Machiavellian Bluff

By Abby Wilton

The hatred that Robert arouses in Mary against Kate helps him gain her trust. Mary plots against Kate and, using Coronation Street wittiness, delivers a mastermind plan to destroy Kate.
Mary, pretending to be Kate's friend, lowers her guard, which exposes Kate to her treachery and betrayal.
Mary and Robert decide that Kate offended them and committed a wrongdoing for which she deserves to be punished.
They stage a simple wrongdoing that the mob could relate to: "Kate throwing Robert's sister out of the house".
They use this "sin" to justify their actions to themselves but especially to blind the public; keeping Kate low, weak and poor by accusing her of the wrongdoing and humiliating her, helps them to become strong, powerful and rich.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781528908634

Abby Wilton

Abby Wilton is an avid advocate of justice, human rights, dignity and equality. She holds dear a vision of society governed by values of honesty, helpfulness and compassion. Machiavellian Bluff depicts how these values are often mocked as naive, stupid and old-fashioned in modern society, and values of using conning tactics to make profits rather than thwarted are rewarded.

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triangulation

About the Author

Abby Wilton is an avid advocate of justice, human rights, dignity and equality. She holds dear a vision of society governed by values of honesty, helpfulness and compassion.

Machiavellian Bluff depicts how these values are often mocked as naive, stupid and old-fashioned in modern society, and values of using conning tactics to make profits rather than thwarted are rewarded.

If you wish to get in touch, feel free to drop me an email at: [e-mail]

Copyright Information ©

Abby Wilton (2018)

The right of Abby Wilton to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781786290595 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781786290601 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781786290618 (E-Book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2018)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

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Pump hill

Robert lived in a million dollar house on Pump Hills, one of the most affluent areas of the city, for the last five years. He moved to that house, from the one he bought five years earlier, for his wife to be, a thirteen years younger girl he met through the Internet.

Robert went back home while still married and living with Kate to see his family and he must have met the girl then in person. Kate remembered well, when he came back and announced, standing in the middle of the kitchen, I will never cheat on you as long as I am living under the same roof. Was Kate naive, not understanding what he was telling her and why?

She will, several years later, know exactly why he was explaining himself.

Kate was living on the other side of the same hill, in a small townhouse since the divorce. Five years ago, waiting on the red light on the nearby intersection, she felt some strange energy pulling her head to the right side. She turned her head and there was her ex, sitting in his new, expensive car, about half a meter away, on the other line, looking straight at her. He was wearing the green sweater Kate brought for him to Spain, when she went to see him there 26 years ago.

Kate felt lightheaded, he kept his gaze on her and like a puppy she followed him in her car when the light turned green. He made two turns, then stopped, got out of the car, stared directly at Kate and walked into a big, expensive house.

Kate was in shock; she hadn’t seen Robert in the last five years. She turned around and went to her townhouse, which was directly on the opposite side of the road. At home, she opened her computer and typed Robert’s name in 411 search engine, his address came as the house he walked into, just five minutes ago.

Kate, called Mary, who knew Robert well; he used to work for her, now deceased, husband. Mary lived on the same side of the hill where Robert bought his new house. Kate looked on the map, his house created a 500-meter triangle between his, Mary and Kate’s house.

Kate knew, working with domestic violence that in most restraining orders the required distance to stay away from abusive ex-partner was 500 meters.

In a high-pitched, nervous voice, Kate was telling Mary, Robert bought a house right here on the hill… Calgary is such a big city and he bought the house on the other side of the road from my house?

Mary sighed and said, My neighbor saw him a while back viewing another house in the area. I am not surprised.

Kate asked, Why would he want to do that? His house was right on the path Kate regularly walked her dog, Ari.

I. The beginnings

First years in Calgary

Kate was 26 and Robert 27, when they moved to Calgary. She did not speak English so she took English as a Second Language (ESL) course. She met a boy there who was working in a restaurant and he helped her get a job as a waitress.

Kate was happy to have this job but not knowing Canadian cuisine and English names for different dishes and spices made the job very challenging. The pace of the kitchen was hectic; the constant rush of orders, serving food and dealing with customers was very stressful. After six months of working long hours, catering for overnight weddings and carrying heavy plates of food, she knew she had to make a change.

