Rival Sisters

by Louise Guy

  The evasive conversation she’d had with Damien worried her, as did his behaviour during the last month. While he’d said that he was sad about his biological parents, Hannah was now wondering if there was more to it, or if that sadness had led him to look for an escape. An escape in the form of online poker.

  She powered up her laptop and opened their online banking accounts. She clicked on their savings account first, scrolling through the line items. There was nothing out of the ordinary. The credit card proved to be the same.

  She pulled open one of their drop files, looking for the investment accounts they held. She was pretty sure they required them both to sign to withdraw any money, and she really couldn’t imagine Damien forging her signature. But she needed to check. They had accounts with three different investment funds. She found the account details and logged in to each one. There was no unusual activity in any of them. All were slowly increasing in value, not at the speed high-risk funds might, but Hannah certainly wasn’t going to jeopardise their savings in high-risk ventures.

  The only other investment they had was the one Damien’s parents had given them on their wedding day. It had been left in Damien’s name with the plan to add Hannah’s once she’d legally changed her surname to Anderson. By the time she’d done that it hadn’t seemed like a priority to add her name. They’d earmarked that investment for Amy’s future and had chosen to leave it accumulating. Hannah checked it when she prepared their tax documents for the accountant each year. She hadn’t prepared the previous year’s accounts as yet, so hadn’t looked at the figure for over twelve months. She pulled out the drop file with the login details and opened a web browser. She keyed in the details and waited for the account balance to appear. When she’d done their taxes the previous year the account had close to thirty thousand dollars in it.

  She stared at the screen. The balance was just over eighteen thousand dollars. Hannah’s stomach churned as she clicked on the transaction history. A withdrawal had been made for fifteen thousand dollars two months ago. Interest of three thousand was the only other transaction for the year.

  She continued to stare at the screen. No wonder Damien was feeling down. She doubted his mood had anything to do with his adoptive parents at all. He’d told her outright that he played the free tables or the cheap ones and had only deposited a small amount of his winnings from one of the poker nights. So much for a friend was in trouble. When had he become such a good liar?

  She logged out of the account and returned the file to its drawer. She’d thought her problems with Zane Fox were bad, but this took things to a whole other level. Not only had her husband lost a substantial amount of their savings, but he’d also lied on numerous occasions directly to her face. At this stage, she wasn’t sure which was worse.

  Hannah operated on autopilot for the remainder of the week. Damien was working odd shifts and she’d barely seen him. She put her focus on getting Amy to school and getting through the workday. Her mind had been a jumble of thoughts on how to approach him over the gambling debt, and she’d worried endlessly about her meeting with Zane Fox. She’d arrived a few minutes early on Friday afternoon at the cafe in Doncaster, only to receive a text message from Zane saying he’d been delayed and would contact her to reschedule. She’d stared at her phone, not sure whether to be relieved or annoyed. By Saturday morning the one thing she’d concluded was that she needed some advice with the Damien situation.

  Late on Saturday afternoon, with Damien and Amy having taken Bear to Aranga Reserve dog park, as according to Amy he needed ‘socialising with other dogs’, Hannah used the opportunity to visit her father. She pushed open her car door and pulled her coat tightly around her as she stepped into the cold winter air. A welcome waft of smoke puffed from the Edwardian brick chimney, and she hurried up the driveway to the front door. She shook off the sense of disappointment when she saw that the hydrangeas were no longer in flower and many had been deadheaded. It was silly really, but they did evoke strong memories of her mother.

  She lifted her hand to ring the bell as the door opened – her father, dressed in a warm grey knit jumper, beamed at her.

  ‘What a nice surprise!’

  Hannah laughed. ‘Hardly a surprise. I did text you to let you know I was dropping in.’ She stepped in out of the cold, the warmth of the house an instant comfort.

  ‘I know, love.’ Her father took her coat and hung it on the wooden coat stand next to the front door. ‘I meant it was a nice surprise to get your text. Come through. Sue’s in the kitchen, putting a little snack together for us.’

