*Copyright: All Rights Reserved, Stephanie Myrick, 2024. Posted to Wattpad ONLY*
Antonia, Raven and Jynx sat around the small round table they used for staff meetings with Jay Morgan and Posey Debuis early on Monday morning. They went over their plan for the next three weeks, put Jay to work on the advertising for the sale, and focused on going over the inventory and doing up sale signs with the markdowns. Raven headed out to see about pushing the production of the clothes. Jynx and Antonia went to the office and began looking up new fixtures, deciding on paint colours and decor and putting together a bunch of samples for Raven to look at when she got back. Noticing Jynx was looking through other colours and office furniture that had nothing to do with the store, she asked what she was doing.
"Putting together stuff for Mave to look at. His office is terrible." She pulled out her phone and showed her the pictures. Antonia raised her eyebrow when she saw it.
"What'd he do? Raid a landfill?" Maybe not a landfill, but he had clearly bought all of it second-hand or gotten it free.
"I think so." Jynx chuckled. "He's never been into aesthetics, "as long as it's functional and comfortable, it's fine." She quoted him. "You should see his apartment."
"I can imagine." She shook her head and leaned back, stretching. "What's the plan for lunch?"
"It's Chinese this week," Jynx said absently. They rotated through different restaurants on Monday, buying lunch for everyone. Antonia nodded and placed the usual order for pickup at the restaurant down the street from the store and texted Raven so she could grab them on her way back to the store. "Are you going home tonight?"
"If I'm going to keep acting like everything is fine, I'll have to." She frowned and rubbed her forehead as she tried to figure things out.
"Have you heard from him?"
"Yeah." She nodded and smirked. "He's texted a few times and says he feels off and out of sorts."
"Wonder if it has anything to do with everything in the condo being off." Jynx snickered. "Funny how everything just being slightly off around you will disorient you."
"Just enough to be annoying." Antonia's smile faded. "I don't know what to do. I don't want to go home."
"No, I wouldn't want to either," Jynx murmured, and Antonia knew she was watching her closely. "You know you don't have to stay with him to get proof, right? Maverick will take care of that."
"I know." She stared at the table. "I just want the upper hand. I want my money back, and I don't know how to get it. I want there to be some consequence for him and Nola. If I walk away, what happens? He gets to stay in the condo I poured all my savings into and gets to keep his job. Nola gets to go on living her life without any consequences... All they lose is me, and obviously, I don't mean that much to them if they did this."
"Oh, Sweetie." Jynx came over and wrapped her arms around her. "They aren't worth anything. And if you think losing you wouldn't impact them, ask Mave how it impacted and still impacts him."
Antonia put her forehead on Jynx's shoulder. "I just want some consequences that will actually matter to them. I know you think I've shut down, but the truth is I don't know how to react. I want to be angry, but I'm afraid I'll lose my chance to get my money back. I want to be sad and cry, but for whatever reason, I can't. I'm afraid and not sure of my next steps."
"Let's wait and see what Mave finds out." She rubbed her back soothingly. "We can make a plan from there. Are you still planning to do the small, petty revenge?"
"Yeah. I know it's childish, but it's giving me a lot of satisfaction right now." She sat back and shook her head sheepishly. "I'm going to buy decaf coffee on the way home. I need to get groceries anyway. Luckily, we use reusable Keurig pods, so it will just be a matter of emptying the coffee container and replacing it with the decaf. I'm also going to rip out the stitches of his pants the first chance I get."
"I can loan you a seam ripper if you don't have one." Raven came in carrying the Chinese food with a huge smile. "Remember, every fourth or fifth stitch, you want them to hold up until he gets to work and make sure it's not noticeable."
"Perfect." Antonia nodded and got up to grab the cutlery, and the subject was dropped as Posey and Jay came in to eat. They sat around, eating and looking over the advertisements for the sale and approving them, everyone had a chance to have input with the color choices and were sitting around debating them and making final choices when Antonia's phone began to ring. Pulling it out, she saw it was Maverick and felt her stomach swoop.
She took a quick second to compose herself and then answered. Raven and Jynx noticed and began to giggle as they listened to her side of the conversation. He just wanted to know who to talk to at the fire station, so she directed him to Felicia. When she hung up, Jynx gave her a knowing smirk but didn't say anything in front of Posey and Jay.
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The afternoon was spent ordering supplies and finishing up the product placement for the sale. They finished for the day, said goodbye to Posey and Jay, thanked them for their hard work and went back to Jynx and Raven's place so Antonia could pick up her car. Maverick was waiting on the front porch, when they pulled up he smiled at Antonia sadly.