Kate decided to go back to school full time. She signed for English 30 and convinced Emi, a Japanese girl she met at ESL course to attend with her. The focus of English 30 was on poetry and short stories, two strengths of Kate. She had great imagination and loved poetry. During one of the first classes, a poem was read. The poet compared clouds on the sky to a flock of sheep roaming on a slope of a high hill. Emi had a puzzled look on her face and looking at Kate asked in whispers, How did the sheep get on the sky? That does not make any sense. Emi started giggling, opened her mouth and eyes wide and made an enigmatic smile. She did not like all these metaphors and after several more, told Kate that the class was too hard and confusing for her and she was thinking of dropping it. Emi liked facts and numbers, which was just the opposite of what Kate liked. Emi was also very genuine and intelligent, both traits that Kate valued. She did not want Emi to quit and she tried to convince her to stay. After the third class, however, she stopped coming. Kate was determined to finish; she had paid the fees already and was not going to get the money back now.

Suddenly, Kate was alone without any friends with only young Canadian people in her class. At that time, Kate was smoking, which was not allowed in the building, only outside, during breaks. There were other smokers in the class; it was very trendy among young people those days to smoke. The classmates created a small group and didn’t invite Kate to join nor attempted ever to talk to her.

One time, a girl, standing with two others, started shouting at Kate, Get lost, what do you want here? Kate was sure there was something wrong with her; she never met this girl before, surely she was not talking to her. The girl was aggressively shouting and gesticulating towards Kate. If Kate were younger, maybe she would have taken these comments personally but her identity was well developed by the age of 26 and she knew she didn’t do anything to this girl, so she was sure these comments were more a reflection of the girl rather than having anything to do with Kate. Kate’s focus was clear; she came to the class to learn English, nothing else.

When she was with Emi, the girl did not pay any attention to Kate but now she seemed to be fixated on her. During class when Kate started sharing her opinion, the girl shouted, ‘shut up’ in a loud and obnoxious voice. Kate was even more certain then, that there was something wrong with this girl. Her behavior continued during class and the teacher was not paying any attention to the girl and simply ignored her behavior. Kate grew up in a small town in Poland were children were encouraged to cooperate, be nice and respectful to each other but especially to authority figures. The tolerance of this disrespectful behavior by the teacher was very confusing to Kate.

When the first essay she wrote was handed back to her, she was surprised to see a big ‘A’ at the top of the page. The teacher approached her after the class and offered to spend extra time to guide her writing. Kate, however, declined the kind offer. She wanted to get home and get the dinner ready when Robert, her husband, came home. Robert was working full time and she was taking care of the house and the building where she worked as the manager. Her job helped to pay for ESL and now English 30 class. She went to school in the morning and then had to go home to supervise the building and deal with anything that needed her attention. At the end of English 30 class she took the final exam but her score was not good enough for admission to the university. She then took English as a Second Language test and got a score that was enough for the college admission. She applied for the student loan, which she received and started attending Social Work program at the local college. She quit her job as a waitress, of course, but kept the building manager position, which she needed to live on.

Kate meets Mary

When Kate was studying English as a Second Language, another boy Kate used to go outside for a smoke with gave her a phone number to his friend, Mary. He told Kate that Mary was an interesting person who would be a great source of information for the project they were assigned to work on for the class at that time.

Kate did not call Mary when he gave her the number but she kept it and called her two years later, when she started her Social Work Program. Kate introduced herself, explained how she got her number and then asked Mary if she would be interested to be interviewed for one of her courses and Mary said yes.

When Kate came to her house, Mary invited her to sit in the dining room around a long, beautiful table. Kate asked the first questions, What was your biggest achievement in life?

Mary thought for a while then answered with certainty, ‘Raising my children.’

Mary was 55 years old when Kate met her. She was living in the upscale house, in the affluent community with an engineer husband, who was the family provider. She was raising their three children but now they were all grown up; one was a real estate agent living in the city and the other two were living in London, England, the daughter was a doctor and her son an engineer.

Kate liked talking to Mary. She was interesting, thoughtful and wise. After the interview, as a way of thanking Mary, Kate invited her and her husband for supper to her house. Kate loved to cook and wanted to make something special. She prepared potato pancakes with goulash and mushroom sauce. The evening was filled with easily flowing conversation about general topics. Ken, Mary’s husband, was a fatherly type, with a taste for lively discussions and shots of scotch, whiskey or cognac. He had a warm, bright and caring aura, which was often dimmed by Mary’s reserved, rigid and cold attitude.

As Kate and Robert had only been living in Calgary for the last four years, they have not been immersed into the city life yet. Ken invited them that evening to a Christmas party he was organizing for the British engineers in a local club. Ken finished his engineering degree in London. He and Mary grew up there.

