From Corporate to Country

By Crystal Tarling

City life has it's problems and escaping them is sometimes the answer.  This story is about a second chance at life, love and everything else.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michelle Brown
• Release date: Jan 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393583257

Crystal Tarling

I was adopted as young baby and had a wonderful life full of adventure and imagination.  Stories come naturally to me.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Dedication

From Corporate to Country

To Deborah for all her encouragement.

I paused at the top of the stairs and looked out over the people milling in the room below, each one in earnest conversation with someone.  My eyes moved around until I spot him, my husband, Bernard, working the room as usual.  He really knows how to coax business out of people! A charmer, good looking and he knows how to use it!  There is bound to be quite a few contracts coming out of this gathering.

We’ve been in business for over 120 years – my forefathers having started it and now we hold the reins.  Bernard is COO and I am Chairman of the Board and CEO.  I descend the stairs and start to mingle...

The rest of the week is business as usual and we are busy in meetings with prospective clients and old investors alike.  I walk to my office and sit down, exhausted, at four on the Thursday.  My intercom buzzes.  Yes, Nat, what do you have for me?

My assistant Natalie has been with me forever and is a close friend too. Are you able to meet with George now?  He has some information for you. 

Send him in please.

Our accountant comes through the door with files and papers and dumps them on my conference table.  I think we had better sit over here so I can show you something.

We pour over the figures for some time and there is no doubt, someone is fleecing us and the figures are large. 

How have we not seen this before? I ask.

It started off small with transposed figures and then they got larger over time.  It has been done very cleverly and he knows what he is doing! said George.

He?  You know who this is?  Who?

He showed me and I gasped!  Are you positive?

Yes, there is no doubt about it, I am afraid.  Do we call in the forensic auditors now? he asked.

Yes, we have a duty to our investors.  I have to think how to deal with this. I sigh as he leaves and get up to walk to the window and look out.  How will we deal with this?  So many scenarios run through my head and quickly a migraine starts.  I grab my bag and leave, needing to be alone.

I enter the house not knowing how I drove there and feel grateful that Bernard is away and will only be back in a few days and the house is empty so I am able to unwind alone.  I swallow a migraine cocktail and lay on top of the covers and fall asleep, waking in the dark and not knowing where I am.  Slowly the events of the day come back and I start to cry.

Later I get up and wash my face and run a bath, pouring lots of herbal salts in and soak my cares away, but they will not disappear!  I have to deal with them. I decide a sleeping tablet is the only way I will get any sleep that night and take one and go to bed to read.  I wake with my Kindle on the carpet next to the bed. I fell asleep while reading.

The next day I had back to back meetings and I am grateful for that fact – I did not have time to think about the embezzlement. I immerse myself in work and the day goes fast.

George and his team are busy with the forensic auditors making sure they had access to everything they needed to complete the audit quickly.  I sign all necessary papers to give them all available access and assistance needed.  They have promised to work through the weekend and have an answer by Tuesday at the latest.

I plan on having a Board meeting on Thursday and ask Natalie to set it up for 10:00. She reminds me that Bernard is away and I tell her to go ahead without him.  By Tuesday morning there is no doubt of George’s findings but it is much bigger than we thought initially, over R4.5 million!  How did that go unnoticed?  The auditors have the answer to that too!  He was extremely clever moving money around until it got lost!

The Board members dribble in to the meeting room and Natalie gives them all their tea or coffee. She then takes her seat next to me with her laptop already up and running.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome and thank you for all joining me at such short notice.  It goes without saying that everything said in this room, remains in this room, more so today than ever before!  There are murmurs and whispers and I call them to order.

"We have a big problem that has come to my notice and we need to deal with it fast! We have uncovered embezzlement to the