I Turned Down My Ex’s Attempt to Partner in My New Restaurant...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I turned down my ex's attempt to partner in my
new restaurant after she sabotaged our first business and shattered
my trust. I thirty two m and my ex fiance,
Veronica thirty one f had a food truck together. We
both dreamed of having our own restaurant when we first
met three years ago while attending culinary school. While I
had been working in kitchens since I was sixteen to

(00:20):
support myself, Veronica, who hailed from an affluent family, had
never worked in the culinary sector prior to attending school.
Despite our disparate upbringings, we clicked right away when we
first started the business. We were engaged for two years
and dated for six. Since I graduated, I had been
saving money by working sixty hour weeks at different restaurants
to accumulate cash and experience. By my twenty ninth birthday,

(00:44):
I had saved about one hundred thousand dollars. Veronica persuaded
me to start with a food truck instead of continuing
to save money until I could create a real restaurant.
Before spending money on a complete restaurant, she suggested it
would be the ideal opportunity to test our concept and
develop our brand. My entire concept and idea for the
food truck came from me by fusing contemporary cooking methods

(01:05):
with my grandmother's traditional recipes. I want to serve fusion cuisine.
Even though Veronica didn't contribute any money, I decided to
make her a fifty to fifty its partner because she
looked pleased about it and we were engaged in hoping
to get married within the year. I oversaw operations and cooking,
while she handled all financial matters because she had accounting
knowledge from a prior position. The first year was fantastic.

(01:26):
We discovered the ideal location next to a few office buildings,
and our food was well liked by frequent patrons. We
were found by local food bloggers who gave us excellent evaluations.
We even made the list of the top ten food
trucks in our city. I felt like I had finally
realized my dream after our accomplishment, and it was even
more satisfying to do it alongside Veronica. However, after fourteen months,

(01:49):
things began to become strange. I started to see inconsistencies
in our inventories based on our sales. Supplies would run
out sooner than they ought to. Veronica indicated that we
might be squandering more food than we thought, or that
some staff might be stealing. When I brought this up
to her, since she was in charge of the books,
I trusted her judgment. After that, I saw that funds

(02:10):
appeared to be vanishing from our account. Despite making a
healthy profit, we never appeared to have enough money for necessities.
Veronica would become defensive and accuse me of not trusting
her if I attempted to look at the books. Do
you think I'm stealing from us? Or don't you trust
your future wife are some of the things she would say.
I felt bad for even asking because of her. When

(02:31):
one of our suppliers called to inform us that we
were three months late on our payments, it was the
tipping point. I knew we had enough revenue to support
our costs, so this was illogical. I checked our business
account online while Veronica was asleep. I felt ill to
my stomach after discovering what I did. Veronica had been
regularly moving money, often thousands of dollars at a time,

(02:51):
from our corporate account to her personal account. The following morning,
when I confronted her, she sobbed and acknowledged that she
had been stealing money for months, still that she needed
money to support Andrea twenty five, f her younger sister,
who was allegedly having a lot of credit card debt
and didn't want their parents to find out. I tried
to be understanding, even though I was upset. Andrea, who

(03:12):
occasionally assisted us with the food truck, was also like
a sister to me. It was unbelievable to me that
she was in such difficulties and hadn't approached us immediately.
In order to discuss the matter and determine how we
could assist Andrea in managing her debt, I gave her
a call. However, Andrea was utterly perplexed. She said that
she had no debt and that Veronica had not given

(03:32):
her any money. Actually, she was doing very well financially
and had recently received a promotion at work. Andrea was
astonished when I informed her of Veronica's justification for the
missing funds. Over the course of eight months, it was
discovered that Veronica had stolen about fifty thousand dollars from
our company. The complex lies she had said and the
way she had exploited her own sister as a cover

(03:53):
story were more significant than the money. Her tail altered
when I approached her once more. She said she wanted
to surprise me, and that she had been saving the
money for our wedding and a down payment on a home.
She had been taking out cash at ATMs, according to
bank records, but the money was nowhere to be located.
I promptly called off our engagement. Veronica sobbed uncontrollably, alternating

(04:14):
between pleading for my pardon and claiming that I was exaggerating.
Her parents became involved, which made matters worse. They maintained
that since we were engaged and would shortly get married,
it wasn't actually theft. Her father even implied that MY
tight control over the company funds amounted to financial abuse.
In order to settle our supplier bills, I had to
sell the food truck. I lost nearly everything I had

(04:37):
accumulated because of the stolen money and the depreciated worth
of a used food truck. I almost went bankrupt and
was horrified. According to Veronica's parents, it was only a
little financial dispute that I had exaggerated. Even some of
our mutual acquaintances said I should try to make amends.
With her since I was being too harsh. After working
at several jobs for two years and saving every penny,