Kate and Robert accepted the invitation happily. In mid-December, they went to the party. They were sitting next to a young, nice, Irish couple. The wife was full of stories about her five children. The husband had a wandering eye and was gazing at other women constantly. Kate felt sorry for the wife and listened to her stories for a while but, not having her own children, found the topic rather boring. In spite of this, the party was very nice, filled with good food, music and even some dancing.

After the Christmas party, Kate called Mary with another school project and she was very interested to participate. Most projects involved looking into life in depth and Mary had plenty of experiences and good insights to share. Talking about the importance of belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization captivated her attention. Mary’s financial situation, taken care of by her husband, left plenty of time for her to think, read and converse with others.

Mary was an ambitious lady, she told Kate she was pursuing a degree in architecture but had to drop out after a year. She had a child and then another and taking care of the children was a priority. She never achieved a formal degree. Kate could hear regrets in Mary’s voice, but when asked directly, she denied it and a high-pitched voice said, ‘of course I don’t.’ Mary, however, was protesting too much for her words to be true.

Mary took some art courses at the local university and was drawing and tried sculpturing for a while but gave that up already. Her life now focused on helping her husband, though occasionally in his business, as a secretary.

Kate, really liked and admired Mary but she disliked her need of being always right and imposing her ideas on Kate, which was especially very common, at the later stage of their relationship. At times she was so aggressive, narrow-minded and expressed an ‘I know better than you attitude’ that Kate decided to bite her tongue and be quiet. When Kate wanted to express her view, Mary immediately contradicted it, in a raised, high-pitched tone of voice. Kate wondered often why was Mary acting this way; was something making her angry or was she feeling not good enough.

Ken, on the other hand, was not threatened by different views of other people. He showed genuine admiration for what Kate had to say and he listened. He was patient and insightful but at times had an explosive temper. He always regained his composure quickly though and became his warm and pleasurable self within minutes. Kate’s conversations with Ken were effortless, he showed undivided attention when she spoke and she did the same when he shared his views and opinions.

When Kate talked to Ken, she felt acceptance and warmth when she talked to Mary, she sensed reserve and coldness. When she talked to Mary, she felt tense, just not able to be herself. Kate felt she was communicating with Ken but only talking with Mary.

Ken was an open and Mary a hidden book. Ken was very straightforward and it was hard to read Mary. Kate did not know yet much about zodiac signs but learned later that Ken’s sign – Leo – was compatible with Kate’s Aries, both high-energy signs. Mary was a Cancer just like Kate’s father and was reserved and conservative.

Ken and Mary visited their two children, who lived in London, most Christmases. Ken usually came back right after the New Year. Mary, however, stayed for a month or two. Before leaving this year, Mary asked Kate to take care of the house and her cat in her absence.

Ken came back a week later, with Chanel No. 5 perfume for Kate and for Robert, one of the best bottles of scotch, from the duty free shop.

When Mary came back, two months later, she invited Kate to her home often and they were spending a lot of time together, working on projects for school or just hanging out. The year went by very quickly.

When next December came, Ken was busy working on a project he needed to finish right after Christmas. He decided not to go to England that year. Mary did not like going to Christmas party with the engineers so she decided to leave early.

Ken did not like to cook and Kate suggested that he came for suppers to her home. The evening conversations after supper were long, invigorating and interesting. In addition to politics and world news, Ken talked about the project he was working on. He was a devoted and passionate Engineer, who took his job very seriously. This time, he felt overwhelmed by fast approaching due date of the project he was working on. Kate suggested that Robert, who was an engineering student at that time, helped him and Ken agreed.

Right after the Christmas party for the engineers, which Ken again organized and Kate and Robert attended, Ken came for suppers most evenings and Robert’s occasional help was becoming more and more frequent.

Just before Mary came back, Ken decided to hire Robert on a part time basis. Kate continued inviting Mary with Ken for suppers but Ken stopped abruptly praising Kate cooking in front of Mary. On several occasions, Mary implied that Kate’s cooking was unhealthy. Ken and Kate were born in the same region of Poland where cuisine was similar to Ukrainian; cabbage rolls, pirogues, potato pancakes, which Mary did not like at all. She liked fish and chips, which of course Ken did not eat. Mary liked repeating a story about Ken not liking seafood. One time, he found a shrimp in a ball of soup he was served in a restaurant. Apparently, according to Mary, he called the waitress and pointing to his soup told her, There is a crab in my soup, and asked her to take the pink little shrimp out. When he was told that the shrimp was supposed to be there, he removed it himself and told her to throw it to the garbage. Ken often bought his favorite dishes ready-made. Mary only cooked fish. When Ken walked to the kitchen smelling fish, he announced immediately, I am going out to get something to eat, and proceeded to a nearby Polish shop to get his cabbage rolls or pirogues.

