Rebound (40 page)

“
He and his sister created
evidence against me to show that I had been syphoning money from
the company into a bank account. They had all sorts of ‘proof’ that
I’d been embezzling money for a year. They showed me evidence of a
bank account with exactly $102,687.83. Funny, how I can distinctly
remember the amount. For over a year, I had nightmares over that
number.” His eyes widened. I was starting to believe that he didn’t
know that information.

“
I denied everything.
Everything. I looked Mr. Parisi in the eyes and begged him to
believe me that I would never steal a nickel. Do you know that the
only thing I’ve stolen in my entire life, Matt, was a box of chalk
when I was four? My mother gave me such a spanking that I’d never
thought to take anything else, ever. Ever.” I spat. I composed
myself before continuing on with my tale.

“
Ben agreed to ‘overlook’
my ‘stealing’ that ludicrous amount, if I resigned from the
company, sign away my small shares of stock, my retirement savings,
and give him an uncontested divorce. I was not to get a dime from
him; no house, no money, no jewelry. I even had to give back my
engagement ring and wedding ring. I gave that back gladly because
it was Mr. Parisi’s mother’s set. I would never keep a family
heirloom because I’m not a vindictive bitch or a thief.” A tear
streamed down my cheek.

“
The ultimate blow was
when Ben, upon Aida’s strong urging, required me to sign an
agreement that I would pay back this phantom money. I had no money.
There was no account in my possession. I couldn’t pay it back. But
it was either pay back the money or they would call the police and
I had no evidence to prove otherwise. Which option do you think I
chose, Matt?”

“
What?” He appeared
horrified by this revelation.

“
It wasn’t clear?” I
shouted, “They made me sign an agreement that I’m to pay back over
one hundred thousand dollars. It takes an upper middle income
person almost thirty years to pay back one hundred thousand dollars
in a low interest loan. All those jobs that you thought were ‘too
much’ for me to work are a necessity. I have to work for the rest
of my life, for at least thirty years of my life, to pay back money
that I’ve never touched. I’m a slave to my ex-husband.” I swallowed
and felt my hands shake even with them being tucked under my
arms.

“
And here is where
Pentagon plays into this fucked up story. I didn’t know back then,
before my discovery and their accusations against me, that Aida was
dating. You see, she was dating a very charismatic business man
that she refused to introduce to the family. She claimed she wasn’t
sure if he was the one, but that she was happy. We all saw a major
change in her. For all the years I’ve known her she wasn’t very
attractive. She was heavyset, bookish and very much a tom boy, but
because of this man, she changed. She became a fitness nut, cutting
out of work to exercise at the gym. She’d changed her diet. She’d
lost weight and became prettier. She’d changed the way she dressed
and became more feminine. One day she’d dyed her mousy brown hair
to blonde. She wore makeup. I’d never had a really strong
relationship with her, but as those changes took effect, she
distanced herself from me. And she became colder. I couldn’t put my
finger on it then and I’m not one hundred percent sure still today,
but I suspected she was jealous, until today. Today, I realized
that Aida distanced herself from me because she’d planned on making
me the fall guy for the company’s disintegration.” I coughed the
lump from my throat, summoning up some lubrication to continue my
verbal assault.

“
Your sister told me at
dinner that Parisi had been sold. Today, I found out that Parisi
was sold to Penta. I wouldn’t have connected the dots between your
Pentagon Group and the Penta Company that bought Parisi
Construction Corp. I’d forgotten Corporations 101, large companies
will have ownership of these smaller subsidiary companies. Smaller
is a loose term because they can still be pretty big, and Penta Co.
is certainly big, isn’t it Matt?” I didn’t wait for a
response.

“
Who knew that the boys
brought together by a prestigious boarding school whom eventually
created Pentagon Group would go on to own so many diverse, ‘small’
companies, such as Penta Co, Penco, Gro Pen Co., PGC, and all the
other ones that I don’t need to identify to you because you know
them all, don’t you?” I stared at him. He knew I didn’t need
confirmation. I went on to talk about the direct way Pentagon
destroyed me.