(04:57):
I eventually launched my own tiny restaurants six months ago.
It's nothing special, but I own it and have total
authority over it. I maintained thorough records of everything and
engaged qualified accountants. The restaurant is thriving. We're already making
money and receiving positive feedback. Veronica arrived during dinner service
last week. She claimed to want to put things right

(05:18):
after learning about my achievement from friends we shared in common.
She said she had changed and had some money to invest,
so she proposed to be partners once more. She mentioned
how effectively we collaborated before to the problems, and suggested
that we work together to further the restaurant's success. She
has persisted even after I urged her to leave. After
laughing incredulously. Her parents began phoning me, accusing me of

(05:40):
being spiteful and urging me to give Veronica another chance
because she was essentially family. They mentioned how she had
assisted me in launching my first company and claimed that
I owed her for that. I blocked their phone numbers
on social media. Veronica's pals are now disparaging me and
accusing me of being callous for failing to assist my
ex family and getting back on their feet since everyone

(06:00):
deserves a second opportunity. Several mutual friends claim that I'm
being too harsh and that I should at least listen
to her update. Three weeks have passed since my last post.
Thank you to everyone who left a comment and offered encouragement.
I need to get this off my chest, since regrettably
things have become much worse. Veronica and her parents started
visiting my restaurant during our busiest times after I blocked them. Initially,

(06:24):
Veronica was the only one ordering water while seated alone
at a corner table. She would remain for hours looking
at me every time I went by. Some clients observed
the tension, and my employees began to feel uneasy. Her
parents then joined in. They would only order the cheapest
items on the menu and occupy a large table that
could seat six people during our Friday and Saturday dinner rush.

(06:45):
They would try to wave me down every time I passed,
screaming things like this is no way to treat your
future in laws, or we're family. You can't ignore us forever,
loud enough for the customers around to hear. At first,
I made an effort to manage things professionally. My host
seated them in less conspicuous locations and told the employees
to handle them just like any other patron. However, they

(07:06):
went too far. Last week, during dinner service, Veronica's father
got up and began yelling at other patrons about how
I had taken their daughter's business ideas and left her
when she needed assistance. There was a commotion when I
had to ask them to leave. Only after I threatened
to call the police did they go. The following day,
I began to see odd internet evaluations. To submit unfavorable

(07:26):
evaluations about my restaurant, someone had set up several accounts.
They said we served bad food, had rats in the kitchen,
and had major health code breaches. The fact that certain
reviews brought up particular instances from our food truck days
that only she would be aware of. Such is the
time we had to close early due to a generator failure,
and that she twisted into a tale about food contamination

(07:48):
was what gave Veronica away. My business began to suffer
from the phony reviews. Our Lunch attendants significantly shrank, and
I experienced multiple cancelations of reservations. Veronica was served with
a season to sist letter by the lawyer I hired,
who specialized in defamation matters. In response, she posted on
many sites and made more fictitious accounts. At that moment,

(08:09):
an unforeseen event occurred. Veronica's sister, Andrea, visited my restaurant
after it had closed. She claimed she was unable to
remain silent any longer and was clearly agitated. She disclosed
that Veronica never provided assistance to anyone using the Pilford funds.
She had been concealing her gambling addiction for years. Andrea
claims that before we even met, Veronica had been going

(08:30):
to underground casinos. Although she was able to conceal it effectively,
her losses had been increasing. She immediately used the fifty
thousand dollars she took from our food truck business to
settle debts related to gambling. Two years prior, when Andrea
found Veronica unconscious in her apartment with threatening messages from
loan Sharks on her phone, she had learned of this.
Andrea approved everything to me, with pictures, text messages, and

(08:54):
bank statements. Veronica has been controlling everyone in her vicinity.
She had even convinced their parents that she needed the
money for our wedding preparations, so she had stolen it.
She had previously gambled away her savings, which is why
she hadn't contributed any funds to our food truck. It
was troubling why Andrea hadn't stepped out sooner. She had
been blackmailed by Veronica, although their conservative parents were unaware

(09:17):
of it. Andrea was seeing a lady. If Andrea ever
told their parents the truth about the gambling, Veronica had
vowed to expose her. When Andrea realized that Veronica's behavior
was ruining my new company, she eventually made the decision
to notify me since she could no longer bear the guilt.
I informed our common acquaintances who had been disparaging me
on social media of this knowledge. Many express shock and

