Out for Revenge

by Wood, C

  “Thanks Gina, and If you give your notice here you can start as soon as you are able at the all new Seafront Family Hotel, as soon as you are able. I will need you to join Harry, Nina, and Giles, at the staff meeting tomorrow at two o’clock, in the old Raven offices, we take stock of the hotels tomorrow, and then the hard work begins are you ready for your greatest challenge Gina?” She gave me the thumbs up, as I retired to my room for the night. I had things to do and people to find.

  I opened the bigger of the two envelopes. It was the paperwork for the hotels at either side of the newest of my acquisitions; they had been mine for a month and were running at a good occupancy rate, I was and am pleased. The architect is doing the drawings to merge the four buildings into one. As it was, built as if originally, it is the oldest I believe on the sea front. I want it done over the quite Christmas period and in time for the new season.

  Good old Gina hated Glyn and Lucy as much as I did, I open the smaller envelope, and it was as I suspect he is still gambling. They are living in sin, and not married, why lie though? I looked at the debt he had amassed and shivered it was fifty thousand pounds. I had Gina put out feelers and she had come up trumps, I knew who he owed money to, and how much. I was thinking ahead, to his interview for his job, he wouldn’t ever work in Blackpool again, and if I had my way, he would be lucky to be walking.

  I owned all his debts now, after two or three phone calls, his lines of credit closed, that was not hard to do when I told them he no longer had the comfortable job. He now owed me the money I had bought the fifty thousand debts for a cash payment of twenty thousand pounds. I owned him and boy would he pay, but not before I had some fun.

  I went on line, to view the first of my reports from the detective. Peter was still living with his mother and brother, and they all were into drugs; buying and selling; they were in hock to a big drug boss, and were using more than they were selling. He too was a sorry excuse for a man, and his mother, has two arrests both, for solicitation, much to my horror. He had pimped out his own mother for cash, how low could he go.

  The pictures he sent, were horrendous, they were rough and a mess, he had been such a handsome young boy and quite the catch back in the day, his brother too looked ill, I’d go as far to say he looked like he was dying. His mother looked sad and drained, her full figure and womanly curves, long since gone, she was haggard and ugly, they all three were.

  Peter; had two arrests for drug possession, and had served a four and a ten-year sentence, the latter, included car theft, his favourite pastime, when he isn’t fighting or fucking. He had been banned from driving and had been arrested three times for driving under the influence, whilst, he had no licence and no insurance. He had it seems taken a car from a client as payment for drugs, and not only had the dumb shit got arrested for the drunk driving, but for the drugs he had on him at the time of his arrest for driving a stolen car, it was the drug takers mothers car, not his to give as payment.

  He had too much on his person for it to be classed as for personal use and he had been charged with selling and distribution of class A drugs, which had resulted in his last sentence of fifteen years, he was recently out on parole after serving ten. Interesting, something to work with there the drink, the drugs and the fact he was only out on licence.

  Would he have done that to me, had I stopped with him? Made me prostitute myself for drug money, would he have got me hooked too, I shiver at the narrow escape I had, but thinking about it he did eat painkillers like they were going out of fashion and he did drink a lot even then. I shivered at my close dice with his world; the four years I had been with him were horrendous enough, but to add all the other stuff into the mix made me sick.

  He has leads on the Thompson brothers and hopes to have news in the next couple of days. I wonder what Jack and Tom have been up to, I worry about Tom and fantasize on my revenge for Jack, I put the paperwork away and as I sip my whiskey I plan my day of revenge on Lucy. I have to be careful; she is with child, whose child would be good to know, because it can’t be Glyn’s, or I could be wrong and he had it reversed?

  I have an appointment in Francesco’s spa tomorrow morning, I happen to know she is having her hair and nails done. I will casually meet her in there and start my revenge on her, she will never be my new best friend; but I will find out what I need to finish Glyn for good. I hate the pair of them, more after today and they will be sorry they messed with my good name, all be it my good old name.

