“And then you were let go, am I right?”
He’d been saving that for just the right moment. Her termination had never been public, and the Times articles hadn’t used her real name. Aversano knew someone on the inside.
“Are you okay, Mrs. Levison?” he asked.
She knew the flush on her chest had climbed up her neck and perhaps even past her chin. A bead of sweat tickled as it rolled down her hairline.
“I’m fine,” she told him. “The hotel and I both chose to part ways.”
Aversano closed the folder and patted it with the palm of his hand. “Well, I think you’ve had a very interesting idea. Give us a few days to review and get back to you. Would you be able to find a cosigner for the loan?”
“Why would I need a cosigner?”
“We generally require cosigners in this sort of situation.”
“What sort of situation?” Jo demanded, her every cell boiling. “I have an MBA from one of the best business schools in the country. I have two decades of experience. My credit score is 806. And if you’d bothered to do more than skim my documents, you would see I have every i dotted and t crossed.”
“And I assure you, we’ll take all of that into consideration.”
They wouldn’t. The decision had been made before she even stepped into Aversano’s office. She wouldn’t be getting the money. Once, Jo would have played nice, hoping Aversano might have a change of heart. Don’t burn bridges, she’d always been told.
“The fuck you will. You can keep your goddamned loan.” Jo stood up. When she opened her right hand to snatch her business plan off the desk, molten metal streamed out of her palm, forming a silver pool that ate into the surface of his sleek black desk. Miraculously, the rest of her now felt totally cool. The energy had been transferred.
“What the hell is that?” Aversano yelped. He pulled out a Kleenex to wipe it up and immediately jerked his hand back in shock and pain. “It’s hot!”
Jo stared down at the silvery pool, which was already starting to harden. It was all that remained of her Tiffany pen. That’s when she started to laugh. It was all so ludicrous. If she could do shit like that, she didn’t need Jeremy Aversano. And yet she’d been sitting there doing her best to suck up to a hack who couldn’t melt a candy bar between his ass cheeks.
“Ma’am?” A security guard was at the door. Aversano must have pressed an alarm.
She couldn’t stop laughing. “I’m leaving,” she assured him between guffaws. He wouldn’t have been much of a match for her, but she had no beef with a hardworking guard. “And don’t worry,” she told Aversano. “I’m going to make sure you are never, ever burdened by another grade-school mom.”
Outside on the sidewalk, she pulled out her phone and called her financial advisor. “Liquidate my 401（k），” she ordered.
She’d never dared touch her savings before. It was very important that the money sit in an account where parasites like the man on the phone could feed on it.
“What?” He was horrified. “Completely?”
“Every dime,” she confirmed.
“There will be very serious tax penalties,” he warned her. “How much do you need in cash? You should really consider leaving the rest invested.”
“It will be well invested,” Jo said. The path ahead seemed clearer than ever before. It was amazing how far ahead she could see now that she’d burned everything down.
As soon as she hung up, she scrolled through her PTA emails until she found Matilda Aversano’s address.
I heard about your business idea today, she wrote the woman. I think it’s brilliant. I’d like to invest.