, but I wasn’t a fan of him belittling me in front of our father. It would be impossible to build a relationship with him if he carried on doing that. So I threw caution to the wind and went for it, “By my reckoning we’re missing $17,357,262.”
“That had better be a joke, or better yet a bad fucking calculation on your part my girl,” my father snapped.
“No, absolutely not. I don’t make errors and I can show you an evidence trail.”
“Get me those fucking books now,” Guiseppe said with a chilling edge to his voice. I wasn’t sure exactly when it had happened, but in that moment I realized he was an exact replica of my father. Just remove thirty years, graying hair and a belly made from over indulging on rich food and we could be looking at twins.
I flew back to the office I’d been using and gathered the ledgers, I knew I had to make my point and fast. Before I re-entered the room I heard them arguing about me. My father has been convinced all along he was missing money, whereas Guiseppe was just as convinced that I was the problem and involving a female to investigate in the first place was ludicrous. The heated discussion didn’t calm down as I entered and it seemed to be centered on my joining the family business, simply put, he didn’t trust me. To expose themselves to someone who didn’t understand the nuances of how they made their fortune was apparently insane.
“So, it starts here,” I began, bringing for
ward the oldest ledger where the pattern started. “The money only disappears if the amount being entered is over a set amount, almost like a trigger and it always vanishes around the same time of the month. The master ledger which consolidates all of the regional ones is scruffy enough that you wouldn’t pick it up without examining the whole picture,” I carry on flipping pages between the master and the regionals. “It looks like there is no pattern until you take the calendar into consideration. The date of the money disappearing rotates regularly and works through the different week days. Because the monies coming in are so huge, these ones disappearing are considered small, so small that if I was only scanning really quickly I could pass them off as an outgoing business expense, or something similar.”
I can see Guiseppe posture change, he is starting to get more interested, and he’s leaning forward and listening rabidly. My father on the other hand is now pacing in front of me, stopping when I need to point something out to him or ask a question, “And why aren’t they outgoing expenses?”
“There are no receipts for them, no accounting notes to explain the differences and the money trail always seems to change in the same manner after a sundry expense entry, if the missing amount was an outgoing expense, you’d just include them in that calculation.”
“OK, so we’re missing money, quite a bit of fucking money. Where the fuck is it?” Guiseppe asks, pinpointing me with a glare.
“I’d guess two people are involved. Whoever runs the Florida region and Uncle Morty.”
“Be very careful now Antonia, your Uncle Morty has been our family accountant for over twenty five years, he’s like my brother.”
My father was at the end of his patience, this was obvious, but I’d started so I may as well finish, “OK, I’ll amend that, he’s either complicit or complacent and neither are qualities you want in an accountant. I mean it, he’s either taking your money or not watching it close enough and the guy in Florida is pulling the wool over his eyes. Based on his reaction last time I found an error in the books I’d say he’s in on it.”
The room temperature dropped, becoming uncomfortably chilly and I watched as a number of looks passed between my father and his protégé. I can sense hidden messages travelling between them, they do not feel right and my brain is conjuring up so much stuff it’s making me worry and quake with fear where I stand. This is not good. “I’m sure I could be more certain if I had access to their finance stuff, like bank details or IRS returns,” I offer.
“No need for that, we have some people on payroll who can get us that,” my father replies and then nods at Guiseppe for him to proceed with that task. “Antonia, that will be all for now, thank you for helping out, I’ll make some arrangements for Bobby to take you on a shopping spree, treat yourself.”
“Um…” was that it? Was I being dismissed? Apparently so. My father walked out and instructed Bobby to move the ledgers and boxes from my temporary office back to storage. In the space of half an hour I’d gone from being a part of things, to being the little princess again that came out for family functions and fund raisers only. Once again, I was the disgraced child with a condition that needed to be hidden.
A month passed and I slipped back into the mundane standard of boredom and depression although my brain had something else to think about now, numbers. A whole heap of numbers, spinning around in the form or business accounts, money amounts and transaction details. My head had loved the work out it got from doing the audit for my father and just as I’d worked up the courage to see if I could do something else, anything else, I was summonsed.
When I got into his office, my father was sat looking pensive in the chair behind his desk, Uncle Morty was opposite him and Guiseppe was leaning against the wall in the corner. “Ah good, you’re here now, let’s begin,” he stated formally. “Firstly, Morton, I love you like a brother, like the same blood runs through our veins, you’ve been at my side from the beginning and there have been times when your counsel was invaluable.”
“Brother, I feel the same,” Uncle Morty replied fondly.
“That said, you’ve stolen from me. You made that decision and you’ve abused my trust. You got involved in dealings I would have resolved for you, had you trusted me enough to tell me.”
