Chapter 1

Lisa Reynolds had been working for Mr. Roberts for a little over two years and had done a pretty good job for him. He was pleased with her work and she had become well-liked with the other employees. One day while she was at her desk, Mr. Roberts came by to see her.

“Lisa, can you stop by my office right after work? I need your ideas on a couple of things,” he said.

“Sure, Mr. Roberts. No problem,” she said.

Later that afternoon, as the workday ended and her fellow employees were making their way out of the office and homeward bound, Lisa went to see what Mr. Roberts needed.

Lisa knocked on Mr. Roberts office. “Come in.” came the voice from behind the door. She entered the office.

“I’m here, Mr. Roberts. What can I help you with?” she said as she closed the door behind her. She was a bit surprised to see that Amy DeMarco, her co-worker, was there as well. He had not mentioned that anyone else would be in the meeting – but then again, he hadn’t said very much about the meeting at all.

“Why don’t you have a seat next to Amy there and we’ll get started,” he said, waving to the empty chair next to Amy. Lisa took her seat next to her older co-worker and waited to see what Mr. Roberts had in mind. She was curious – it was late afternoon, and almost everyone had gone home already. She had never been called into a meeting with Mr. Roberts like this, much less with Amy or anyone else. Amy did work in the accounts department with her, so Lisa assumed it had something to do with that.

Mr. Roberts watched her walk across the room, and sit down, openly appraising her. Of course that was no surprise. He was known as a hard-driven, self-made man who tended to get what he wanted, and the rumor was that this extended beyond the boundaries of business. When he spoke, one listened, especially as he owned the company.

Once she was seated, he walked up and sat on the edge of his desk in front of the two women. He leaned forward engagingly. “Thank you both for making the time. I have no doubt you will find it was worth joining me. And I must say,” he laughed, “it’s always a pleasure to have two such attractive women in my office.”

Both women acknowledged the compliment with a smile. “I was going through the personnel files,” he said, “and I wanted to review them for a minute with you both. Let me know if I have your information wrong or if I missed anything, okay?”

He opened two files, and laid them across the table in front of him. “All right then let’s start with you, Amy,” he said, glancing up at her briefly before looking down at her file. “Let’s see. You have been with the company for some time I see.”

“Yes, Sir, it will be ten years in a couple months,” she said proudly.

“Yes this August 15th. Very good. Your file also says you are recently divorced – what is it five months now? And if memory serves it was not a real pleasant one either.”

“No, Sir, it was not,” she said, then looked down sadly.

“By all accounts, you have been having a hard time financially since then – forgive me if this is a bit personal – and aside from your regular paycheck, the company has also assisted you with some loans, am I correct?”

She nodded. “That’s true, Sir. My mother lives with me since the divorce and she has some serious medical problems. I’ve been paying off the loan, though – I haven’t missed a payment.”

“Your mother and you both depending on your salary. It must be very difficult for you,” he said sympathetically.

She nodded. “Yes Sir. It has been tough.”

“Hmm. I understand. Now Lisa,” he said, turning towards her. “Your circumstances aren’t much easier, are they?”

Lisa shook her head, wondering where this was going. “Let’s see – you are a single mother, with a son just starting school. The father doesn’t help you, is that right?”

“No, Mr. Roberts. He disappeared right before Eric was born,” she said. “Even if I found him, I don’t think he’d do much to help.”

“I see. I am sorry to hear that. Both of you seem to have had your share of troubles in life. I suppose life can be hard – I know that when I started this company, it was incredibly difficult. I didn’t have much money, no business management background, and very little support. A black man just getting started in the business world isn’t thought of too highly, I’m afraid.

“Of course, you look at the company now and it seems to be an established success; but it took an awful long time to get here. Many long hours. A great many sacrifices – including my wife, who finally walked out about five years ago, as you both may know.

“It is sometimes difficult to get along without that companionship, without having support behind you. You miss it. I know I miss it a great deal. I miss that female softness, and knowing that someone is in your corner, even if no one else is, you understand?” he said.

The two women nodded.

“So you see,” he continued, “I am sympathetic to the price that we have to pay sometimes to get by. I am certainly not indifferent to the hardships we endure. But there is one difference between us, however.” He paused before stating the next sentence. “I never stole from my employer. And I never got caught.”

Lisa turned white as a sheet, the same thought running through her mind over and over “OMIGOD! OMIGOD! OMIGOD!”. Amy sat next to her so calmly, that Lisa wondered if she had heard him right.

Amy smiled casually “I beg your pardon?” she said, feigning innocence.

“Don’t make it worse by lying, Amy. We both know that I could show you the evidence if I have to. At least Lisa’s face is a confession of its own.”

“I’m so sorry,” whispered Lisa, her face white as a sheet.

“It’s kind of funny when you think about it,” said Mr. Roberts. “If either one of you had done this on your own, I would never have noticed. But two of you, together – it collectively became too large to miss. And neither one of you knew about the other!” he said looking at Amy.

After a moment’s silence, Amy lowered her head. “Yes, Sir,” she said quietly.