  CHAPTER 5

  I woke and showered; had breakfast in my room and did my hair, dressed and went for my hair to my spa appointment. I dropped in on the exclusive boutique first, on my way in, a very expensive and nice little shop, in the small town centre. I purchased a few things, a beautiful swimsuit; now I have the body I will show it off, a beautiful black satin body hugging evening dress and shoes, they bagged them and then after a quick trip to the lingerie shop next door to the spa. I entered the spa for my appointment. Making sure my bags were on display for her to see. I made sure she saw the underwear.

  I was in the middle of my hair wash, when she Lucy Barren Mrs, walked in. I watched as she nervously looks in my direction. I wonder, has Gerald yet told them, that I now own the hotel she worked in, and she has lost her job? I, too now own the block of flats they live in, yes, I go the whole hog, I own everything and anything of his I can, she though being pregnant has thrown a spanner in my spokes, I have to tread carefully with her.

  “Argh, Miss De Vioit, please to see you, I thought it was you sat there, I see you are in the capable hands of Frankie, he usually does my hair, I did wonder why he cancelled, very naughty of you Frankie, really I will let you off this once, you have to look after my new boss.” I smile, as she speaks to ‘Frankie’ in a lousy Italian voice, full of grammar and actual nonsensical words, she speaks very bad Italian.

  Something not lost on Francesco. He is fully aware I speak quite a lot of Italian; he is after all my best friend in the world, we holidayed in the closed season at his mama’s place in Florence, every year for five years. As he had done my hair for years, and he is the only one, who has actually recognised me, much to my delight, as I walked in yesterday at closing time he sat me down and looked at me, studied me, then hugged me. Sworn to secrecy, oh, a non-gossiping hairdresser? A male one at that, but and I think he will enjoy the next couple of days here, he and I have a very sharp sense of humour, dry witted and very cutting, a proper bitch fest when we get started.

  He’d filled me in on all the things he knew about, how she blackened my name, here, there and everywhere. How she told everyone; Glyn was overjoyed at being a father; at long last, because the old Mrs Barren, was in fact barren and couldn’t preform in bed. The gambling was the final nail in the coffin that was his unhappy marriage to me, he had lost all his money, and I had left them in debt and had run away.

  I shuddered at how the whole community had believed her and them. All that is; barring a few close friends, Francesco, being my best friend, and confidant, he knew weeks before she spilled the real reason for me leaving. He knew too and all about Glyn’s vasectomy. I had always kept in touch with Francesco; he was one of the not too many who kept me informed and was always liked to gossip after a day in here, we spent hours messaging.

  Francesco was fuming I asked everyone baring him for money, upset I didn’t ask him for the money for mums funeral; and only found out I was struggling, when weeks later she thought it was funny to tell the whole packed salon, I had begged Glyn for five thousand pounds to pay for her funeral. “The cheek of the old cow wanting more of our hard earned money.” Was what she actually told the assembled clientele here today, back then?

  I was a tad angry she felt the need to try to humiliate me so much. What had I ever done to upset her, she slept with my husband, in my flat, in my bed, under my sheets, well not for much longer bitch?

  “That is Ms De Droite to you, and as of last night you don’t work for me. As I said, you can apply for the lower positions with
in the company, if you so wish, I have my own, excellent management team, and it will be headed up by Carrie Wright, she will be my general manger here, taking over the reins when she gets back from skiing in Europe. I couldn’t manage without my right hand woman, such a god send finding her in Devon, whilst scouting out hotels there to buy.” Her face dropped.

  “You Know Carrie?” I smiled.

  “I do and; as I said last night, to the old owner, I trust her one hundred per cent with all my businesses, so, shrewd with money. She has made me quite a sizable chunk these past six months. I should have stopped you running your mouth off yesterday, but I couldn’t stop you once you started, you were so egger to hurt her even further, than you already have done. Well, I didn’t want to stop you when you spouted those hurtful lies about her previous good character, I let your mouth do the running on that, and as I will be called as an independent witness. She is now looking at suing you for slander.” She looked worried. I wonder though did she have no the truth or was she just replaying what Glyn had told her about me?