Uncle Morty didn’t look so well anymore, his face was going a funny color, all pale and sullen. Sweat beads were forming on his brow. “No, wait…”
“I will never forgive you for that.” My brother moved and stood behind him as he finished, whatever he intended to do wasn’t making Uncle Morty feel any more at ease. “No one, no one ever fucking steals from me or tries to go up against me. You do not cross me. The fact that you have managed it for over a decade means I’ve misunderstood your loyalty to me as a brother and to my family.”
“Franc,” Uncle Morty began.
“The fact that I’ve missed what you’ve been up to sickens me to my gut. The times when you stood by my side and under my fucking roof and pretended to feel love for me, when all along you’ve been betraying my trust. Never again, do you hear me? Never again will that shit happen. Your actions have driven me to take measures.”
“Franc,” he muttered, this time resigned to a fate that everyone in the room understood except me.
“Do. Not. Speak!” My father roared so loud that I jumped. Guiseppe was getting closer to Uncle Morty and I was starting to feel queasy. “It seems that I can really only trust my family and because of your behavior I’ve had to bring my princess into this life, the life that cost me my wife. My fucking beautiful girl. The one person that this life should never touch. Your actions mean she now has to live this life, brother.” I had no idea what that meant but these words seem to be causing him physical pain. “Your actions mean that Lucky is finished in Miami and when I say finished, I mean out to grass in a way he’s never going to recover.”
“No Franc, he has a family,” Uncle Morty whispered holding his head in his hands.
“You did that. You put his family in that position you greedy motherfucker. His wife and kids will be visiting him in that place until he recovers… or not. That, brother, is on you.”
“Let… let me make it up to you, we can work this out. I made a mistake when I was under pressure Frankie.”
“No. We’re done. Guiseppe…” My brother finally stepped into play and Uncle Morty collapsed to the ground sobbing. I didn’t like what I saw, but I was too terrified to intervene. I could tell my father was upset and hurt, he and Morton Foakes had grown up together, he was my father’s groomsman and a godfather to us all. He was so deeply disappointed and I’d never seen this side of him, I had no idea what to say.
“You needed to see that Antonia, you needed to see what hurt and betrayal feels like. Morty under estimated you, if he had even the slightest idea that you had uncovered his activities he would have run after the last time we spoke. His biggest mistake however, was under estimating me. Do not do that, do not under estimate my reaction to betrayal and never be blinded by love.”
“Yes father,” I knew there was a lesson I should be learning here but my mind refused to piece it together, it couldn’t get past the dead look in my brother’s eyes and the sight of a grown man on his knees begging for his life.
“You’ve proved yourself to me and as much as Guiseppe is against it, you’re joining the family business. My contact in the IRS assures me your book keeping and forensic accounting is spot on. Morty has given me some trust issues, which means you’re up. You are now running our books, doing our finances and our accounts, the whole fucking kit and caboodle.”
“Really?”
“Luca, Valentino and Leonardo will bring you all the books from the businesses. Mattia will be on hand to help you with whatever you need, although he’s got other tasks to keep him busy. You’ll report into Guiseppe on the master ledger. I want you checking the validity of all the regional business ledgers before you roll up the financials to the master. You will present the master accounts on request to your brothe
r and me once a month. If you come across something that can’t wait, you report it to him immediately. You will be paid a wage and like the others join the family bonus scheme and as such you will be as accountable as the family in the event of bad times. Do you understand?”
“I think so.”
“No. Thinking so is not good enough. Yes or no Antonia? One day all this will be Guiseppe’s and your chance to impress is now. This is your last chance to walk away.”
“I’m in.” I didn’t even think about it.
My father walked forward and took me in his arms, “My beautiful girl, joining the business. Please understand your importance. The information you will learn is as vital to our survival as it is to our demise. Do not put me or your brother in a position where we regret this decision and ultimately have to take action we’d rather not.”
Holy shit, I knew what that meant. “I won’t father, I’ll make you proud of me. I promise.”
When Guiseppe returned later that night, he stopped by my room and formally expressed his discontent with the decision made by our father. He was troubled, I knew that he’d dealt with Morty’s punishment himself, it was a lesson he needed to meter out in person. For everyone’s sake they needed to see the evil that my brother was capable of.
“I know he thought you could walk away, after that one job and not be involved now, not be a threat. But you forget I know what you’re really capable of,” he told me.
“Know what?”
“You were already in too deep the first time you laid your pretty eyes on those pages. You’d already seen too much. Your skill or fucking gift has always been a blessing Toni, but fuck, right now it is your curse. You couldn’t walk away from this even if you wanted to. I suspect you already know this.”
“Guiseppe…” I was going to try and convince him that I wanted this. I finally had some purpose and grounding to connect with my family.
“Please Antonia, don’t put me in a position where I have to do something else that sends me to hell. I beg you.” He was disheveled and had been drinking a little as he wiped his hands over the growth of whiskers on his chin. I couldn’t answer him, it was all I could do to pull my emotions together enough to nod in agreement, my brother looked lost, but a lot like the boy I remember.
Survivor (The Soul Mates Series Book 1) Page 10
