"I don’t understand what you are saying."
The manager leaned back. "For your information, all your accounts have been blocked across multiple banks. As it stands now, you won’t be able to withdraw money anywhere."
"You must be joking." Sylvester didn't believe him. He grabbed his phone and opened his banking app immediately, only to find himself logged out. He tried to log in, but he couldn't. Access denied!.
His pulse spiked, and he tried another bank account. Access denied. That was when it hit him that things were getting serious.
He turned back to the manager in fear. "Why are all my accounts blocked?"
The manager smiled. "Do I need to tell you? You know exactly why. And if you want your accounts back… well, you know who to talk to."
Sylvester felt his breath hitch. Anabel. She had found out. She had blocked all his accounts.
And worst of all was that he didn’t even have much cash on him. He was literally empty. For the first time in years, Sylvester felt absolutely powerless.
"I thought Max did a clean job. How did she find out?" He soliloquized, thinking of how she managed to find out.
"Let's go." Sylvester said, and they stormed out of the manager's office.
When he got to his car, he tried to call Max, but his phone was switched off, which has never happened. Sylvester gripped his phone tightly, staring at the blank screen in frustration. It was clear that Max had been caught.
"He was caught," Sylvester muttered under his breath, tossing the phone onto the dashboard with force. How had Anabel figured it out? How had everything unraveled so fast?
Vanessa crossed her arms and asked, "So, what are you going to do?"
Sylvester ignored her for a moment before he answered. "I will go to Anabel,"
"What?"
"Yeah, I will lie. I will tell her Max told me to give him my account so she could send me money. That I wasn’t aware Max had another plan." He said, and Vanessa scoffed and shook her head. "This is lame, Sylvester. Do you really think she will believe you?"
"She always believes my words. This won’t be different." He replied.
"But what if she never believed you at all?" What if she’s just been pretending? I'm getting scared of her. I think she knows everything about us."
"I don't think so. Besides, I have no choice. I can’t make any transactions. I believe I can settle this with her."
"What if she arrests you?"
"Arrest me? Nahhh! Anabel has a soft heart. She won’t call the cops on me." He replied, and Vanessa sighed, clearly unconvinced, but she wasn’t about to argue further.
Sylvester started the car to move. Vanessa watched him for a moment before exhaling sharply. "I’m not going with you." She opened the door and stepped out. Sylvester didn’t try to convince her to join him.
He drove off alone, fully assured that he would settle everything with Anabel. After all, she had always believed him before. He believed he would handle Anabel like he used to do.
.
.
.
Sylvester pulled into the company parking lot. His confidence was still intact. He believed he would fix this. He had always talked his way out of difficult situations before. So this wouldn’t be any different.
He stepped out of his car, straightened his suit jacket, and walked toward the building. He wasn’t shaking. He wanted to appear calm and composed, like a man who had nothing to hide.