Before finalizing my divorce, which I wasn't so thrilled about, I had to stop by the bank to officially close out the emergency funds Sierra and I opened. None of this felt real. It felt like I was stuck in a never ending cycle of nightmare. Just a few weeks ago, we were fine and celebrating the birth of our daughter and now we're getting paperwork and lawyers together to settle a failed marriage. Life really does come at you fast. But my blame was still on Veronica. I would be avoiding all of this if I never met her.
I grunted under my breath once I pulled up to the building. I parked my car and prepared to deal with one of their shitty bank tellers.
"Hi, I'm here to make a withdrawal and closure from my account," I greeted the lady sitting behind the closed glass window.
"Do you have an ID with you?" She asked.
I took out my wallet and slid the ID underneath the small slot. She took a hold of it and verified my name and face. "Okay Michael, which account would you like to make a withdrawal on?"
"Savings, directly under the emergency funds," I responded.
"Are you withdrawing a certain amount—"
"All of it. I want all of it out," I cut her off.
"Okay give me a second," she started typing fast against her keyboards. I waited a few minutes before she looked up at me again. However, this time she looked puzzled at the screen. Her eyebrows scrunched together as if she was having a hard time comprehending what's in front of her. I looked at her confused.
"Is there a problem?" I asked.
"Well it says that you've already closed out that account just a few days ago and you've already made your withdrawal," she responded. "You no longer have an account listed under that card."
"What..." I said even more confused. "That can't be right, I've never called in to close out anything." Unless Sierra called beforehand to get the money out herself but then she would've called me and informed me about it. Sierra isn't the type of person to do anything behind my back.
"You'd need a required pin to authorize this sort of action. Your card was definitely closed out with a pin 5 days ago."
"How would my card be closed out when I haven't even come to this bank 5 days ago? This doesn't make sense. Did you let someone take my money out without my knowledge?!" I said getting impatient with her. "Or do you barely know how to do your job? I didn't close out my account, I need a withdrawal of my money right now."
"Sir, I can assist you without you being hostile. Please do understand I'm just telling you what's in the system," she said keeping her composure.
"Fuck the system!" I nearly yelled, attracting many stares from the people inside the building. I sighed trying to keep myself together. "Look I'm having a rough week, that money is my life savings. I can't lose it, so please just check again to see if there's some type of error.." I tried to speak calmly this time. "Please."
"Wait a second," she then informed me before leaving from her spot to walk across the hallway where there was another room located. I stood by the window, accompanied by a long line of people behind me.
Five minutes have passed and I was ready to walk out of the bank. I'm already running 20 minutes late to my own divorce conference. My phone has been going off nonstop because Sierra keeps calling assuming I'd forget to show up. When in reality, I'm dealing with something that can effect me greatly and much worse than all of the other bad things I've come across in life. I'm going to become completely broke if I don't get back what was in that account.
I mean what kind of bank just loses your money just like that? Every transaction is required an ID or pin verification, it's impossible to let someone else walk away with someone else's money.
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting but I've spoke with the person who has handled the closure of this specific account," she returned with papers in her hand. "This is a copy of the letter sent by mail to the bank with clear signature a few days after the pin was given for verification." She handed the papers for me to look at.
I carefully read the letter that addresses the bank, which explained the reason for the closure, the credit card number, and a signature apparently signed by Sierra herself and my own signature as well. I was dumbfounded when I saw how accurate and spot on my signature was. It looked real, and believable. It's so real it had me questioning if I actually signed this off and forgot about it.
There's no way.
I know for a fact Sierra didn't forge my signature either, her writing is way off compared to mine. Even if she tried, she wouldn't be able to make it look this perfect. The date of the letter was written on the bottom before the signature. It was sent 3 days ago. The same day I got fired from my job. I could only think about one person that could of possibly done this. I'm starting to think she was the one who signed my name off before as well and made those ridiculous purchases of lingerie and whatever romantic crap that made me look suspicious of something. She's trying to completely drain my pockets.
"Listen to me, I'm possibly dealing with identity theft. I didn't sign off on any letter. I never received my money," I tried explaining. She just looked at me with squinting eyes almost as if I was a crazed person yelling for no reason. "There's this woman who's been stalking me and ruining me life, she sent this letter to the bank not me!"
"You're holding up the line," I heard someone behind me say.
"Sir the most I can do is transfer you to someone who can handle any security concerns. But for now, we've already closed out the account completely. If I could reverse it believe me I would. Have you tried talking to the police about this?" She asked.
God, this is hopeless it's like speaking to a brick wall.
I huffed angrily, "I feel like you're not even listening to a word I'm saying! Someone stole my money from this bank. You should be able to handle this situation not the police! I need my money!"
"Okay sir I need you to step aside—" a large security man approached me seconds after my outburst. All eyes were on me and I could see the judgement on everyone else's faces. There was no point trying to explain myself to anyone nowadays because to me it seems like they're either against everything I say or they simply don't believe a word I'm saying.