“
I was further shocked to
learn that Aida’s boyfriend, the wealthy businessman that I didn’t
get to meet was in fact one of your five friends. Did you know that
he dated my sister in law?” He nodded. “Now that I’ve met your
friend, I wonder, ‘What the fuck did he see in Aida?’ Aida would
never, even with all those changes, be in the league of Brigit. I
suspect that Brady is now dating Brigit because he no longer needed
Aida, or was he seeing both of them simultaneously? I guess it
doesn’t matter because once he got what he wanted, stock options or
insider information, to take over Parisi, Aida was expendable. Did
you know that Aida killed herself?” His eyes widened. He didn’t
know.

“
She killed herself many
months ago after the takeover. She jumped off a bridge in New
Hampshire. A note in her car confirmed her suicide. She apologized
for everything she’d ever done wrong, but she never specifically
said for what or outline who specifically should receive that
apology. I suspect that she did it because Brady dumped her once he
got his creepy, greedy hands on Parisi. So while Pentagon
indirectly fucked me over by using Aida, I’m still alive. I’m still
mentally and physically strong and will live on, but Aida wasn’t
strong enough. She couldn’t deal with the reality of being fucked
around with for the acquisition of her family’s
business.”

“
And now, I come to how I
was fucked around with for the acquisition of a business. Should I
continue?” He walked away and sat at the counter. For a moment I
flashed back to our first sexual encounter on that counter. How he
made me come after so much time being alone. I steeled myself to
continue the tale that he refused to confirm.

“
Little did I know that
when I walked into your medical office, I would be trapped in the
web that Pentagon weaves to consume women and spit them out when
they have no further use for them. I’m sure you must’ve thought how
fortuitous it was that I, little old Perla Mercurio, walked into
your office. Pentagon had already decided that they needed to
acquire Liberty Inn for a major project in that location, a project
involving multi-million dollars. And that damn Liberty Inn was the
last hold-out, refusing to sell their precious family business.
What did you do when I walked out of your office? Did you call
Brady and tell him that you were going to be the one to seduce me
into helping Pentagon procure the Inn? I bet he was relieved that
he didn’t have to seduce another short, fat, brunette.”

“
Don’t say that about
yourself.” He demanded.

“
Spare me the fucking
admonishment, Matt.” He brought his hands to his eyes and rubbed
his face. I could hear the bristles of his beard rustle under his
palms.

“
Was there a list of
employees to target, so Pentagon could acquire Liberty? Was I at
the top of that list? I just dropped on your lap, huh?” He remained
silent, letting me tear into him.

“
When Alice mentioned
months ago that she was approached by a major hotelier company to
buy the Inn, I was surprised because of how small Liberty was. How
could I know that PGC, the big hotel corporation and Pentagon’s
most successful business was interested in Liberty? However, PGC
never intended to keep the Inn as a hotel. No, the Inn was to
become part of a large convention, hotel, and apartment living
space project on the waterfront.” I shook my head, angry at myself
for falling so hard so fast without seeing the big
picture.

“
What an amazing plan
right on the Harbor. Pentagon has an incredible business acumen to
tap into that region, so centrally located to all the major sights
and scenes in Boston. Hats off to all of you for finally acquiring
that one property that held up a project that rivals ‘The Big Dig’.
You only had to fuck one vulnerable, simple woman who means nothing
in the grand scheme of things.”

He rushed over to me and grabbed me,
lifting me to his body, “You’re wrong, that was never the case. Not
with you. You mean everything to me. Please let me explain.” I put
my arms on his chest, pushing against his grip around my body. My
body betrayed me, wanting to stay in his arms, but my head had
other plans.

“
Let me go, Matt.” I
struggled out of his hold. He set me down gently. “Do you know what
I overheard Brigit say in the bathroom at the dinner? ‘He’s just
using her.’ Her statement has been burned in my memory and has
unsettled me for these several weeks. I suppressed all the cruel
things she said. I’d look for signs that she was wrong, drunk, and
even jealous. She was right, though. I was a fool. A stupid,
hopeful, needy fool who thought someone could love me for me. You
were a great actor.” I cried. He put his hands through his hair,
and looked at me with sad eyes.