(09:39):
apologies for making assumptions about me before hearing the whole tale.
Many recalled giving Veronica loans that she never paid back,
constantly citing various justifications such as unexpected costs. Veronica's parents, meanwhile,
continued to live in denial. They accused Andrea of lying
to conceal her own lifestyle choices when she attempted to
provide proof of Veronica's gaming. They are now accusing me

(10:01):
of being cruel for disseminating false information about Veronica's alleged
addiction and of manipulating Andrea into turning against her sister.
When some of Veronica's contacts from the casino began to
visit my restaurant, the situation became even more difficult. They
weren't subtle individuals, and other patrons felt uneasy around them.
One of them cornered me in the parking lot after
closing last week and said I ought to be more

(10:22):
giving to my ex fiance To keep an eye on
the property during business hours, I had to hire a
security guard because of all this commotion. My business is
getting hurt. I've had to pay for security and legal fees,
and our weekday dinner service has decreased by thirty percent. However,
I'm not going to back down. We are getting ready
to file a lawsuit against Veronica and anyone else attempting

(10:43):
to harm my company, and my lawyer is compiling proof
of harassment and defamation. I know that giving Veronica money
will just make her conduct worse. Yet, some people have
urged that I do so to make this stop. Instead
of supporting her and making excuses for her behavior, she
needs professional therapy for her gambling addiction. Part of the
reason I'm giving this update is to alert others to
the ways addiction may lead to manipulation and harm to

(11:06):
those closest to the addict. I'm concentrating on safeguarding my
company and my staff for the time being. I've started
recording every event and added more security cameras. I've also
warned other local business owners about the possibility of harassment.
My true friends have come to light as a result
of this circumstance, and I'm appreciative to those who have
supported me during this chaos. Update Two two months have

(11:27):
passed since my last update, and what I have in
store for you feels like something from a horrible movie.
A man named Michael thirty five m entered my restaurant
during prep time and asked to speak with me alone,
just when I believed I had exposed all of Veronica's lies.
He identified himself as the current legal husband of Veronica,
not her ex husband. I initially believe that this was

(11:48):
just another effort at harassment, but Michael had data to
support my claims. He gave me their seven year old
marriage certificate, pictures from their wedding, and court documents detailing
his efforts to find Veronica five years ago after she
vanished with their money. Since Veronica had never formally divorced him,
our engagement was a sham. Michael told his story over lunch.

(12:08):
He married young after being in love with Veronica in
high school. They opened a tiny bakery in a different
state with their wedding funds and a loan from his parents.
Does that sound familiar? Veronica maxed out their credit cards,
cleared out their accounts, and disappeared after two years of
what appeared to be a prosperous business. She only left
a note expressing her sense of being stuck in the marriage.

(12:29):
In addition to the divorce, Michael spent years trying to
find her because she had ruined his family. In order
to repay the company loans they co signed, his parents
had to sell their home. The time was ideal. Three
months before she met me at culinary school. Veronica vanished
from Michael's life. When I brought up the topic of
actually choosing a wedding date. She always had an excuse
since she had changed her last name but had never

(12:51):
formally divorced him. Michael's story made me feel physically ill.
Veronica wasn't being sentimental or pragmatic when she recommended that
we elope or expressed a desire for a small private
wedding ceremony. Legally, she was unable to wed me. She
had previously stolen money from our food truck business, but
this was her most recent theft. Surprisingly, Veronica revealed everything

(13:12):
when I texted her to confront her about Michael, but
she twisted the story, as Veronica always does. She said
Michael had been abusive and domineering. Michael, however, showed me
police records he had submitted, which demonstrated that she was
the one who was abusing him and that she had
to steal the money in order to get away. Veronica
said that she had intended to divorce Michael in the end,
and that she had kept her marriage a secret from

(13:34):
me out of protection. After hours of note comparing, Michael
and I discovered that Veronica had been operating the same
fraud in several places. She would connect with someone who
wanted to launch a food related business get access to
their money and then drain their accounts. As far as
we know, she had done this at least four times
together with Michael's attorney. My attorney is currently constructing a

(13:55):
fraud case against Veronica. At last, Michael is able to
serve her with divorced eye documents. The fact that this
seems to be a pattern of intentional illegal activity across
several states is another reason why the authorities are interested.
When further victims began contacting us, it was the biggest shock.
Michael published my original Reddit post in forums for company
owners after discovering it. Three other individuals came forward with

(14:18):
comparable accounts of Veronica, even while she was still living
with Michael, she was engaged to one. Every story had
the same pattern. She would become part of their life,
win their trust by falling in love, and then take
whatever she could. When Veronica's parents found out about her
prior marriage, they eventually stopped supporting her. When her mother
arrived at my restaurant in tears, she said she didn't

