No Ordinary Girlfriend
He had to maintain his composure.
More than anything, he must not cry. Jon had cried a lot over the last several days, but he'd done it in private. He'd been careful to give Vanessa no reason to think he knew something was wrong. But something was indeed wrong. Very wrong. Jon hadn't experienced heartbreak before, but nothing like the betrayal he felt now. It was hard to believe she'd done something so horrible, but Jon slowly accepted the obvious truth: Vanessa wasn't the shy, quiet, considerate girl she pretended to be. She wasn't the simple woman he thought she'd been when he fell in love.
"Jon, Vanessa is here," said Phil, Jon's personal assistant. Phil knew something serious was happening, but he didn't know exactly what. Only three people knew: Vanessa's supervisor, the head of accounting, and the chief financial officer. The gossiping wouldn't start in earnest until Vanessa didn't show up for work Monday. It was humiliating to think that the people who worked for him would surely suspect Jon had made a huge error in judgment. It couldn't be helped.
"Show her in, then close the door," Jon told Phil. "Go home after that."
Vanessa walked into Jon's office and smiled warmly. "I got a message you wanted to see me before I left," she said. "Am I here to talk to my boss, or my boyfriend?"
It took a lot of effort to maintain a neutral expression. Vanessa was such a beautiful woman that the sight of her usually put a smile on Jon's face. "Have a seat. We need to discuss something."
Vanessa realized that something was wrong. Jon was acting very strange. "What's on your mind?" she asked.
"Your life is about to change. A lot. You can't work here anymore. We can't have the same kind of relationship we've always had," Jon said.
Vanessa realized that she must have gotten caught. She'd done something she knew was stupid, but she'd done it anyway. That was the way she was. Something always compelled her to act without considering the consequences, and her life was a long series of disasters as a result. She'd done it again, and she expected that it meant she was about to lose the best man she'd ever known.
"These papers in front of me prove that you've embezzled money from my company. From me. You've done it three times at least. It makes me wonder what other horrible things you've done that I don't know about, but these three thefts are more than enough."
Vanessa began to cry. Jon didn't know if she was trying to manipulate him, or if she was genuinely regretful. He thought it was probably a bit of both, but he no longer believed he could trust anything about Vanessa.
"I hired a lawyer outside the company to look at this and give me her opinion," Jon said. "She says you've committed three serious felonies. This would be enough to send anyone to jail, but it's especially bad for you because of your prior convictions." As a juvenile, Vanessa had committed several minor offenses, but the real trouble started when she was caught shoplifting as an adult at 18. She got probation for that, but a conviction for drug possession sent her to jail for 30 days when she was 20. She'd been warned that a third conviction would send her to prison.
"The lawyer says that you can expect an 8 to 10 year sentence if I give these documents to the district attorney. You'll serve a minimum of five years if you behave yourself. Of course, you aren't likely to behave yourself, are you?
That last question was so cold - and so correct - that Vanessa began sobbing uncontrollably. Of all the bad things she'd done in her life, this was the worst. Jon was a wonderful man. He was crazy about her. And she'd betrayed him anyway.
"Baby, I am so sorry," Vanessa said as a deep feeling of shame overwhelmed her. Jon fought the urge to take her in his arms and comfort her. He'd put a lot of thought into what he would do, and sentimentality wasn't going to sway him.
"Part of me thinks that a long prison term would give you an opportunity to reflect on the poor choices you've made, and maybe that's exactly what you need," Jon said. "But I love you. I would rather not send you to prison. There might be a way we can avoid that. But it's going to be up to you."
"Oh honey, I'll never do anything like this again. I promise. I'll do anything for you to forgive me," Vanessa said. She began to imagine she could manipulate Jon into forgetting this had happened. She was wrong.
"I have no idea if you're telling the truth. I don't trust anything you say," Jon said. "We both know that you've been pretending to be someone you aren't. We both know you lied, over and over, to get me to fall in love with you. Congratulations. Despite everything, I love you. But I don't believe you. We're at a point where words no longer matter to me."
Jon said this with such cold, calm resolution that Vanessa felt sick. In fact, she did love Jon. She admired him. She knew he was, by far, the best man she'd ever known. Those were the reasons she'd worked so hard to make him think she was the kind of woman who deserved his love. But she wasn't.
Jon was so exhausted that he wanted to finish this as soon as possible. "Let's get this settled. Before I tell you what I want from you, I need to know something. Why did you steal this money? I've given you a place to live, a car to drive, and an allowance sufficient to pay for anything you need or want. You didn't need the money, but you took it anyway. Three times! Why?"
Vanessa tried to be honest as she explained. "I don't do this stuff for any reason you'd see as logical. I saw that it was possible to forge company checks, so I just did it. It's a compulsion. Every time I get in trouble it's because I see an opportunity to get away with something, and I forget that I never get away with anything."
Jon thought that this sounded true. It sounded like a healthy amount of self awareness. But it could also be further proof that Vanessa was very, very good at saying what he wanted to hear.
"I have another question. When we met, and you were trying to get me to fall in love with you, you were generous with sex. We made love every single day, usually more than once. And you used to give me the most amazing blow jobs. But a while ago, you started making excuses to avoid making love, and I haven't had one of your blow jobs in a long time. Why did that happen? You must have known I wouldn't like it. What did I do to deserve that?"
Vanessa began sobbing again. "You didn't do anything. I did that because I'm stupid." Jon handed her a box of tissue, and she wiped the tears from her eyes. "You are so good at so many things. I'm not good at anything. Withholding sex made me feel powerful. I never get to feel powerful. It doesn't make sense because I don't make sense."
Jon thought it made perfect sense. It fit with his emerging understanding of what went on inside Vanessa's head. He hoped it pointed to a route out of this mess, but the only way to find out was to try it.