Mary viewed herself as part of a higher society. She was obsessed with Queen Elizabeth and kept her in high regard. She constantly copied her style in speech, dress and mannerism. One time when she went to get a haircut in a local saloon, she came back looking just like the Queen. She was showing her new hairdo to everyone, acting upset and repeating, They made me look like Queen Elizabeth. Kate knew she loved her hair that way. Mary pretended to be the aristocracy when Ken was very contented to be a simple man.

Mary was not in favor of Ken hiring Robert, at least outwardly. She wanted Ken to retire soon, that’s what she was saying. Kate suspected that what upset Mary the most was that the decision was made in her absence; otherwise, she was well aware Ken needed help with the project he was working on. She was genuinely hoping though that Ken, 62 years old now, would be slowing down and spending more time with her.

Kate could not imagine these two people just hanging out together; they were too different and getting on each other’s nerves all the time. They needed space between each other. Mary knew that Ken’s work was his life and passion, which he would not want to abandon. Ken without his work was like a fish without water.

Taking care of the housework was starting to be too much for Mary and she constantly complained to Kate, who helped on several occasions, but did not want to get into a habit of doing the housework for her all the time. Kate suggested Mary to hire a cleaning lady, which she eventually did, in spite of being scrimpy and wanting to have someone do it for her for free. Taking care of herself first was the most important to Mary.

Mary felt useful and important when she was working as a secretary for her husband but her habit of sleeping till 12 o’clock pm, meant Ken did not rely on her much. She did type professional letters in the evenings when needed. Ken answered most of the phone calls himself. He was an old fashioned man, set in his ways and preferred to speak with people directly, he did not like the new phone answering system, which was becoming so popular at that time. He was frustrated when he wanted to speak to someone right away and had to leave a message and then wait a long time to get an answer. His communication style was direct, to the point and required immediate attention. Ken didn’t like to wait, when something needed to be done; it had to be done instantaneously. He only liked taking time when entertaining at the table. He was a great host who loved long, stimulating conversation and a glass of good scotch or whisky. He was the most respectful and generous man Kate ever knew.

Mary loved staying up late to read and watch her shows. It was then that Kate started occasionally watching Coronation Street, Mary’s favorite soap opera.

As Mary lamented in front of Kate and Robert to Ken, I was hoping there will be less jobs, not more, he did just the opposite and was taking newer and newer projects. Robert was working more and more hours, and eventually started to work full time for Ken.

Mary, on the surface, seemed unhappy about Ken working so much but Kate suspected she liked her life the way it was. She had money to spend, go to England on extended visits and buy expensive jewelry. All of these would have to end if there were no more jobs.

She started playing a good wife of a businessman.

Ken loved the social life, with his business booming he felt eager to celebrate. Working long hours meant going out for suppers quite often. He was always generous, extravagantly paying for dinners in expensive restaurants. Ken was so busy and had to contract out some work to an old friend, a man with a severe disability, from Vancouver who was then spending a lot of time in their house. Mary had someone to talk to in the evening and impress, especially while watching Jeopardy. The game show she was very good at.

Ken, usually so deeply in thoughts about his engineering projects, hardly paid any attention to Mary or anything else, including money. Mary was taking care of the finances. Ken’s views about the world and politics and even simple opinions about daily matters were very different from his wife’s. When Mary would attempt to express her opinion, an automatic switch seemed to go off in Ken’s brain, which he attempted to shut off immediately. He looked like a log on fire. His entire body was suddenly erect and he seemed in panic, like a wild animal. First he ignored her, tried to change the subject, if he could not, he just left the room. Mary would usually try one more time to repeat what she wanted to say, quickly shouting her opinions out laud, in a high-pitched voice. If Ken was still there, he might have tried to turn the TV up, hushing everyone present up, pretending to listen to something he did not want to miss; most often when he sensed she was determined to speak, he was already gone to the kitchen.

Mary was inventing different ways to keep herself busy and have some control in her life. She was the housewife, now having a cleaning lady; she had more time for herself. She started purchasing jewelry on the shopping channel, almost daily. She loved wearing jewelry at home and for the outings. She even gave Kate a gold bracelet as a gift for Christmas and then another one for her birthday. Kate was not accustomed to getting any presents like that before, she felt she needed to reciprocate and was buying in turn, gifts for Mary and Ken; expensive set of knives, cooking spices, and scotch for Ken and perfumes for Mary. Kate and Mary were spending many evenings cooking together especially on the weekends when Ken and Robert were working extra hours on finishing projects. On special occasions such as Christmas, Mary and Kate cooked a big feast.

