The Downline

By Naomi Kelsey

She's the only one who can find her best friend…and the truth.

It's just another boring Tuesday for struggling single mom and wannabe #bossbabe Mika Jenson. Then her best friend, Bree, disappears. The same Bree, who appeared to have it all-- a thriving downline and business, a gorgeous husband who dotes on her, a big custom-built house in a gated community, and a closet full of designer shoes--is hiding a secret. Many secrets, in fact.

Mika's thrust into a world of twisted illusions and tangled lies that her multi-level marketing company will do anything to keep hidden as she sets out to find her friend.

The chase takes Mika from the picture-perfect suburbs hiding dark realities to the neon glitter of Las Vegas, but is it Bree who she's looking for…or the self she lost long ago in the ruthless world of networking marketing?

The ladder of success in multi-level-marketing only goes in one direction---up to the top. But sometimes it's The Downline you have to keep your eye on.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Naomi Kelsey
• Release date: Nov 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215434802

Book preview

The Downline

Naomi Kelsey

Published by Naomi Kelsey, 2022.

Table of Contents

Title Page

The Downline

Prologue:

Bree. 10.59 PM, Monday night. Springfield, Arizona.

-$1201.35

The unrelenting number stared at her from the ATM receipt. Bree took a deep breath, as the room seemed to shiver in and out of focus. The crappy lighting of the crappy 7-11 she’d stopped at to get cash for the drive made everything seem green, dead, swampy, like being inside of a zombie movie.

Friggin’ Rob. Had he gotten the new password to their account? What was he buying now? She opened the banking app on her phone with shaking hands, the mint fragrance from the STRNGTH BEED she wore around her neck buzzing irritatingly through her nose.

She scanned over the charges on the statement, looking for...she wasn’t quite sure what she was looking for. Rage at Rob made it hard to focus, but she took a deep breath and tried.

$500 in cash from an ATM. Various other charges—-liquor stores, gas stations. Her recent token payment of $100 on a $11,300 credit card balance. The numbers blurred together and she realized there was no way that she was going to magically find a $1200 mistake to make it right.  

The words faded into the buzz of the florescent lamps in the 7-11. Bree stuffed her phone into her purse and walked back to her car in a haze of fear.

She decided that she wasn’t going home just yet. What she didn’t know then was that she’d never be going home.

Chapter 1

Mika. 11 AM. Tuesday Morning. Springfield, Arizona.

Tuesdays are the new Mondays, am I right, Dolls?

She’s okay. She’s got to be okay. She’s on a Target run or she stepped out to get a last-minute manicure before Rollin’ today so she’d look hot while flashing her swag. She’s having a leisurely me-time Starbs and her phone is buried in her purse and on silent for once. She’s out on the open road in a candle-apple-red convertible, that blue-black hair streaming in a banner behind her, finally free...for an hour or two.

Mika took a breath and let it out slowly. 11.00 AM and Bree wasn’t answering her phone—-calls or texts. Her finger hovered over the next number in the contact list—-Rob’s phone. A frown creased her forehead and she unconsciously nibbled on the inside of her cheek. It would have to be a lot more serious than a missed breakfast and gossip session with Bree for her to call Rob.

Meanwhile, Rollin’ was in 30 minutes and she hadn’t put on any makeup or pulled together any reports.

She scrolled through the comments on the main page, searching for Bree’s name. The last comment Bree made on the page was last night, at 1 AM.

Anyone with information about the office headquarters of LVNG like who to ask for or how to get in, please DM me. It’s important.

An unpleasant chill crawled over Mika’s skin. Bree asking about getting inside the LVNG offices? From what Mika knew, the offices were in suburban southern California, in some inoffensive beige office park where Marketing and HR and the various VP’s worked. Why would Bree want to go there, hundreds of miles away, when she could just reach out to the local Event Director or even Planning Head if she needed help. And what kind of help or information did she need? Bree and Mika talked about everything! Everything but needing to get to LVNG headquarters on short notice, apparently.

Something else flashed through Mika’s mind at the same time as questions about Bree’s post skittered and bounced through her thoughts, tangling the two together in a sickly stew of worry and fear.

When her Planning Head, Quinn, recruited Mika to LVNG 3 years ago, she’d encouraged Mika to quit the Treadmill.  

Mika, why limit yourself to pounding out miles on the Treadmill only to line someone else’s pockets? In LVNG, a Doll is only limited by her drive and her spirit. If you want to work 8-hour days, of course you can. Here Quinn’s smooth, pretty face crinkled with slight distaste at the thought of a Doll having to work 8 hours a day.