"Don't touch me! I'm leaving!" I said to the security officer who was already dragging me halfway to the exit door. "You guys are completely useless anyways!" I shouted before stepping out.
I stormed out of the bank afterwards, realizing I was running ridiculously late to the divorce conference. The worst part of all is, I don't even have the money or paperwork that I was told to bring. I quickly took out my phone and called Sierra, so I can get a confirmation from her if she was the one who sent the letter or not. I'm hoping she'd say yes because if not, there's a deep hole that's been dug up for me and I don't think there's a way to get out of it.
I got into my car and placed the phone on speaker phone. She answered shortly but started off yelling about me being almost 30 minutes late to the divorce conference. "Sierra, I know I'm late! Just listen to me for a second!" I tried to shut her up so she would understand what I'm about to ask her.
"Do you even fucking care about this? Is this a joke to you Michael?" She continued to rant.
"The money is gone Sierra!" I said loudly cutting her off and making her go silent for a bit. "The money from the account is completely gone."
"What the fuck are you talking about? You're at the bank?"
"I just got out of the bank to withdrawal your funds and mine, but the account is completely closed off and they said the money has already been taken out so please tell me it was you who done it..."
"No, I didn't take anything. The last time I called the bank regarding that account was to cancel it too but they said I can't do it because it's signed under your name. I'm just a co-signer," she answered. "What the fuck happened to the money Michael?" She spoke further with a slight worried tone.
"I don't know, the person sent out a letter with both of our signatures signed off, it looks real too," I responded.
"So what I'm hearing is, the money is gone and you have no idea how? Michael I had over $3K in the account....do you know what that means for me?"
"All of my money is gone too! I'm completely broke Sierra!"
"Are you sure you didn't cancel it and you might've forgotten about it?!"
"I would surely remember that vividly if I taken out all of our money from the account.....it had to be her," I then told her, my mind circling back to Veronica's name. "She's trying to strip everything away from me."
"Jesus Michael I don't need one of your delusional thoughts. We're dealing with something much greater than stalking!"
"I'm being serious! I mean who else might of possibly done this, she's been following and watching me enough to know most likely almost everything about me, even my personal finances."
"That money was going to be used for Starr's food, clothing, healthcare and other financial expenses, you don't understand how fucking serious I'm being. If you just got rid of her a long time ago we would be in this position," she yelled into the phone. "You've dragged me into your mess which I'm hoping you wouldn't."
"So it's my fault?" I scoffed. Of course, this is what she does best. She's acting like I personally invited that lunatic to rob me out dry like this. Like I have some control over what she does.
"You had to invite her into our house that night huh?"
"I was being a decent human being, excuse me for expressing a little care and compassion.."
"Well look at where your care and compassion placed you," she said harshly not even thinking twice about how she was speaking to me. "There's no point in coming to the divorce conference, but I still need my money. If I don't receive it by the end of this week, I'm doubling the amount in my alimony request."
"Sierra I'm going to fix this—"
Before I could finish my sentence she hung up. "Fuck!" I punched the steering wheel setting off the horn. "Stupid bitch," I mumbled to myself. Veronica thinks she can walk away with my money so easily. She's probably spending half of it right now and getting the last laugh. If it's a harsh game she wants to fucking play then that's exactly what she'll get. I threw my phone across the passenger seat and scrimmaged through the backseat. My hand landed on the gun I've hidden beneath the seats. I pushed the keys into the ignition, my frustration rising my the second.
I've been stalling all of this time for nothing. I could've handled this easily if I wasn't so remorseful. However, this time, I'm definitely pushed past my limits. There's no holding back any longer.
Veronica's POV:
I had between two choices. Bury the body or completely dissolve it into the tub. I've been keeping him in the freezer down in the basement for a day now. I should've dumped it out into a river or something the moment I killed him. I felt it was unfair to dump him carelessly, he was no stranger. He's my brother.
What would others start to think or wonder when he's nowhere to be found. He's already a suspect in a whole murder case because of me. The officers in this city know about him at this point, all because of me. If he disappears the first place they'll come looking is here. Burying the body would be one of the dumbest step and decision ever. It's better to just dissolve him and leave no traces of his DNA or evidence laying around. Then later on, I can start figuring out how to keep his name and presence alive so people won't grow their suspicions and figure out his actual death.
I opened the door to the basement, and went down the old creaky wooden steps. My feet hit the many boxes that was scattered across the ground. I walked to the back, where the vault room is located. I kept many things in the vault room but mainly I used it for a freezer. There are times where I can't seem to get rid of certain body parts or organs so I keep those sort of things locked in a temperature below 20 degrees. The only downfall to this vault room is the smell. Even I can't bare it. This is why I prefer burying bodies instead of keeping them locked away in storage.
