The Love Of Money - Episode 18
26-07-25 (06:48)
A knock interrupted us before I could even think of a
response. Helen arched an eyebrow at me in an
unspoken question, and I moved behind the desk to
have a seat in Gina's chair, "Come in!"
The door opened and in walked Gina, a container in one
hand that probably held the remains of her lunch. She
wasn't a bad-looking woman at forty-three. She wore
her hair to her shoulders in a set of tight dark brown
ringlets streaked through with hints of grey. Having
three kids and leading a relatively sedentary lifestyle
didn't do her any favors. She was probably a good
30-40 points overweight. A lot of it went to her tits. I
certainly wasn't interested in fucking her... not in the
physical way.
"Macus? What are you doing in my chair?" She glanced
over her shoulder at the closing door and then back at
me, "Do you know why Andrew is out there? Did he let
you in here?"
I took a deep breath and gave myself to the count of
three before proceeding, which had the added effect of
generating a few moments of uncomfortable silence
between us. Helen simply stood next to my desk, arms
crossed as she stared at Gina. My former boss hesitated
before approaching her desk, brow furrowed, "And you
are?"
"Not important," I cut off any response and immediately
regretted the words. Helen was probably the most
important person in my life right now. Hopefully she
understood my meaning.
"Gina, I'm here to inform you that as of right now, you
no longer work for Marduke. Please leave your badge
on the desk. I'll also need your company laptop and cell
phone. That's why Andrew's out there."
Gina gaped at me for a full 5 seconds, and it was all I
could do to keep my eyes locked on hers.
When it seemed like she wasn't going to respond, I
started to speak again, "Did-"
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" It was her turn to
cut me off. "Get the hell out of my office. You're lucky I
don't write you up for this! Breaking into my office...
wasting time in the middle of the day! Fire me? Me!?
Wouldn't this be your third write-up this quarter?"
I figured this would be the kind of response she'd give.
I stood up so no one in the room could tower over me,
"I'm sorry.
You must be under the impression you're speaking to
an employee. I'm afraid you're speaking to the new
owner of Marduke
Financial as well as the owner of the building Marduke
rents from."
Another pregnant pause from her, and this time I took
advantage.
"I recently came across a significant sum of money. I
bought out Greg this moming."
More silence followed, and I began to wonder if Gina
was going to simply faint.
"Why?" She finally replied.
I shrugged my shoulders, "Because you suck."
Helen spoke up, "What my client means to say is that
you've not conducted yourself with the integrity
Marduke expects of its employees." She shot me a look
that bordered between amusement and admonishment.
"What?" Gina said, glancing at Helen. "No. I mean... why
would you buy Marduke? You hate this place."
Did I break her brain? Did she not care that she was
getting fired?
"I didn't hate this place. I just hated working for you," I
admitted.
"My client is aware of your efforts to embezzle money
from the company, Ms O'Neil," Helen continued before I
could speak. Gina's head whipped toward Helen in
absolute shock. So did mine. This was news to me.
The box of food slipped from Gina's hand and crashed
to the floor with a dull thud. She didn't seem to notice.
"What? How did you know about-" She snapped her
teeth shut before she could finish the rest of that
sentence.
Holy shit. Was it true?
"We're aware of the bank account in Florida," Helen
continued dispassionately. "If you don't disclose the
name of your associate and return Marduke's property
by the end of the day, I'm afraid my client will have to
press charges."
Maybe it was the mention of the bank or the matter-of-
fact tone in Helen's voice, but Gina immediately caved.
Tears began to well in her eyes. She simply looked at
me. "I'm sorry. I needed the money!"
There was no attempt to lie; no attempt to throw
anyone under the bus. Gina - the hardass manager who
had ruled the floor with an iron fist, just... crumbled. She
proceeded to tell me about her crippling addiction to
shopping and how it had led to her massive credit card
debt. Once Gina started winding down, Helen turned
the recording off.