  He led her through to the kitchen, where Sue was putting the finishing touches on a fruit and cheese platter. She looked up, a delighted smile spreading across her face. She was quick to round the kitchen island and draw Hannah into a hug. ‘How are you, hon?’

  Tears welled in Hannah’s eyes. A simple question had the potential to open the flood gates. She blinked back the tears and did her best to appear unflustered. ‘I’m good, thanks. How are you?’

  Sue released her from the hug and sighed. ‘Good, but things have been better. Your father and I have something we’d like to talk to you about too.’

  Hannah turned to her father. ‘Is everything okay?’

  ‘Let’s talk about us later; it’s nothing to worry about, just an idea we wanted to float by you. Now, how’s that dog of Amy’s going?’ He poured them each a glass of wine. ‘Have you sent it back yet? Sue and I have a bet going as to how long he’ll last.’

  Hannah smiled. ‘If either of you said he’ll be sent back then you’ve lost. It’s like he’s been part of the family for years. We’re lucky she went for one that was a few years old rather than a puppy. Bear is not only toilet trained, he’s been properly trained and is very obedient. Hasn’t even chewed a shoe. I don’t think Amy’s stopped smiling since her birthday.’

  ‘And she’s been okay letting herself in after school?’ Sue asked.

  ‘It’s only been three afternoons so far, but yes, she’s doing fine.’ She laughed. ‘Although the neighbours might not agree.’ She went on to tell them about coming home early on Wednesday to blaring music that was turned off five minutes before her expected arrival time.

  They took the wine and cheese platter through to the living room and sat down in front of the crackling open fire. Hannah looked to her father as she inhaled a sweet smell of citrus. One of her mother’s tricks had been to add dried apple and orange slices to the fire to fill the room with a sweet scent. At other times she’d burned pinecones or cinnamon sticks. It was only smelling the fragrance now that reminded Hannah that her mother used to do this. It wasn’t something she recalled her father doing at all since her death.

  ‘The room smells gorgeous. Exactly like Mum used to have it.’

  Sue nodded. ‘She had a knack for creating an inviting space, didn’t she? We felt that we needed her with us today. To provide us with some advice. We hoped filling the room with a reminder of her might give us some inspiration.’

  ‘Anything I can help with?’ The concerned look on her father’s face as Sue spoke wasn’t something Hannah saw often.

  ‘Possibly, but let’s talk about you first and why you wanted to see us. As much as we love you dropping in, it’s not exactly a regular occurrence. Did you need some help with something?’

  Hannah nodded, not quite sure where to start. Her hand automatically reached for the comfort of her heart-shaped pendant.

  Her father smiled encouragingly. ‘I’m flattered, I must admit. You normally have everything worked out so clearly with your risk assessments helping you find your way.’

  ‘This is a bit different.’ Hannah took a deep breath. ‘I discovered Damien has secretly been playing online poker and losing. He’s run up a debt of fifteen thousand dollars using funds from an investment we have.’

  Sue gasped as her father’s mouth dropped open. ‘You’re kidding?’

  ‘I wish I was. I’m here because I don’t know what to do, and I reme
mbered how you and your friends had that intervention for Troy Mitchell when he was gambling a lot.’

  Her father nodded slowly. ‘We’d all spoken to Troy many times, so the intervention was a last resort rather than a starting point. Have you spoken to Damien about this?’

  ‘Not yet. I only found out on Wednesday and his shifts this week haven’t left us much time to have a proper discussion. I need a plan, a strategy for talking to him rather than just confronting him with it. Any suggestions for how I handle it?’

  ‘It depends on how he reacts,’ her father said. ‘Which of course is highly unpredictable.’ He shook his head. ‘I can’t believe it, to be honest. With Troy it wasn’t surprising. He had an addictive personality. Drank too much, regularly took drugs and had been gambling on and off for years. He always had a vice. Damien doesn’t strike me as someone with those kinds of problems.’