  “I can’t believe after all these months Mrs Barren, you feel threatened by her? Robbed, of everything she worked hard for, by your husband, her then husband. He took every penny from her very large bank account. Then he bled the hotel dry too foisting I believe, the blame totally at her feet, but not to worry my legal team will help clear her name. You though had better watch what comes from your mouth in future.

  You have had long enough to besmirch her good name in this town, either you were in on her fall, or were as she was, a gullible woman, in love with her husband. I believe you moved into her home not two days after he blackmailed her into going to Devon, a place she was in fear of returning too?” She looked at me through the mirror as the whole salon stopped and listened.

  “I think you’re miss-informed, it was she, which stole his money, he told me so. I know; because, I saw the mess he was in. We bought the flat, well Daddy did a gift, our wedding present, from him. It was his flat; she moved from her bedsit to live with him, he bought all the things in the flat, and he has great taste. He wouldn’t lie, he loves me, I saw the empty joint account statements she even took the last lot of money out and opened another account.” I laughed now she was as gullible as I had been, but she had enjoyed blackening my name, she will suffer the consequences now.

  “Really, he was rich when they married was he? How did he get the three hundred and ninety three thousand he stole from her account? She got it in a divorce settlement, from her first husband, and from five years of scrimping and saving for a decent deposit to buy the hotels I bought yesterday and that are today mine.

  Ask him how he got the money; it certainly was not from his rich parents, who died leaving him an orphan, brought up in care, having no relatives, his money is in trust until he married her, she stole their legacy to him?” She sobbed, nodded her head, and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue one of the hags who was listening in, passed her.

  “That’s a lie too, his mother’s still alive, and living in Manchester, still in the pub he ran into the ground and left them owing thousands of pounds on it. He owed money to hooky moneymen and back street lenders and bookies all over town. He left them owing two hundred thousand pounds, and in hock to the brewery, for unpaid bills, as well as a brewery loan, he had taken out on their free of tie, free from debt pub, before he returned home.

  He returned home, tail between legs, dis-honourably discharged from the army for misconduct. The pub, their family and had been for four generations, before him. They were about to be thrown out before Carrie stepped in and cleared their more pressing debts, not bad for an ex daughter-in-law, they never knew they had.

  Surprised, because he is still legally married to the woman, he married after knocking her up in school. Caroline, is her name, she’s pretty, and their two children, a girl and a boy are beautiful.

  He has, numerous children, with a fair few women in Manchester, Yorkshire and Wales, his mother has lost count of her grandchildren, well, the ones she knows about that is. She; Caroline, still lives with them, had to, when he did a runner, leaving her in debt, emptying their children’s bank account too, just for good measure.”

  I took a sip of the water Francesco handed me, makes my mouth dry talking about him, but hell the private detective was great, the things I found out made me sick, I wasn’t legally married to him, he was a bigamist. Given a sweet tea, Lucy, sat taking it all in. I hadn’t finished my get to know your real ‘husband’ session.

  “I doubt the money he wrongly claimed was his, was his winnings, from his addiction to the horses, not with his poor gambling skills, he still is no good at it. I will give him credit though, he must love you so much, considering he’s looking forward to bringing a strangers baby into the world as his own, and a baby he knows is not his. He had the snip a long time before he even met Carrie; she was in stitches when I told her last night you were having his child. She had broached the subject of children and he had told her he couldn’t have them, something she is actually glad of now, not having that constant reminder of him by her side.

  Sorry, my big mouth; did he get the snip reversed and you really are having his child? If that’s the case I apologise ahead of the legal case you may feel you need to bring, in full view of all your friends here, I apologise for claiming you are actually carrying someone else’s child and passing it of as Mr Barrens seed. I apologise if that is the case.” Francesco was dying to squeal, I saw him through the mirror.