"Mr. Upton, I believe we have all the evidence we
need. You may speak to Miss O'Neil freely."
Gina glanced at Helen, "What?"
I was also surprised, "What?"
Helen held up her phone, "On top of the evidence
we've already collected, we now have a recording of
Miss O'Neil admitting to embezzlement to fuel an
addiction. It's something we can use in a court of law,
should you wish to press charges against her. Given
that, you're welcome to speak freely to her without
worrying about her state of mind or willingness to
provide that evidence."
Gina and I looked at each other, and something came
over me. Helen was amazing... she'd taken charge of
the situation and had done what was needed without
compromising my authority in front of this bitch. My
lawyer had delivered me the best present I could have
ever asked for on this day. Whatever reservations I still
had about Helen were quickly dissipating.
The deer-in-the-headlights look Gina was giving me
was a wonderful follow-up gift.
"Gina. You're a horrible boss."
She opened her mouth to reply and I immediately cut
her off. "I don't care about you stealing money. I care
about the fact that you can't lead worth a damn. In the
11 months that I've been working here, you haven't
provided a single bit of direction to me or aпуопе else.
You're demanding, unreasonable, lazy, and you
contribute nothing to this company."
That little spark of Gina flared to the surface; her eyes
narrowed and she opened her mouth again to speak.
"Shut the fuck up. I'm talking."
I swear the look in her eyes made my dick hard.
"You were always such a tough bitch! Everyone out
there is afraid of you or hates you. Most of them do
both! And the moment we come in here and challenge
you... God, Gina. You fucking caved so easily!"
Gina wilted, clearly not interested in putting up any sort
of struggle. A large part of me was relieved that this
seemed to be going so well. A small part of me wished
she had put up more of a fight.
I sighed.
"You're to pack your personal belongings and get the
fuck out of this office. You have an hour to do so. If
you're here a minute longer than that, I'll have you
arrested for trespassing and bring charges of
embezzlement against you. You might want to consider
moving out of town, because if I ever see your face
again, I will have you prosecuted."
"You'll also need to sign the NDA and non-compete
agreement I have here," Helen followed up as she
reached for her briefcase and extracted a folder, laying
it on the desk.
"I.... I'm not signing anything," Gina said, her voice soft.
"Miss O'Neil," Helen said, "You've committed a felony. If
we were to prosecute, my client would use all his
resources to seek the full sentence for your crime, and
he would win. You would spend a decade in jail and be
released with a massive debt. I think it's in your best
interest to comply.
Gina chewed on the side of her cheek and watched the
both of us for a pregnant moment before sighing.
Shoulders slumped, she padded over to the desk,
signed the documents, and then circled the desk. She
opened one of the drawers next to me and mutely
began pulling things out of them. I moved from my
position behind the desk and stood beside Helen,
watching as she looked around and found an empty
box in the corner. Andrew must have already suspected
what I'd planned on doing. What an insightful guy.
Her eyes glistened in the office light with unshed tears,
as she set to packing her stuff. A small part of me felt
sorry for her.
"I'll leave you to it," I said as I turned to leave the
office.
"Do I really need to move out of New York?" she asked.
Her tone sounded meek.
I paused, hand on the doorknob, but I didn't look back
at her, "I know New York is huge, but do you really
want to take that chance?" I opened the door and
paused, looking down at the leftover rice that had
spilled out of Gina's broken carry-out container. "And
clean that shit up before you leave." I left without
another word with Helen right behind me.
Vikram, Andrew, and the two guards were on the other
side of the door, sipping on coffees. Andrew looked at
me with a question in his eyes. I nodded, "That was
satisfying. Thanks for the box."
"Yeah. I figured," he responded. He took another sip of
coffee, "You replacing her?"
"No," I said, eyes scarining the room and ignoring all the
rubbernecking going on as people across the office
were trying to put together what was happening. "I've
got someone in mind for
that."
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