Ariella couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was sitting in a large conference room with her boss. She thought that they were here to discuss what she had discovered, but apparently her boss had other ideas.

“As I said, Miss Fontago, we are sorry but we have decided to let you go. You have been a valued employee, but sadly that isn’t enough anymore,” Robert Lewis said.

“I don’t understand, Robert. I came to you with the news of a ponzi scheme and yet here you are firing me?”

“That is exactly why you are being fired. Surely you understand that if word got out that things were not on the up and up, it would be a huge issue for the company.” Robert leaned in closer to her, “Let me be very clear here, Miss Fontago. We are letting you go. If we thought that you could be trusted we would still be working together but since you have proven that you can’t do that, we have no choice but to remove you. Not only that, but to ensure our safety we have blacklisted you to all HR departments in the city. And if you want to ensure your own safety I would advise you to stay away from the police.” Robert leaned back in his chair and smiled.

Ariella was furious. How dare he think that he could pull something so high handed and get away with it. She just wanted to yell and scream at him. But she didn’t. Instead she chose to act like the professional that she was. “If that is all then?” She said as she stood from the table.

“I guess that is it, Miss Fontago.”

Ariella nodded her head and left the office. She headed down the elevator and made it to her car that was parked in the attached parking garage. She drove home in a daze and made her way up to her apartment. Letting herself in, she flopped down on the couch and let out the tears that she had been holding in.

The entire situation was unfair, and yet it didn’t seem like she could do anything about it. Robert Lewis and his group of cronies obviously were doing something illegal and trying their best to keep it hidden. She had worked for them for a couple of years now, and after a lot of research and number crunching she had finally found the issue; an undercover Ponzi scheme.

Choosing not to believe Robert about the blacklist, she vowed to send out as many resumes as it took to find another job. Ariella had some money in savings but thanks to her shoe collection, it wasn’t as big as it used to be. If she was going to be able to continue to afford her nicer apartment she would have to find a source of income. Surely as an accountant it wouldn’t be that hard to find something, she thought.

* * *

Ariella woke up in a bad mood. Deciding that she would need to lose her grumpiness if she was to land a job, she got up and went to take a hot shower. She let the spray run over her, washing away all the hurt from the day before. She got out, got dressed and headed to the kitchen to start some coffee. She could do anything with enough coffee in her veins.

While the coffee was brewing she pulled up the ‘help wanted’ ads on her laptop. She found a couple that might be okay, so she saved them and continued her search. By the time she had drank the entire pot of coffee she had at least fifteen ads saved.

Ariella started to send out cover letters and resumes to each company. By noon she had finished and decided to clean up the apartment for a bit. Time flew by as she cleaned and scrubbed and washed. She checked her email again and nothing new was there. Ariella turned on the TV and began to binge watch her favorite shows that she was behind on.

Three days later, she still hadn’t heard back from any of the companies. She decided to call and check on her applications, so one by one she called the HR offices. Each and every one had a different line of delivery, but the outcome was all the same. They appreciated her applying but they were looking for someone else. End of story, no other explanations were given.

Feeling even more defeated than before, Ariella began to really start to panic. Obviously, Robert hadn’t been kidding when he said that she had been blacklisted. But until now it hadn’t seemed possible.

Ariella went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to get a bottle of wine out. Deciding that glasses weren’t necessary, she uncorked the top to open the bottle. She took a long drink as she walked over to the couch. Not wanting to think about anything important, she turned on the TV and started channel surfing.

She landed on some movie about college kids scamming casinos so that they could pay for their tuition. She had never seen the movie before but as she sat there watching and drinking, the idea of counting cards seemed like a piece of cake. The more she watched the bigger the idea got in her brain. Ariella was smart, especially when it came to numbers. She was an accountant after all.

She watched the rest of the movie, not caring for the part where the students got caught. By the time the credits rolled, Ariella had drank enough wine for her plan to make perfect sense. She would make her money by counting cards at a casino. And she would get away with it, of this she was one hundred percent sure.

She went back to the fridge to get her second bottle of wine and grabbed her laptop on the way back to the couch. She started in on the second bottle while she searched Google for her answers.