I dragged the heavy steel box that's almost close to the same size of a small refrigerator. Even though, I've chopped up some of the body parts beforehand, the weight didn't seem to decrease. He was still unbelievable heavy to handle. I used all my force to get it across from the vault room all the way up the stairs. There's a bathroom located just down the end of the hallway upstairs, past the living room and dining room area. Before I can place the body in the tub, I need a few chemicals to mix together that would be appropriate for this matter. The chemicals need to be strong enough to melt a bone and flesh straight through. The only thing that needs to be remained behind is bubbles of scorching blood that could easily be drained out. I left the box in the middle of the hallway and made my way to the bathroom. I began searching through the medicine cabinets carefully hoping I didn't need to make a run to the store for those chemicals. "Come on!" I cursed at myself while continuing to search everywhere for the right products.
Five minutes past before I gave up searching. I knew I had no other choice but to make a run to the store real quick. My job was unfinished and I needed to get rid of this before the day ends. There's no more time to waste. I pushed the box all the way into the bathroom. Proceeding to grab my wallet and belongings, I left the house shortly and quickly.
Michael's POV:
I still had her address saved in her GPS from the last time I visited her. I drove up to the neighborhood and noticed no cars were parked in front of her lot. I didn't expect her to be gone, I came here in a rush to comfort her. I was a little suspicious on why she was gone when her brother specifically said she usually goes out during night. It's 5 in the afternoon, where could she possibly be around this time. She's probably too busy stuck at the job she invaded and stole away from me.
I got out the car anyways with the gun in my pocket. I had the keys that I was given that would unlock the house. I'm hoping it wasn't fake because then I'd be in the middle of a trap. Before walking up the steps, I searched around for any possible cameras that could be outside. Surprisingly, there were none. You'd think a person that spends half of their day watching others would have thousands of cameras posted around their home but Veronica was the exact opposite. Which I found very odd. I slowly went up the tiled steps. I pushed the key inside and lock and twisted the doorknob. I was in.
The house was quiet. There wasn't any sight of someone's presence or any noise of movement. I still tip toed my way in, trying to be as silent as possible. I slowly shut the door behind me. The place still looked the same as I remembered. Neat and tidy.
I roamed around the place, looking through the hallway for any signs of a door that could lead me to a basement. I don't know why I'm so quick to believe a word her brother said. To me he seemed genuine, nothing like Veronica at all but at the same time I hardly know him, he could be worse than her. One half of my thoughts were screaming to turn around and go back home, drawing speculations of this possibly being a trap. The other half was eager to find out everything I needed to know stored in that basement.
Down the hallway, a door was slightly creeped opened and the lights were left on. I slowly approached it, seeing footprints of Veronica's shoes on the ground. As I got closer, there was a small trail of flood around the door too. I squinted my eyes, making sure what I'm seeing in front of me is actually blood. "What the fuck," I spoke silently. I went around the door, and suddenly a strong swift of decaying smell hit my nose. I covered both my mouth and nose with the sleeve of my shirt, getting nauseated by the scent. I opened the door all the way before seeing a box sitting there. The smell was coming from the box, it smelled like someone ran over a raccoon and left it laying there in hot weather for months. I kicked the box with my foot trying to guess what possibly could be in there. I wasn't sure if I should open it just to get a quick glimpse.
My curious self bent down to open it, once I seen a frozen head staring back at me, my heart jumped expeditiously. I fell back to the ground, startled at the gruesome display.
The face was very much recognizable, once I figured out who it was, I nearly puked in my mouth. God. I can't believe I'm witnessing this right now. I quickly got up and closed the box. I ran out the bathroom and felt my stomach and chest churn. "Jesus!" I held my head and paced back and forth. I've suspected Veronica of many things but never close to something so disturbing and vile as this. How could she do it? She's severely sick in the head.
I stayed frozen in the middle of the hallway trying to collect myself together. "She's crazy," I kept repeating to myself. I was too shaken up that I nearly forgot what I came here for. I took slow deep breaths trying to shake that image I had of what I just saw minutes ago.
My ear then suddenly picked up on a sound that came from outside. It sounded like a car pulling up to the front lot. My head snapped towards the door realizing that I've entered her home without her knowledge and if she finds me here....
I quickly acted upon what came to my mind first, I needed to hide. I couldn't hide down here because it seems like she was clearly busy with whatever was going on in that bathroom so I went somewhere that I hoped she wouldn't check. I sprinted upstairs, not even familiar where any of the bedrooms were. I opened the first door my eyes could lay on and locked myself in there. I heard her make her way into the house, the sound of keys hitting a surface. My heart is still pounding against my chest and in this very moment, I could only think of one thing.
Why did I drag myself here.
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A bit of a long chapter 😌 but wow the next few chapters might be one of my favorite chapters I've written because things are going to pick up FAST
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