  ‘Me neither,’ Sue added. ‘You can take Damien at face value, I’m sure of it. Are you sure you haven’t made a mistake? That there isn’t something else going on?’

  Hannah shook her head. ‘The gambling is the first sign of any problem at all. Although . . .’ she frowned. ‘He’s been depressed about his birth parents and not having had an opportunity to get to know them. I think the poker has been a distraction from his own thoughts.’

  ‘There’s not a lot you can do to help him with his birth parents. It certainly isn’t your fault,’ Sue said.

  If only she knew. ‘Any ideas on what I should do?’

  Her father nodded. ‘Yes, the first step is to talk to him. Let him know that you know about the situation and that you need to put steps in place to minimise the damage for him.’

  ‘Steps?’

  ‘With Troy, we organised for the bank to cut off access to money. It was the only way. The investments that he hadn’t already spent were frozen so he couldn’t access them, and other than a savings account that he could deposit into, all his credit cards were removed.’

  ‘I think that’s what’s shocked me,’ Hannah admitted. ‘That not only has he been running up a huge debt, but he’s done it so sneakily. It’s the only account I don’t check regularly. Just annually for tax.’

  ‘Before you talk to him, I’d look into some support groups. See what advice you can get. We found this invaluable with Troy. Not only were there groups to support him directly but there was one for us too, to ask questions and get a feel for how we needed to speak to him.’

  Hannah nodded. ‘That’s a great idea. I’ve done plenty of searching online for signs that your partner is in trouble and things like that, but I haven’t searched for support groups.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t need this right now.’

  ‘We don’t need things like this at any time, believe me,’ Sue said. ‘Finances can cause so many problems.’ Her eyes glassed over with a far-off look.

  ‘Is that what you needed Mum’s advice for?’

  Her father nodded. ‘As you know, we’re planning to retire next year. The managed fund all of our superannuation is in hasn’t performed well in the last four years. If we do retire next year, the amount we’ll have is much less than we anticipated. We’ll have to manage our money very carefully.’

  ‘Will you still be able to travel?’

  ‘Not very far. Certainly not overseas, as we’d planned.’

  Hannah fell silent. That was so unfair. Her father and Sue had worked hard their entire lives and had been looking forward to retirement.

  ‘The fund will most likely come good again over the next few years,’ Hannah said. ‘You don’t need to worry too much. They usually perform on a cycle.’

  ‘Yes, but I’m worried we’ve invested in funds that are too high-risk.’ His cheeks flushed. ‘I was hoping to add a lot in the last few years but instead have done the exact opposite.’

  ‘I’m surprised your fund manager let you,’ Hannah said. ‘Usually the closer to retirement you get the lower the investment risk.’

  ‘I gave instructions and they followed them. Now we need to decide whether to leave it in the high-risk option and hope that on the next up cycle we not only recoup our losses but move ahead, or whether we pare it back to the lower risk and accept the loss.’

  ‘We work with a number of fund managers at No Risk,’ Hannah said. ‘Would you like me to organise for one to provide some independent advice on how you move forward?’

  He let out a huge breath. ‘Would you, love? That would be terrific. Our biggest concern has been that the fund continues to lose money. It will leave us in an awful position if it does. Selling the house might be our only option.’

  Hannah looked from her father to Sue. ‘Would that be so bad?’

  ‘I’d feel awful if it came to that,’ Sue said. ‘As you know, I lost most of my savings during the global financial crisis. If only I’d owned real estate at the time and sat on it rather than holding shares that never recovered. Selling the house would seem very unfair. It was your mother’s house and ultimately should be yours and Nat’s inheritance.’

  Hannah smiled. ‘I wouldn’t worry about us. We’d much rather you and Dad enjoy your retirement the way you want to.’

  Her father shook his head sadly. ‘I appreciate that, love, but I don’t think Nat would feel the same way.’

