Chapter 5

                                    

                                          
Ana stood up and straightened her clothes up. She walked over to the two of them in her designer outfit and said, "I have not nor ever taken money from anyone my whole entire life. You may have thought I was a poor little farm girl by mistake, but I am not nor have I ever been." 
Ana looked at Elena and said, "The next time you want to glean information from someone stop getting it from Mia's two little jealous bitchy friends that were standing outside staring me down and gossiping about me and the only ones to have seen me filling my car at Neiman Marcus today." 
Ana looked back at Grace and said, "Let's set the record straight for everyone, shall we? I am a multimillionaire, well almost a half a billionaire to be correct in assets and finances. I own my own company called Steele Financial, Inc. and deal mostly in commercial properties, condos and apartment complexes. My father and I together built up everything to be self-sustaining and efficient. If you did a background check I'm sure that's what you'll see. I never bought designer fashions before because I was at school getting my master's degree in Accounting Forensics and did not see the need to rub anything in any noses letting people know that I had money. My father wanted me to completely outfit myself for years, but I saw no need to. Until school was over two months ago I still hadn't used my money." 
Ana looked at Elena when she said, "Yes, my money."
She looked back at Grace and continued, "My father died of pancreatic cancer three years ago. So today was my first spending spree at Neiman Marcus and my Audi R8 Spyder this week was also replacing the car I almost died in if I hadn't moved from the tree cracking in half and taking out me and my car when Christian crashed. The timing was in both our favors being, I was leaving for the grocery store at that moment. So now you know the truth about me. I am no man's whore or him my sugar daddy. I am my own self made woman who was at the right place at the exact right time, to help a person I have respect from out of a serious situation. That's it. Oh, by the way, you need a better friend, preferably one who doesn't lie to you like that." Ana turned and walked away.
Elena growled and said, "You little bitch!" Grace stood back and just stared at Elena like she had three heads.
Grace said, "I don't know who you are anymore." 
Christian shouted, "Taylor!"
Taylor came around the corner and said, "Yes, sir?"
Christian just pointed at Elena. Taylor went after her and she started shuffle-running in six inch stilettos to the elevator. She was screaming, "I was just trying to protect and help you! You'll be sorry, mark my words!" The door closed on the elevator.
Ana said, "That woman is so vile. She even told Christian, yesterday, to pay me off and send me on my way. She said wealthy people do it, so you don't get hangers on. Can you believe she said that last night when I was standing right here?"
Grace sat down and asked, "What are you doing here, Anastasia?"
Ana sat down next to Christian and said, "Christian called me and wanted me to come to Seattle. I have a nice condo here on 1st Street and the Montesano property and New York apartment too. I go between the ones here. I was living in my condo while going to school. I had only been on the Montesano property for a day when everything happened. I was going to stay there until I heard from the last eight places I sent my resume to."
Christian said, "That reminds me. The girl in my personnel division of my HR department was fired. She was put there by another person to keep people with master's degrees from entering my company. That's why your resume was rejected, not that you were unqualified, Anastasia." Ana knew there was more to it and would ask later. 
Grace asked, "Why do you want to work at other companies when you have your own?"
Ana said, "I want to try to do things on my own. I could just step in and do the CEO thing, but I want to learn outside of that. One of my father's dearest friends runs the company for us.  He really likes his job and we pay him very well for it. I want to be someone who learns and earns on their own merit."