(14:40):
know who her daughter was. However, they have just vanished
without offering me an apology for their harassment and accusations.
Andrea claims that in order to settle some of Veronica's
gambling debts. They have deactivated their social media accounts, ceased
frequenting the restaurant, and mortgage their home. Since we called
the police. The casino staff has also retreated. Turns out

(15:00):
that some of them didn't want the spotlight and were
operating an illegal gambling enterprise. Veronica owes them more than
two hundred thousand dollars. We found out she had been
trying to recover her losses by spending the money she
had stolen from me and other people, but she had
only ended up losing more. At last, things are returning
to normal at my restaurant. Regular consumers are coming back

(15:20):
now that the phony reviews have been taken down. This
strange experience has made me buddies with Michael. He even
promised to assist me in growing my company after the
legal matters are resolved. He stated that he hopes this
entire fiasco would lead to something positive. I'm still amazed
at how meticulously Veronica organized everything. She made up whole
false personas and life tales, in addition to lying about

(15:42):
minor details. Since they discovered anomalies in her application materials.
The culinary school where we met is currently looking into
the matter. Her entire existence seems to have been based
on falsehoods. Update three. This will most likely be my
final update, as it has been six months since my
last post. Next month, Veronica was taken into custody in
Las Vegas. She apparently ran away there after all the

(16:05):
information was made public and attempted to conn a casino
owner with the same ruse. She was obviously unaware that
casino owners spoke with one another, and one of them
knew who she was from the warnings that had been
going around under a different fictitious name. The cops discovered
her residing at an inexpensive motel. She had five different
IDs and credit cards in different names when she was arrested.

(16:26):
Notebooks describing her prior scams, including the ones she perpetrated
on me, were also discovered. She had everything in writing,
including when to start collecting money, how to build trust,
and how long to wait before proposing a business opportunity.
Everything was organized like a business plan. She faces many
fraud charges from the district attorney in multiple states. In

(16:47):
addition to Michael and me, they discovered at least seven
more victims while she was still legally married to Michael.
She was also engaged to two of them. She has
taken about eight hundred thousand dollars in total throughout the
years she could fit severe jail time. Andrea now frequents
my restaurant on a regular basis. She moved in with
her girlfriend in a nearby apartment after coming out to

(17:08):
her parents and being shunned. Ironically, she now assists me
with the books, carrying out the task her sister was
meant to perform. In addition to being far more skilled
at it, she is also honest. We occasionally discuss Veronica
and attempt to determine whether there were any indicators that
we overlooked, but our main goal is to move on.
Last week, Veronica's parents finally spoke out. They actually sent

(17:31):
me a handwritten letter, not a text or email. Although
it wasn't quite an apology I thought it may be.
They wrote about how their love for their kid blinded
them and how they failed to raise her properly. In
order to pay off the obligations Veronica had accruede in
their names, they acknowledged having to sell their home and
relocate to a smaller space, not for their benefit, but
so they might have a relationship with their future grandkids

(17:53):
if I ever had any. They asked if I could
find it in my heart to forgive them. I didn't answer.
There are some issues that cannot be resolved verbally, and
I have no desire to keep up any relationship with them.
They only expressed regret once they became victims themselves, supported
Veronica's actions for years and attacked my character after I
revealed her thievery. In fact, all of this has made

(18:15):
Michael and I close friends. He recently launched a new
bakery in the community, and we are discussing the possibility
of working together on future initiatives. We both concur that
we must not allow Veronica's actions to deter us from
putting our faith in others and going for our goals.
Now more than ever, my restaurant is doing well. In fact,
more customers came in as a result of the attention

(18:36):
surrounding Veronica's arrest in an attempt to torment me. Some
even want to sit at the famous table where she
used to wait for hours. I now make fun of
it with my employees, but we've also put strong security
measures in place to make sure that this doesn't happen again.
Although the legal proceedings are still going on, I'm not
giving them any more attention. I have provided the prosecutors

(18:56):
with the required statements and supporting paperwork. I'm done allowing
for Veronica, who occupy space in my life, but her
actions will be held against her in court. I occasionally
reflect on how things might have gone differently. If I
had allowed myself to be manipulated by her and given
her another chance like she did with the food truck,
she most likely would have emptied my new restaurant as well. Rather,

(19:16):
I've followed my gut and refused to back down. I've
discovered that getting even or disproving others isn't always the
best form of retaliation. It's about turning a bad experience
into something good. I've made real friends, my restaurant is
doing well, and I'm at last at peace with all
that has transpired. For anyone experiencing a similar situation, follow
your instincts, document everything, and avoid being coerced into disregarding

(19:40):
warning signs. Certain individuals reveal their true selves to you,
trust them the first time. Thank you for watching. If
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