  Hannah was deep in thought as she drove from East Malvern back to Donvale. She felt awful for her father and Sue and would have one of the fund managers contact them on Monday to see if they could help. She would be surprised if Nat objected to them selling the house. For all her flaws, she was the first to come to people’s aid. She wasn’t materialistic and flitted from one home to the next. She doubted Nat would have any emotional attachment to the house or any expectation that she would one day inherit it. She sighed. Hopefully they could get their investments back on track and selling the house wouldn’t be necessary.

  She’d sent Damien a text saying she’d pick up some Thai food on the way home, but was surprised when he responded with:

  Don’t. Amy and I have prepared something. See you soon x.

  She continued mulling over her situation and her father’s advice about looking into support groups. It was a good idea. Fifteen thousand dollars wasn’t a small amount. If it had been one or two thousand, she would have been concerned but also have believed that it was something they could rein in quickly. Fifteen thousand was out of her depth.

  Her phone pinged as she turned into her street. She glanced down and saw Zane Fox’s name appear on the screen. Her stomach lurched and she pulled over. She picked up her phone with shaking hands.

  Meet me at Chinwags in Prahran on Monday at eleven a.m.

  Hannah sank back into her seat, her heart thumping. She’d already spent Phyllie’s money getting rid of Zane, and by the looks of it, it certainly hadn’t achieved that. She couldn’t give him any more money. He’d never stop asking if she did.

  She took a deep breath and pulled back out into the street, driving the last hundred metres to her house. What a ridiculous situation. She was hiding a massive secret from Damien, and Damien thought he was hiding his financial debts from her. So much for their promises to be upfront with each other and not harbour secrets.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Adrenaline pumped through Nat’s body. She held her breath while the last card, ‘the river’, was dealt. An ace. She now had two pair – aces and kings. Unless her competition had two aces in his hand, she should win. Would he raise again? Damn, he’d gone all in.

  Nat’s hand hovered over her mouse, the arrow pointing at the ‘Fold’ button. Her strategy said to fold and wait for a better hand, but her gut said no. She pushed her mouse to the right, the ‘All In’ button now highlighted, and clicked it.

  The cards were revealed. He had a king and a four. Nat sighed with relief. She was starting to win again at fifty-dollar tables. While the buzz wasn’t as great as the two-hundred tables, she seemed to be able to win or place more consistently. If she could continue like this for a few more days, she would begin t
o recoup her losses quickly. She’d also banned herself from donating to Shared or any other charity until her debt was repaid.

  She opened a new table and a second. She’d played more than one table at a time before, and when she was winning it worked well. She knew other players played as many as twenty-four tables at once, but she didn’t have the confidence to play more than two yet.

  The games began. She heard Phyllie call out to her at one stage, asking if she wanted a cup of tea, and she called back that she was busy but would be down within the next forty minutes. That was being optimistic, of course. It meant that she was going to play through to the final round of the tournaments.

  Thirty-five minutes later, Nat appeared in the kitchen, a broad smile on her face. The games had resulted in second and third places – prize money of two hundred and fifty dollars. With an additional two hundred from her first place in the earlier game, things were looking up.

  Phyllie glanced up from the kitchen table where she was doing a crossword, dwarfed by a large arrangement of lilies. ‘You look like you’re having a good day, love. What’s the goss in the world of online swimwear?’

  Nat moved across to the bench and flicked on the kettle. ‘Not a lot to report. Things are coming along nicely, though. It looks like China isn’t the only big deal that’s about to come off.’

  ‘Your investment is safe then?’

  Nat nodded and unscrewed the top of the biscuit barrel. She helped herself to a Scotch Finger and held out the container to Phyllie.

  Phyllie shook her head, waiting for Nat to respond.

  ‘The investment is safe. It’ll be turned into gold before you know it.’

  Phyllie laughed. ‘That’s good to hear.’

  ‘Where did the flowers come from? They’re beautiful.’

  ‘Leon. That’s why I called you down for tea earlier. I thought you might like to say hello.’