Thea continued to talk about one thing after another, but Tawney tuned her out.
Almost in tears, she thanked Thea, quickly left the building and went straight to Jamal's residence to see what was going on.
When she got to the house, there was a for sale sign in the front yard. She rang the doorbell but got no answer; she took down the phone number on the sign.
After arriving home, she immediately called the real estate agent.
While inquiring about the house, she discovered that Jamal never owned the property or the business. He was house sitting for the owners, who were now living and operating a new business abroad.
Jamal and his helper disappeared over a month ago, and no one knew where they were.
The broker did ask if she was interested in buying the property. The asking price was one million dollars in its present condition. It was ironic, because prior to losing her job and handing over her money to Jamal, she might have qualified for a mortgage. Now she barely had enough money to live on.
After Tawney got off the phone, she sat there as though someone had sucked all of the life out of her, that someone being Jamal and surmised that his assistant was probably in on the con right from the start.
He used the information regarding the conglomerate's plan to buy Tech Now, Inc. to his advantage and was able to trick her into believing he was purchasing a company. In reality, he was a snake who swindled her out of her money.
How she could have been so dim-witted was devastating. She had very little money and no job and would have to repay the loan, pay taxes, and penalties on the money she borrowed from her pension and retirement accounts.
What was she to do next? She was too embarrassed to file a complaint against him. Where would she begin? She knew nothing about this man and reckoned that everything he told her was a flat out lie. He used her, pretended to be in love with her and then ripped her off without blinking an eye. Behind that façade was a cruel and immoral person.
Excessively in lust, she never saw the cautionary sign: Requesting that the check for the business be payable to him and not to the company, which was never his from the start.
For the next several months, Tawney was in a state of shock and depression. Every time she went to bed, she would picture being with Jamal forever and seeing the two of them having erotic fun, eventually getting married, and having children, but all of her dreams ended up being shattered into miniature pieces. The hurt was just too unbearable. She would cry herself to sleep every night.