Mike fished his house key out of the daypack that he carried literally everywhere and quietly entered his house, as to not wake his sleeping wife. As it turned out, she was awake and staring at her old laptop perched on the coffee table.
"Hey, babe," he offered cautiously. "What're you doing up?"
Darcy Heath looked up at her husband with a faraway look in her eyes, but said nothing. After a moment, tears streamed down her cheeks. Mike's heart sank, as his mind flooded with at least a thousand scenarios that could be happening.
"They took everything," she murmured. "Our accounts..... they're gone...the money..." She broke down into heaving sobs, unable to continue. Mike just blankly looked at her for a moment before easing himself onto the couch to comfort his wife. He felt as if his stomach had dropped even lower than his heart had fallen only a moment ago. Darcy had ahold of the collar of his overshirt, and had balled it up in her fist as she withered down until her head was in his lap.
He gave her a minute to compose herself, then asked, "Who? What?"
She looked up at him again, and said, "The IRS. Its over my tips....I think... I won't know anything until I talk to them, tomorrow I guess."
Mike diverted his eyes from her to the the laptop screen. The open page was their joint account summary, the top of the page displaying the most recent 10 transactions. The uppermost entry was noted as a "Remote ADS Deduction", whatever that was. The balance tab on the left showed $-213.72. He looked at the tabs on the current window and scanned across the screen. Google. Internal Revenue Service. Something with "tax code" in it. He closed his eyes.
"You'll spend all day on the phone, and in the end we'll still be screwed." Mike knew, as he had been through this before. "Just close the account - it's over."
Darcy began crying again.
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