‘Steps?’
‘With Troy, we organised for the bank to cut off access to money. It was the only way. The investments that he hadn’t already spent were frozen so he couldn’t access them, and other than a savings account that he could deposit into, all his credit cards were removed.’
‘I think that’s what’s shocked me,’ Hannah admitted. ‘That not only has he been running up a huge debt, but he’s done it so sneakily. It’s the only account I don’t check regularly. Just annually for tax.’
‘Before you talk to him, I’d look into some support groups. See what advice you can get. We found this invaluable with Troy. Not only were there groups to support him directly but there was one for us too, to ask questions and get a feel for how we needed to speak to him.’
Hannah nodded. ‘That’s a great idea. I’ve done plenty of searching online for signs that your partner is in trouble and things like that, but I haven’t searched for support groups.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t need this right now.’
‘We don’t need things like this at any time, believe me,’ Sue said. ‘Finances can cause so many problems.’ Her eyes glassed over with a far-off look.
‘Is that what you needed Mum’s advice for?’
Her father nodded. ‘As you know, we’re planning to retire next year. The managed fund all of our superannuation is in hasn’t performed well in the last four years. If we do retire next year, the amount we’ll have is much less than we anticipated. We’ll have to manage our money very carefully.’
‘Will you still be able to travel?’
‘Not very far. Certainly not overseas, as we’d planned.’
Hannah fell silent. That was so unfair. Her father and Sue had worked hard their entire lives and had been looking forward to retirement.
‘The fund will most likely come good again over the next few years,’ Hannah said. ‘You don’t need to worry too much. They usually perform on a cycle.’
‘Yes, but I’m worried we’ve invested in funds that are too high-risk.’ His cheeks flushed. ‘I was hoping to add a lot in the last few years but instead have done the exact opposite.’
‘I’m surprised your fund manager let you,’ Hannah said. ‘Usually the closer to retirement you get the lower the investment risk.’
‘I gave instructions and they followed them. Now we need to decide whether to leave it in the high-risk option and hope that on the next up cycle we not only recoup our losses but move ahead, or whether we pare it back to the lower risk and accept the loss.’
‘We work with a number of fund managers at No Risk,’ Hannah said. ‘Would you like me to organise for one to provide some independent advice on how you move forward?’
He let out a huge breath. ‘Would you, love? That would be terrific. Our biggest concern has been that the fund continues to lose money. It will leave us in an awful position if it does. Selling the house might be our only option.’
Hannah looked from her father to Sue. ‘Would that be so bad?’
‘I’d feel awful if it came to that,’ Sue said. ‘As you know, I lost most of my savings during the global financial crisis. If only I’d owned real estate at the time and sat on it rather than holding shares that never recovered. Selling the house would seem very unfair. It was your mother’s house and ultimately should be yours and Nat’s inheritance.’
Hannah smiled. ‘I wouldn’t worry about us. We’d much rather you and Dad enjoy your retirement the way you want to.’
Her father shook his head sadly. ‘I appreciate that, love, but I don’t think Nat would feel the same way.’
Hannah was deep in thought as she drove from East Malvern back to Donvale. She felt awful for her father and Sue and would have one of the fund managers contact them on Monday to see if they could help. She would be surprised if Nat objected to them selling the house. For all her flaws, she was the first to come to people’s aid. She wasn’t materialistic and flitted from one home to the next. She doubted Nat would have any emotional attachment to the house or any expectation that she would one day inherit it. She sighed. Hopefully they could get their investments back on track and selling the house wouldn’t be necessary.
She’d sent Damien a text saying she’d pick up some Thai food on the way home, but was surprised when he responded with:
Don’t. Amy and I have prepared something. See you soon x.
She continued mulling over her situation and her father’s advice about looking into support groups. It was a good idea. Fifteen thousand dollars wasn’t a small amount. If it had been one or two thousand, she would have been concerned but also have believed that it was something they could rein in quickly. Fifteen thousand was out of her depth.
Her phone pinged as she turned into her street. She glanced down and saw Zane Fox’s name appear on the screen. Her stomach lurched and she pulled over. She picked up her phone with shaking hands.
Meet me at Chinwags in Prahran on Monday at eleven a.m.
Hannah sank back into her seat, her heart thumping. She’d already spent Phyllie’s money getting rid of Zane, and by the looks of it, it certainly hadn’t achieved that. She couldn’t give him any more money. He’d never stop asking if she did.
She took a deep breath and pulled back out into the street, driving the last hundred metres to her house. What a ridiculous situation. She was hiding a massive secret from Damien, and Damien thought he was hiding his financial debts from her. So much for their promises to be upfront with each other and not harbour secrets.
Chapter Fourteen
Adrenaline pumped through Nat’s body. She held her breath while the last card, ‘the river’, was dealt. An ace. She now had two pair – aces and kings. Unless her competition had two aces in his hand, she should win. Would he raise again? Damn, he’d gone all in.
Nat’s hand hovered over her mouse, the arrow pointing at the ‘Fold’ button. Her strategy said to fold and wait for a better hand, but her gut said no. She pushed her mouse to the right, the ‘All In’ button now highlighted, and clicked it.
The cards were revealed. He had a king and a four. Nat sighed with relief. She was starting to win again at fifty-dollar tables. While the buzz wasn’t as great as the two-hundred tables, she seemed to be able to win or place more consistently. If she could continue like this for a few more days, she would begin to recoup her losses quickly. She’d also banned herself from donating to Shared or any other charity until her debt was repaid.
She opened a new table and a second. She’d played more than one table at a time before, and when she was winning it worked well. She knew other players played as many as twenty-four tables at once, but she didn’t have the confidence to play more than two yet.
The games began. She heard Phyllie call out to her at one stage, asking if she wanted a cup of tea, and she called back that she was busy but would be down within the next forty minutes. That was being optimistic, of course. It meant that she was going to play through to the final round of the tournaments.
Thirty-five minutes later, Nat appeared in the kitchen, a broad smile on her face. The games had resulted in second and third places – prize money of two hundred and fifty dollars. With an additional two hundred from her first place in the earlier game, things were looking up.