“Good,” he said. “Now we’re making progress, I think. You have to understand something. This is not a public company. This is MY company. You weren’t stealing from shareholders: you have been stealing from me. From ME,” he said, pointing to his chest for emphasis.

“Some housekeeping is needed, I suppose. I can’t have employees stealing from the company and from me. It’s bad for business, you know? The profit margin is small enough these days with this economy ... stealing really cuts into the bottom line and by default into everyone else’s paychecks. So your stealing from the company hurts everyone who works here. And as you know, we have some fine people working here. I don’t think that is very fair to them, do you? I just want you two to understand just how much of a predicament you have gotten yourselves into here. I could very easily have the two of you arrested and thrown in jail. I believe the charge would be grand larceny, since the total, that you have stolen from this company is, as I figure it, is around $10,000 dollars.”

Amy sighed deeply and leaned forward, putting her head in her hands. Lisa’s mouth went dry, and her hands trembled visibly.

Mr. Roberts continued, “What would happen to your poor mother, Amy, if you went to prison? And Lisa – what about your little boy? How do you think he would fare in a foster home?”

“What do you want?” said Amy.

Mr. Roberts opened his desk drawer, and withdrew a bottle of whisky and three tumblers. As he poured each of them a drink. “Circumstances have afforded me a rather unique opportunity. Here in front of me, I have two attractive, young women, totally dependent upon my good graces,” he said, pushing two of the glasses across the desk to the women. “Please, have a drink – it will calm your nerves. You know, you could look upon this as a blessing for you, actually. Surely, you must both have been living on your nerves, wondering if I would find out about your indiscretions. Of course you won’t be able to steal from the company any more, I shall see to that. But if you choose to reach an understanding with me, you should be able to avoid serving any time behind bars. And your families won’t be adversely affected either.”

Lisa sat there stunned, unable to speak, but Amy glared across the desk at him in undisguised contempt. “You bastard,” she hissed.

“Oh Amy,” he said. “Is that the best you could come up with? I really thought that you could come up with something more agreeable than that. Anyway, you placed yourselves in this predicament, not me. And if you wish to follow the legal process I will understand. I can hand this over to the authorities in the morning. Is that what you two want?”

“No,” spat Amy, still glaring hatefully at the man who now seemed to own her.

“No,” whispered Lisa, more remorseful than her partner-in-crime.

“Excellent. Then can I say that we have an agreement?”

“What kind of an agreement do you have in mind, Sir?” Lisa asked.

“Well – I have some interests I’d like to explore. It would destroy the surprise if I had to go into too much detail now, wouldn’t you say?” The women sat in silence, both coming to terms with what Mr. Roberts had said. “But for tonight, I will let the two of you go on home. We will take this up again tomorrow. Meanwhile, you can think about what you have done and ponder over how it will play out for you from here. Now, do we have an understanding?”

“What choice do we have?” snapped Amy. He didn’t reply, just waited. Eventually she angrily agreed. “Yes!”

“Wonderful. And you, Lisa?” Lisa nodded submissively, her eyes downcast.

“Good. Then I will see you both back here bright and early tomorrow morning,” he said, smiling smugly.

“Yes Sir,” Lisa said. And the girls walked out of the room and went home. Lisa drove home in a daze, thinking about what had happened and how she got herself in such a compromising position. That night, Lisa laid in bed thinking about the twist the day had taken. She was definitely in a tough spot, but she also knew that she had gotten into it on her own and now she had a decision to make. Either she would have to “play ball” with Mr. Roberts, whatever that may entail, or she would face prison and the very real possibility of losing her son to a foster home. For her, it was a simple choice – she couldn’t lose Eric, so she would have to just take whatever Mr. Roberts had in mind and make the best of it. She admitted to herself this was her fault so the consequences were hers to bear as well.

Amy had a different mindset. She admitted to herself she made a mistake also, but she was furious at Mr. Roberts for taking advantage of the situation and forcing her to do whatever was in his sick, twisted mind. Still, she had her sick mother to think of. With no husband (damn him anyway!) and no siblings to help care for her, Amy’s mother depended on Amy and her job to take care of her. Amy’s father had passed away years earlier and his life insurance had been eaten away with the mounting medical bills. She also wondered what Mr. Roberts was up to, but Amy was set on looking for a way out of this mess. She knew she had done wrong, but she wasn’t about to be subjected to blackmail to make up for it. What kind of pervert takes advantage of a girl’s mistake anyway? He should be trying to help her, not make her his personal whatever he had in mind!

The next day was Friday and the two girls came to work as usual. However, the day was not a normal one for them. Neither girl spoke much and kept to their work. Right after lunch, Amy came over to Lisa’s desk.

“Lisa, have you seen your email yet?” Amy asked.

“Not since first thing this morning, why?”

“Well, you should,” she said, ominously.

Lisa opened up her email and gasped. “Oh no!”

The email was from Mr. Roberts. Lisa covered her mouth with her hand as she read it:

Hello Miss Reynolds,

Pursuant to our conversation yesterday, I will be expecting you and Miss DeMarco to come to my office directly after work this evening. We have more to discuss about the matter before us and I want to get all the conditions and details worked out so we can proceed. Please be prompt and ready to get down to work so we can wrap this matter up.