"We should talk."
"Okay." Antonia nodded. "Sure." She followed him around the house to the backyard while Jynx and Raven headed inside. Feeling a little nervous, she sat across from him at the patio table. "So what did you find out?"
"We'll get to that." Maverick studied her for a minute. "How are you doing?"
"I'm... not sure," Antonia admitted. "I don't know what to do. I don't want to go back to him; I want to confront them both, but I'm also worried about not getting my money back."
"Abigail Rose says not to confront him; it won't end well for you. He went after them in their jobs, which isn't where he'll go after you; he'll go after you with the condo and the money you gave him." Maverick leaned forward. "You need to collect all the evidence you can about giving him that money, Toni. He won't give it up, so you need to prove you gave him the money for the condo, and you're going to need a lawyer. Do you get a co-habitation agreement?"
Antonia swallowed and shook her head. "No, I didn't know that was a thing."
"Yeah, Massachusetts doesn't have common-law marriages. You have no rights to anything. If he was in an accident on the job, you wouldn't even be able to make medical decisions for him. If he died without a will or a will that names someone else as beneficiary, everything in his name would go to his next of kin, parent, sister, cousin, aunt six times removed, whoever, and you would have a hell of a fight in court to get anything."
"Oh." She didn't know what to say to that. "I'll collect all the evidence."
"Can I ask how much you gave him?"
"Um. About a $150 thousand." She closed her eyes, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. "When Mom found out that the cancer had spread and the doctors told her there was nothing they could do for her, she began looking into alternative treatments. Untested, unproven treatments all over the world. She drained my college account that my dad had put in place for me and got a second mortgage on the house and the store. I worked with a financial advisor and managed to get everything consolidated. I took out loans and did online courses while working at the store. It took me fifteen years, but I managed to get most of it paid off."
"Then Dallas proposed and wanted to move in together, so I put Mom's house on the market. It sold pretty quickly, and I paid off the rest of the debt, my student loans and car, and put the rest down as a down payment since Dallas had to get the mortgage in his name only. The idea was to help keep the mortgage payments lower so the condo fees wouldn't kill us." She didn't know why she felt the need to explain all this to him besides not wanting him to think she was a complete idiot.
"I'm sorry, Toni." His voice was soft, and he hesitantly reached for her hand. "I wish I had known what you were going through."
Antonia shrugged but allowed him to hold her hand. "You were a kid, Mave, and you deserved to have a life without my complications."
"You were a kid too, and I wanted your complications."
"I couldn't do that to you." His thumb was brushing over her knuckles, and it was distracting her. "Anyway, It's in the past, you're here now." She smiled and squeezed his hand before gently pulling away. "What else did you find out?"
Maverick's hand slid back across the table and then went into his hair. "Well, I found out he's a serial cheater with a thing for short, beautiful blondes. Did you know he was married before?"
Antonia felt like she had been hit in the stomach. "No, he failed to mention that."
"I figured as much. Abby Rose, another ex named Regina and his ex-wife, Savannah, hired Felicia to look into him."
"Wait, what?" Antonia sat up straight. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, apparently, she's a PI named Kitty Fontaine. I did some digging, and she is licensed as a PI, but from what I understand, she was working in her husband's office and would help him. When he died from a heart attack, she closed it down and went to work for the fire department. She renews her PI License in memory of her husband but hasn't taken on a case in a while." Seeing that Antonia was staring at him in disbelief, he chuckled. "I'm really good at my job."
"No kidding." She laughed with him a little. "So what's their end game?"
"No idea. I'm planning to reach out to Kitty, AKA Felicia Katherine Fontaine, Abby, Dawn and hopefully Regina and Savannah and get them to meet us at my office in Boston in the next few days. If you're up for that."
"Yeah, absolutely." She nodded. "I'd like to hear what they have to say."
"One other thing. He cheated on Abby with you."
"Of course he did." Antonia closed her eyes as she felt her cheeks heat up and shame washed over her. "I swear I didn't know."
"I didn't think you did." He smiled reassuringly at her. "What he did isn't your fault."
An idea struck her, and she sat up straight. "Oh, I have the perfect way to get back at him and Nola." She grabbed her keys and jumped up. "I have to get groceries. I'll see you tomorrow." She kissed his cheek and darted into the house, calling for Raven and Jynx.
*Copyright: All Rights Reserved, Stephanie Myrick, 2024. Posted to Wattpad ONLY*