Chapter 4
Conleigh
Smiling because Collins was actually chipper today, we walked hand in hand into the hospital for her sixth round of chemo.
I was standing there waiting for the account representative to hand me the receipt for her next five rounds when she looked at me with a frown. “I’m terribly sorry Ms. Winter, but your card has been declined. Would you like to try another form of payment?”
“Declined? I don’t understand. There’s plenty of money in the account. Can you try to run it again?”
I watched as she smiled and did it again, “Declined. I’m sorry.”
Grabbing my phone, I checked my account and what I saw caused me to place a hand on the counter to steady myself. What. The. Fuck?
The words that came out of her mouth came across as a dull whisper.
“In cases like these, we can go ahead with her next round and bill you for it later.” Smiling while every cell in my body was shaking, I nodded and walked to the room with Collins.
***
Dropping Collins at Shirleen’s house three hours later, I drove to the bank, with fury running through my veins.
Sitting there with my head in my hands, I couldn’t fucking believe it. Somehow, almost all of my money had been transferred to an offshore account. All of it.
Every single fucking zero.
All that was left was three hundred and forty-seven dollars, oh and a whopping three pennies.
“Please tell me that there is a way to trace it.” I lifted my head to look at the bank manager.
“I’m so sorry Ms. Winter. But this was done in-house. Your account is the fifth one that this was done to. An informal investigation has been launched. We can offer you a line of credit until the money is returned.”
“A line of credit? My daughter has chemo treatments that now I can’t pay for because some asshole fucked up. And pray tell, how long will it take for me to get approved for a line of credit? Will it be in the hundred-thousand-dollar range?”
I walked out of the bank with so much fury and sadness that I had never felt before while clutching the card of the officer in charge of the investigation.
What the fuck was I going to do? I needed that money to be able to afford Collins’s treatments.
Sitting there with my hands on my black steering wheel while I leaned my head against them.
I tried to wrack my brain for options. I didn’t have time to create another program to sell it. That would take me months to do. I only had two weeks. Sadly, only one option kept coming around and around.
So there I was, walking into Carters that had just opened a few months ago. Carters was a strip club, a classy one.
It had just popped up one day and had become the place to be at nighttime here in Dogwood.
So there I was a server at Carter’s. My eyes had bugged out at the outfits they wanted their girls to wear. I had half a mind to take Carter up on his offer to strip. The money would be so worth it for her treatments, but I just couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t take my clothes off for a bunch of nameless faces. Hell, I had a child, and I was still a virgin.
Yes. No fucking thank you.
I had just gotten off my fourth shift at Carter’s, walked into my house, and smiled at Mrs. Bittersmith. She had been a dream come true.
After I had found out about the bank situation, I walked into Shirleen and Paul’s house, and over a glass of wine, I told her everything that was happening.
And bless her heart, she offered to help pay for some of Collins’s treatment.
Mrs. Bittersmith had been in the salon talking to Shirleen, and somehow, they had gotten on the topic of me.