Indiscretion , livre ebook

eBookIt.com - M.G. Crisci

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

262 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

WORKPLACE FLIRTATION CREATES UNIMAGINABLE CONSEQUENCES.(Complex legal thriller inspired by real events). A senior executive in an apparent storybook marriage flirts with a female executive in the same company. After several romantic dinners, after-hour phone calls, and gifts willingly accepted, two very different realities unfold. The man believes he is well on the way to a consensual affair. The woman sees the relationship as an opportunity for a discreet hush-money payment.Soon, the two are engaged in a complex, very public game of survival of the fittest. One twisted event leads to another as the collateral damage mounts. In the end, nobody wins.

Sujets

Romance

Informations

Publié par	eBookIt.com
Date de parution	18 janvier 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780966336061
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0300€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2018 M.G. Crisci
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.

Published in eBook format by Orca Publishing Company USA.
Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com

This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, business, places, events and incidents
are either the products of the author’s imagination
or used in a fictitious manner.
Any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, or actual events are purely coincidental.

Cover design Good World Media
Edited by Holly Scudero
Cover Art: “Leopard Lady” by M.G. Crisci
Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress 2010929929
Copyright No. 1-414380231

ISBN 978-0-9663360-6-1

Expanded 2018 Edition
Also by M.G. Crisci
7 Days in Russia
Call Sign, White Lily
Donny and Vladdy
Indiscretion
Mary Jackson Peale
Only in New York
Papa Cado
Papa Cado’s Book of Wisdom
Project Zebra
Salad Oil King
Save the Last Dance
This Little Piggy

Learn more at
mgcrisci.com
twitter.com/worldofmgcrisci
YouTube.com/worldofmgcrisci
Facebook.com/worldofmgcrisci
Dedication:
To the Imperfections of Man
February 14, 2016

Dawson Craft
President, CEO
American Financial Associates, Inc.
380 Ferry Street
Bridgeport, CT 06604

Dear Mr. Craft,

This is to lodge a formal complaint against Senior Vice-President Martin Ruff for committing physical and emotional acts of sexual harassment during the past 24 months of my employment at American Financial Associates (“AFA”). His repeated actions have led to a serious decline in my earned income and my quality of life, and has caused me countless hours of untold stress and the need for professional counseling.
I seek damages for all the above.
My difficulties with Mr. Ruff began when I introduced him to a potential business venture with ContactPro, a business services software company. As a former field sales rep, I thought such a venture was in the best interests of our 3,000-licensed independent financial advisors, and a significant source of income for AFA.
Mr. Ruff and I met with company principals on October 12, 2011, in Westport, Connecticut. The meeting took place after hours - at his insistence. The meeting was quite successful: ContactPro principals expressed serious interest in a strategic alliance. Afterwards, Mr. Ruff suggested a drink to discuss next steps at a nearby restaurant. Since Mr. Ruff was one of AFA senior partners, and third-party alliances was one of his areas of responsibility, I agreed - although my instincts told me our next-steps discussion could have been held at our offices during business hours.
During this conversation, Mr. Ruff made it clear he was not really interested in venture with an underfunded start-up. He assumed the reason I was determined to forge an alliance was because I was sleeping with the ContactPro president. Furthermore, when we returned to the parking lot to enter our respective cars, he surprised me by grabbing me firmly and kissing me. Rather than cause a commotion in the parking lot, I chose to enter my car and leave.
We never consummated a deal with ContactPro, but I did see Mr. Ruff on several occasions socially because I feared job loss, given his position of influence within the company. However, about a year ago, I decided to stop because his continued calls to my home, caused me serious mental anguish. I am attaching to this complaint three such phone calls that I recorded.
This personal rejection of Mr. Ruff, led to a deliberate and continuous process of mental harassment during business hours. This behavior has affected my income-earning ability and my overall quality of life. In one instance, he had personal performance conversations with my immediate supervisor, Bill Johnson. According to Mr. Johnson, Mr. Ruff stated I “didn’t get it,” implying I was seemingly unable to keep up with the new products and services being offered to our licensed advisors. Clearly, Mr. Ruff was retaliating for my rejection of his advances.
On other occasions, he would intentionally walk by my office and throw crumpled paper at or near me to communicate his continued displeasure. Knowing I was under this aberrant form of surveillance added additional stress to an already uncomfortable situation.
Finally, since I continue to reject his advances, he has begun a tactic of employee manipulation to regain my favor. An example of such underhanded behavior was a call I received recently inviting me to dinner with him and a new manager, Joseph Boston, recently relocated from Cleveland. His rationale was that Mr. Boston was also from the Midwest, lived next door to me in Westport, and didn’t know a soul in the area. Again, I politely rejected the offer, stating I had a long-scheduled plan to host several outside advisors from Atlanta. Mr. Ruff wasn’t pleased. At that point, I knew I had to file a formal complaint.
Given that Mr. Ruff is a senior partner and member of the board at AFA, I believe the Company is liable for substantial damages as well as a stern reprimand or dismissal of Mr. Ruff, so his behavior is not repeated upon another AFA employee, female or otherwise.