  “What the hell, how do you know all this, none of it is true, none of it. what has she told you, I won’t stop here to be insulted, yes it’s my husband’s baby, I have never been unfaithful to him, I, I, cannot believe you are doing this to me, what did I do to upset you?”

  “You upset the nearest thing to a sister I have. When Glyn begged her for the money he owed her, yes owed her, to bury her poor mother, you thought it would be fun to let this very salon and this clientele how, she had asked for what was legally hers to bury her poor mother. He owed her that money, he had her flat and all the contents, she had bought and paid for all, she not he, she. You live in her flat with her possessions, all she wanted was what little she had left; he took everything else including her dignity, and all but self-worth. You have indeed been lied to young woman, and you aren’t the type of person I want working for me; I need truth and honesty, which is what I get from Carrie.

  She is worth a thousand of her sorry excuse for an ex-husband. Now if you don’t mind, I have to get my hair done I have interviews for cleaning staff and bar staff this afternoon. Which reminds me tell Glyn; I expect him at quarter past two, in the hotel bar, he and I have things to discuss; and if he doesn’t attend I will be calling in all his markers by close of business today.

  I will expect him to repay the full fifty thousand pounds he now owes me. Oh yes, I bought all his debts, seems his gambling, has become a problem again, check your account darling, has he had your rich daddy put money in your joint account yet? On the other hand, have you just added him to your account dear? How much did daddy dearest put in for the house and the wedding, sorry for the non-wedding you have yet to have, Lucy Pointer, Miss?

  Better check, the state of your account, before he leaves you in a worse mess than he did poor Carrie, being you’re having his child too.” I ended my rant at a very angry, yet not as surprised at my later revelations, as I thought she would be, Mrs Lucy Barren. She stormed off, after throwing the biggest bunch of keys at Francesco’s mirror, oh, seven years bad luck Lucy, tut-tut-tut. Francesco was in gossip heaven; all the women, who he had gathered there at my request, were the biggest gossips in town and had everyone’s ear. I had gotten my revenge on her.

  Now, I looked forward to the revenge on him, though I was a little upset it wouldn’t be coming at him as quite the surprise I wanted it to be, but the opportunity for Lucy’s downfall was just too good an opportunity to miss.

  CHAPTER 6

  I finished with Francesco, after a hectic mo
rning, I made my way back to my hotel. I changed into the sexiest of my suits and reapplied the makeup, I was ready to do battle with my ex-husband, let the battle commence, if he actually turns up, that is.

  I was holding senior staff talks today; the hotel was now mine. I though, had the stock takers in and accountants at first light, they would give me the bad news later, which I was sure, was coming. Gerald had signed all the paperwork in the morning and had banked the cheque. He had given the running of the hotels over to me until we complete which is a mere formality.

  I do business quickly and quietly. I will know how much Glyn is in the hold to Gerald for later, well now me too, but for now, let me see the worm squirm on the hook, he is waiting in the bar he is on time too. Let him wiggle a little longer I have to brief the new manager and his staff. That done they are interviewing, the current staff and are hiring and firing as needed. They will run the business for me, I have a few more hotels to buy and increase my hotel empire portfolio, and I don’t intend sitting back and enjoying the fruits of my winnings just yet. I am already in profit with the ones I have bought already; bought from the bank, as foreclosures and with any luck; I can continue my rise in the hotel world quickly and make head way into the upmarket places my former family now run.

  I have my eye on three Victorian terraced ones in Devon, separate now, but at one time joined. In addition to looking at three or four in London, though those will have to wait, I have to deal with one of my ex’s first. I also have people I need to settle debts with, let the third one face the court of Carrie Constance Wright.

  I walked into the bar and he was already drinking a large JD and coke, his relax with drink. I ordered a diet coke, and sat at the table in the window and asked he join me there. I got out the paperwork, and as I looked through it, he was following the lines of my legs with his eyes. I crossed my legs and adjusted the hem of my skirt; he was eyeing me up the leech.