But most of us work whenever. We pop on socials while the kids nap. We do our parties and events while hubs is watching sportsball or on that Big Rig BBQ in the backyard with a brewksi. We set our own hours and we’re our own bosses. The sky’s the limit! How much you work is how much you make.

But if office jobs were so bad and no way to make money, why did LVNG need a corporate office that employed hundreds? Who, given the choice between being a Doll or chugging away on some stupid Treadmill, would choose the Treadmill?

A strand of cherry-cola-colored red-brown hair flopped in her face and she blew it away with frustration. It was only 11.15 AM and the Arizona sun was already on furnace blast level—she could feel it baking the front lawn even in her air-conditioned home. It was too early to get into that kind of thinking—besides, what other people chose to do with their lives wasn’t her business anyway. Her business was sharing the LVNG opportunity with others so they could be a #momboss like her.

Mika logged onto Facebook and navigated to Groups, and then Springfield LVNG It UP by rote. It was something she did dozens of times a day. She sifted through a handful of photos on her phone and picked-—one where she was sitting on her living room floor playing with Lego bricks with Jaxon. In the shot, a pretty, amber-colored shaft of light from her front window hit the creamy carpet and blowing out the rest of the slightly shabby room with a blast of sun.

Moms: you know how it goes. The Littles are always asking you to play. But between bills, your Treadmill, your chores, and all the rest of the glorious chaos that is being a Mom, you barely have time. What if you could just...sit and play? For hours? Maybe you think playing with a 4-year-old is boring, but Moms, I’m here to tell you that the day you come home from work and there’s no colorful little blocks scattered on the floor because your baby is too busy to play, you’re going to LOSE IT. I know I did with Kynmore, my 15-year-old, when she got too old for dolls and tea parties. LVNG gives you your life back—it lets you shine in the light of play.

Despite her worry about Bree, Mika grinned with pleasure at the caption. One of her best. She lingered on the post long enough to see a few heart symbols drift across the page—-she was getting likes. Good.

MOM! Jaxon’s voice blasted from the backyard and she closed out of Facebook. She took another peek at her phone—-no texts or calls from Bree yet.

As she got up to answer Jaxon, she pushed the worry away, or tried to. Bree was the strongest woman she knew. She would be fine. She had to be.

11:30 came all too quickly and Mika hurried to her work nook to hop on the weekly conference call. Bouncy contemporary pop rock blasted through the speakers of her 6-year-old laptop, the background for dozens of high-pitched squeals and shrieks as women popped on the screen and saw one another.

The weekly ritual was always the same and enthusiasm was a must. Mika gave an obligatory yelp or two when she saw a friendly face appear, but her mind was still preoccupied with Bree.

If she didn’t show up to Rollin’...

11.30, 32, 35...No Bree. Quinn was showing off a quartet of new graduated lava BEED necklaces as this week’s top prize while Mika scanned the digital squares for Bree’s face.

Okay, let’s talk prospects. Who are we rockin’ and rollin’ with this week? Bethany, would you like to go first? I love it when I can turn the mike over to one of my absolute stars who can shine! Bethany, what have you got for us?

Bethany flipped a wave of silky amber hair over her shoulder and squared her slender, toned shoulders.

My trainer at the gym noticed my LUVBEEDS and I’ve got her up to a Level 3, working on 4. My hair gal mentioned that she’s struggling for clients so I dropped off a care package with our best-selling hair products in travel size and our LVNG FULLY booklet last time I was in. My mother in law finally got from a Level 1 to a 2. Bethany paused to let that sink in and was rewarded with a round of polite applause.

Bethany, so great. You’re a star. Quinn gushed. The weekly meeting continued, and Mika discreetly pulled her phone out, under the range of the webcam. No messages or calls from Bree. Where the hell was she? This was totally not like her—-Mika and Bree exchanged text messages all day every day, usually. Bree posted on social media so much Mika suspected she had a virtual assistant. Today: silence.

Dolls, remember this is our last virtual meeting this month—I’ll be back in town next week and we’re going to take back Woody’s Grill! Cheers and hoots rang out across the computer. Mika slumped in her chair with annoyance.

Woody’s Grill was 30 minutes across town and meetings frequently conflicted with Jaxon’s activities in the summer months. Not to mention Quinn looked everyone up and down to ensure they were wearing the latest BEEDS and swag and looked sugar sharp enough to catch the attention of possible prospects everywhere they went.

Mika could still remember the last meeting at Woody’s, 3 weeks ago.