“
How did you get access to
Liberty’s business information?” I demanded.

He turned around and didn’t answer.
“Fine. I think I know the answer to that. The Inn never had a break
in, and information acquired had to be done from the inside without
any suspicion. You took my master key to the Inn, didn’t you? But
no renowned, self-respecting doctor would ever do the dirty work of
entering an Inn and take information for the benefit of his
corporation, would he? You had help breaking in. The only thing I
can’t pinpoint was when.” I looked at him, giving pause for him to
answer the question. He remained silent.

“
When did you take the
key? It had to have been early on because a couple of months after
we started dating, the Inn was sold to PGC, and I’d lost my job
weeks ago.” I stopped to sift through the overload of information.
I covered my face with my arms, holding my head, pushing down the
tears.

“
Alice fought so hard to
stop a sale from happening. Because Alice was terminal, Ross
decided he no longer wanted to be tied to the Inn. Your medical
degree really came in handy to check her diagnosis and treatment
plan. How great that I told you about her illness? Or did you
invade her medical records, like you did mine? Lucky for PGC, and
Pentagon, you knew she had declined further treatment and was ready
to die. How opportune was it that she’d signed over all her worldly
possessions to Ross, not wanting to wait for her own death and the
end of probate of her estate? Pentagon had a fucking lucky break,
didn’t it?”

“
Did you know that Alice
left me half of Liberty Inn in her will?” He nodded, ‘yes’. “Of
course you did, I didn’t. But then again, I’m just a simple girl
from Southie, who doesn’t need to inherit half an Inn when a more
deserving corporation would better benefit from tearing it down and
building a mega residential facility.” He rolled his eyes and shook
his head.

“
So what was the plan if
she hadn’t signed over her ownership of Liberty to Ross before her
death? What if Ross didn’t plan to sell and I would’ve acquired
half of Liberty upon the settlement of Probate? Would you have
married me, continuing this fucking charade of a relationship, and
tried to convince me and Ross to sell Liberty to PGC?” I
hissed.

“
I wouldn’t have taken it
that far.” He admitted.

“
That’s right. You
wouldn’t have taken it that far because I didn’t mean anything. You
have standards.” I inhaled a deep breath grounding myself for an
answer to the string of questions I had for him.

“
How far would you have
taken it, Matt? Help me understand the timeline of when you met me,
discovered my connection to Liberty, and closing on the sale of
Liberty to PGC, when was I supposed to learn about all of this?
What was supposed to happen to us?”

“
I don’t know, Perla. I
hadn’t planned on falling in love with you.”

“
You can stop with the
pretense, Matt. I know now. I know that this was all a sham. You
don’t need to continue with this facade anymore. You’re free. You
don’t have to figure out a way to extricate yourself from this . .
.” I sighed. “I was just a pawn in this game.” He shook his
head.

“
Perla, I still want to be
with you. I’ve always wanted to be with you. If I didn’t love you,
I wouldn’t have brought you to meet my family. If I didn’t love
you, I wouldn’t have wanted to spend time with your family at the
wedding. You mean everything to me.”

“
Ha. I’ll never believe
anything you say now or ever again. You used me. Your friends used
me, twice. What I need to know before I walk away, and I will walk
away, is ‘Why was I the target of Pentagon twice?’ I guess the Gods
were against me. I must have done some really fucked up things in a
past life to get screwed so royally in this life . . . my mother’s
illness and death, my brother’s death, the demise of my marriage,
I’m in excruciating debt, Alice is dying, and you broke my heart.
Was it worth it?” I didn’t wait for an answer.

“
God, I’m so humiliated.
The thoughts of all the things we’ve done, and the sexual
activities, you must’ve been so revolted, keeping up appearances by
being intimate with me.”