Kate was quite uncomfortable receiving gifts from Mary. The gold chain or the bracelet she got were not really the style she liked. She was accepting these gifts graciously but with mixed feelings.

Several years later, Kate took the bracelet she got from Mary to a local shop, to fix the closing clasp. The lady at the jewelry shop told her that the clasp needed to be replaced as the bracelet was worn out and could not be fixed, How could that be? asked Kate. I wore the bracelet several times only. Did Mary give her a worn out bracelet? Kate was embarrassed in the shop because she told the jewelry lady that she got the bracelet as a Christmas gift not long ago from a friend.

Kate wondered if the jewelry lady had a hidden agenda? Saying that the bracelet was worn out she may have hoped to motivate Kate to make a new purchase in her shop to replace the old bracelet. She gave Kate a price for fixing the clasp equal to a new bracelet. Kate did buy a new one, which she loved. She knew, however, by now, things are not always as they seem or someone tells you that they are. There are usually different angles to one story.

Kate’s job as building manager

In 1992, Kate got a job as building manager, which was advertised in a local paper. The building was close from downtown. Robert insisted that Kate be the only one responsible for this job. He was working part time as a house painter and going to the university also part time.

Kate was responsible for advertising apartments for rent, interviewing prospective tenants, renting suites and collecting monthly rent. She had a list of trade companies to call in case of emergency. Occasionally, a call to a plumber or an electrician was all she needed to do. The job was easy to manage. Once the tenants causing problems left, Kate replaced them with new, nice people and later had no problems. She had keen intuition and was able to sense good people right away. Most of tenants she chose stayed for years. In spite of vacancy rates fluctuating and being high at times, the apartment building almost never had any empty suites after she took it over. She was proud for doing a good job.

One time, when the owner of the building went for a holiday he asked Kate to deposit rent money to the bank. Kate had to go downtown where his bank was, to deposit rent collected for the whole month close to $18,000 to his account. After collecting the rent, Kate usually handed the money to the owner who then went to his bank to deposit it. This time, however, she was asked to go to the bank with the money. Kate was 26 years old and never had to carry that much cash by herself alone. There were some checks but mostly the rent payments in the old days were made in cash. She asked Robert to go with her but he said no, stating it was her job not his. Kate felt irritated and stressed.

Downtown Calgary was a busy place during weekdays; on the weekends the area was deserted. Robert nonchalantly kept refusing to go in spite of Kate’s repeated requests. So, the brave Kate went by herself. She drove downtown and parked her car in an underground parking lot. The parking lot was entirely empty. She remained seated in the car for a while as she had a weird feeling in her stomach; the emptiness of the place was staring back at her with big, scary eyes. Before getting out, she put the bag with the money under her sweater and tucked it inside her trousers. She headed for the elevator taking big, briskly steps.

Luckily the elevator door opened immediately, however, the two boys she did not see before, sneaked inside the elevator, just behind her. Kate could hear her heart pounding; the boys were standing so close and staring at her.

Thankfully it was only one floor up and the door opened in seconds. She was safe, the knot in her stomach disappeared and she took a deep breath and walked into the bank.

She knew the boys were planning something.

Kate deposited the money and went back home.

After this incident, she had recurring dreams that Robert sent those boys to attack her and steal the money. He knew Kate would not agree to be a part of a theft so he wanted to frame her. Of course she had no proof, just a hunch.

Kate made her priority to attend school and the building manager job was supposed to give her the means to pay her way thorough. She studied sociology in Poland and was hoping to stay in the same field. She tried to get some credits for her studies. However, all the courses she had were not accepted. The courses had different titles, which was probably the reason behind it. She got some credits for the Russian language. Starting from the beginning will give me good footing, she kept telling herself, not wanting to feel discouraged and put down. She believed in hard work, thorough preparation and good ethics.

Kate will only know long after, taking so much time for school was a mistake. All the courses took a lot of time. It also cost a lot of money and she accumulated a huge debt.

She also found that most people in that program were on social assistance and had their tuition free. Kate had to pay a lot of money for the same courses and knowledge that she already had. After the diploma program, she was planning to go to university to get the bachelor degree.

Kate’s father visits Calgary in 1995

Kate didn’t see her father in the last five years since coming to Calgary. He flew on a direct charter plane coming from Krakow to Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta, 280 km north from Calgary. She and Robert went there to pick him up from the airport.

Kate’s father brought a lot of gifts from the Polish country shops, very sentimental items. She particularly loved the sofa throws made of real sheep’s wool. The throws were warm and beautiful but very heavy. Kate looked at