Bree arrived carrying a bouquet of holographic mylar balloons that spelled out BOSS in one hand and a split of champagne in another.  Her dark indigo skinny jeans, open-toed deep claret shooties, and embroidered peasant blouse looked perfectly polished casual on her tall, toned frame. Her cascading waves of hair, in her trademark blue-black, were shimmering with dancing lights reflected off the balloons. Mika didn’t know how she did it, but Bree seemed to have hair so shiny it looked almost iridescent in certain moments.

Bree didn’t shriek when she saw the other Dolls, they shrieked when they saw her. Mika adjusted the hemline of her designer discount blouse to better cover her hated lower belly. No matter how many skinny lattes she drank or second glasses of wine she passed up, she still had that stupid fanny pack mom- gut. She forced a smile as Bree glided into the room and set the champagne down on the table.

Five...hundred! Bree purred and the room exploded with noise. Women jumped up from their chairs and rushed to hug Bree, to congratulate her on this major milestone. Mika felt an unwelcome gurgle of jealousy in her throat. She’d been in LVNG for over 3 years and she had only 47 people in her entire downline. Bree had been LVNG for 18 months and she had 10 times the downline? How?!

Mika thought about all the prospects she’d carefully worked up the Levels, the personal stylists, the hairdressers, the ladies at church, the moms at playground, the friends of friends. She grimaced at the memory of the rejections she’d endured from high school friends who rudely told her to stop texting or messaging about the business opportunity, calling it a pyramid scheme.

LVNG was not a pyramid scheme! People like Bree were proof that anyone could succeed, and contrary to the negative stingers out there, you didn’t need to get in on the ground floor of the business to be making the big bucks.

Bree embodied success. She’d casually flipped the key fob to the teal-green BMW onto the table at Woody’s with a saucy smirk and a shoulder shrug to announce she’d made Driver Level last month. The month before that, she’s shown up to Rollin’ with a Chanel Boy Bag in creamy, smoky-caviar leather swung over one shoulder, saying she’d treated herself to a new pretty pretty with her mailbox money -—bonus commission checks from her downlines’ sales. Six months before that, she’d been showing pictures of the Caribbean vacation she treated herself and Rob to just because I’m a Boss Babe who Boss Blings using the latest LVNG tagline with a cheeky grin.

Mika was still driving her 7-year-old no frills sedan and her most expensive purse was a slightly dated Dooney and Burke from the outlet mall outside town off the highway. Sure, she was making enough money to cover her bills...most of the time. But she was churning through downline so fast that her commission checks rarely cleared $2000 most months, and often they were much lower. Her sales stayed at about $2500 a month give or take. Between her bills and the expenses of LVNG, she just couldn’t seem to pull far enough ahead to feel comfortable.

What did Bree have that she didn’t?

The question echoed in Mika’s mind as she listened to the excited gabble on the virtual conference call months later. So many times, Mika had tried to figure out what Bree did that made her downline so large and so sticky, but Bree never really gave her a straight answer.

You’re at 300 already? Wow. I know you came in with a downline but I didn’t know it was that large! 6 months ago Mika had gathered up her courage to ask Bree to a coffee to pick her brain to try to get some ideas on how she could expand her downline and get to a more stable place with her business.

Oh, it’s not that hard. My head is always on a swivel, you know how it is. Although I’ll let you in on a little secret: I drove to the military base over in Utah and signed up a bunch of women there during an Event. Reno’s a great place to get gamblers on the bounce who need extra cash too. Bree smiled and sipped her cappuccino.

Gosh, I don’t know if I could take the time to drive to Utah! Mika confessed.

Look, Mika, you’re obviously very driven. I respect that about you. But you have got to start taking some risks if you want to grow your business to the next level, that’s really what it’s all about. Bree told her.

As she closed her laptop screen after the meeting, Mika was hit with another twinge of concern for Bree.

You seem off. Mika texted Bree, just a few weeks earlier.

I’m fine—-just worried I might have oopsied with the Pill. Rob’s freaking out and doing that silent treatment thing he does. Bree added an emoji with a frowning face and little jets of angry air shooting out of its nostrils to the text.

OMG. Are you thinking you’re... Mika texted back.

It’s whatever. I mean, we’ll figure it out either way. Gotta go, I’ve got an Event in 45 and I look a mess. Bree signed off with a heart emoji.

Mika pulled out her phone and scrolled through her texts from Bree. She noticed, with another twinge that Bree had never confirmed if she was actually pregnant or it was just a scare. She saw a couple hints dropped here and there that Bree never picked up on.

The invite for drinks that Bree said yes to but never got around to scheduling, Mika’s joking riposte about that time of the month that was actually a test