I. Winter
Todd Robyn, the intern, had used some kind of savings-transfer trick on me. No matter how much money I put into my bank account, the balance always turned into fifty dollars.
In my previous life, I dreamed of buying a place of my own near the office. At last, I scraped together a five-thousand-dollar down payment.
But when I swiped my card, the sales agent told me it had been declined for insufficient funds.
I checked my transaction history, confronted the bank, and even went to the police, but everyone treated me like a lunatic. After all, every single purchase on my bank statement was recorded in black and white.
But I lived so frugally. I had never made any of those purchases!
When I told my coworkers about it, a few of the men took one look at my statement and started mocking me,
"Drew's always dropping thousands at some bar in the middle of the night. That's exactly the going rate for an all-night escort!"
No matter how hard I tried to explain, no one believed me.
I posted the whole story online anonymously. The comments accused me of making things up for attention so I could start selling products. Only one person suggested I keep an eye on the people around me and see whether anyone's spending matched the charges on my statement.
So I watched closely, and sure enough, I noticed something about Todd, the new intern in our department. Every time he spent money, the same amount was deducted from my card. Even when he ordered a drink, the charge showed up on my account right away.
Once I was sure, I confronted Todd directly. He laughed in my face and said I was a spendthrift who couldn't save a dime and now wanted to pin it on someone else. He said I'd completely lost my mind.
He even got our coworkers to help him have me committed to a psychiatric hospital.
After two years of torment there, I finally found a chance to escape and threw myself into the river.
But when I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before I was supposed to buy my home.