Murder She Wrote

36. The Intruder

Before finalizing my divorce, which I wasn't so thrilled about, I had to stop by the bank to officially close out the emergency funds Sierra and I opened. None of this felt real. It felt like I was stuck in a never ending cycle of nightmare. Just a few weeks ago, we were fine and celebrating the birth of our daughter and now we're getting paperwork and lawyers together to settle a failed marriage. Life really does come at you fast. But my blame was still on Veronica. I would be avoiding all of this if I never met her.

I grunted under my breath once I pulled up to the building. I parked my car and prepared to deal with one of their shitty bank tellers.

"Hi, I'm here to make a withdrawal and closure from my account," I greeted the lady sitting behind the closed glass window.

"Do you have an ID with you?" She asked.

I took out my wallet and slid the ID underneath the small slot. She took a hold of it and verified my name and face. "Okay Michael, which account would you like to make a withdrawal on?"

"Savings, directly under the emergency funds," I responded.

"Are you withdrawing a certain amount—"

"All of it. I want all of it out," I cut her off.

"Okay give me a second," she started typing fast against her keyboards. I waited a few minutes before she looked up at me again. However, this time she looked puzzled at the screen. Her eyebrows scrunched together as if she was having a hard time comprehending what's in front of her. I looked at her confused.

"Is there a problem?" I asked.

"Well it says that you've already closed out that account just a few days ago and you've already made your withdrawal," she responded. "You no longer have an account listed under that card."

"What..." I said even more confused. "That can't be right, I've never called in to close out anything." Unless Sierra called beforehand to get the money out herself but then she would've called me and informed me about it. Sierra isn't the type of person to do anything behind my back.

"You'd need a required pin to authorize this sort of action. Your card was definitely closed out with a pin 5 days ago."

"How would my card be closed out when I haven't even come to this bank 5 days ago? This doesn't make sense. Did you let someone take my money out without my knowledge?!" I said getting impatient with her. "Or do you barely know how to do your job? I didn't close out my account, I need a withdrawal of my money right now."

"Sir, I can assist you without you being hostile. Please do understand I'm just telling you what's in the system," she said keeping her composure.

"Fuck the system!" I nearly yelled, attracting many stares from the people inside the building. I sighed trying to keep myself together. "Look I'm having a rough week, that money is my life savings. I can't lose it, so please just check again to see if there's some type of error.." I tried to speak calmly this time. "Please."

"Wait a second," she then informed me before leaving from her spot to walk across the hallway where there was another room located. I stood by the window, accompanied by a long line of people behind me.

Five minutes have passed and I was ready to walk out of the bank. I'm already running 20 minutes late to my own divorce conference. My phone has been going off nonstop because Sierra keeps calling assuming I'd forget to show up. When in reality, I'm dealing with something that can effect me greatly and much worse than all of the other bad things I've come across in life. I'm going to become completely broke if I don't get back what was in that account.