My attorney, Mr. Burton Moss, and I would like to discuss the Company’s specific offer of retribution as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Alexandria Plummet
120 E. 83rd Street
New York, NY 10028

Burton Moss, Esq., Moss Twilliger Thompson, PLC
1
Enter the Wizard of Wharton…
My name is Martin Ruff.
I wanted to be an investment banker for as long as I can remember. When I graduated college with honors, it only seemed logical to attend what I consider, the best business school on the planet - Wharton. I knew a Wharton degree ensure a meaningful pool of the “proper” business contacts. I was right. A few tears after getting my M.B.A., I was making $250,000 a year as a junior investment banker at Merrill Lynch and living the life of Riley on the Upper East Side with two roommates in our $8000-a-month penthouse.
I met my beautiful and unpretentious Lauren on a blind date and fell in love instantly. Born-and-bred in Nebraska and a graduate of Northern Iowa University, Lauren was the opposite of the trendy, career-focused women who had been my stock and trade.
It took me two years, three months and twelve days of intense lobbying to convince her that she was madly in love with me. After a short engagement, we married in front of forty of our closest friends and relatives at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Since she had come to enjoy the urban lifestyle, we decided to live, work, and raise a family in Manhattan.
Between my school connections and flair for corporate finance, I became one of the firm’s most successful investment bankers, literally making the firm hundreds of millions of dollars. Within ten years, I landed a lucrative position as vice-chairman of the snooty, blue-blood firm Goldman Sachs. As our wealth grew, Lauren, a lifelong nursing professional, marveled at how I made money. “It seems to me, people pay you money even though you don’t actually build or grow anything.”
Somewhere along the way, I met filthy-rich Bob Goldwasser, an acknowledged Wall Street shark who had a knack for identifying undervalued companies and repackaging them for consumption in the public marketplace. Bob convinced me that my personal net worth of $50 million was “chump change.” I quit Goldman to identify and finance our own deals, imagining a net worth of billions. Our Initial Public Offering - a consolidation of the medical instruments industry - went smoothly enough. Within three years of the offering I was worth about $200 million.
Unfortunately, our second major deal - consolidation of the very private barter trading industry - did not go as well. After a smashing IPO, company operations began to collapse since we were unable to integrate the highly entrepreneurial former owners into a corporate team. Bob smelled the problem quickly, sold his interests and moved on. “Martin, get out while you’re on top; the Street doesn’t like losers,” advised Bob. I ignored his plea and tried to rebuild day-to-day operations using personal guarantees. When the dust settled, I exited with shattered dreams and a net worth of minus $10 million. Hat in hand, I returned to Goldman until we again had enough capital to maintain our desired lifestyle.
As my career ebbed and flowed, Lauren became the family’s Rock of Gibraltar, raising two sons with solid value systems while building a personally satisfying middle- management career at Bellevue Medical Center and managing my high-maintenance Type-A personality.
Once the kids were out of the house, Lauren and I decided to relocate from Manhattan to Southport, Connecticut, for lifestyle reasons and to be closer to our two sons, Martin Jr. and Bart. They had concluded that living their lives, building careers, and rearing families in the Pollyannaish towns of Westport and Darien, Connecticut, respectively, was preferable to Manhattan’s impersonal concrete canyons. Lauren’s concession to my roots was the purchase of a two-bedroom pied à terre on a high floor near the East River, a few blocks south of the United Nations.
Lauren also decided she was ready for a more challenging role at the prestigious Cornell Medical Center, so she became a reverse commuter on those evenings we did not stay in Manhattan. Within months of her arrival at Cornell, the attending physicians and hospital administration recognized her as a top-flight health management professional with vision. Her career skyrocketed. In less than two years, she was named to a senior management position. Lauren’s gregarious personality was also a perfect cultural fit for Cornell, a place that believed in frequent social interaction (parties) to motivate employees and biweekly chamber music performances on in-patient floors to attract happy, well-insured, and financially-endowed patients.
Despite the