Our in-depth investigating revealed that Ani Avakian is teetering on the brink of financial ruin. The wedding planner who so far has only serviced more modest clientele is reportedly $50,000 in debt, having resorted to personal loans just to maintain her lifestyle.
Questions are swirling about how Ani’s precarious financial situation might impact the high-profile wedding she’s been entrusted with. Did Kami Mardian, her former flame, hire Ani out of pity, making her a charity case rather than the best choice for the job?
As the big day approaches, many are wondering whether Ani will be able to pull off the event of the year, or if her money troubles will cause yet another disaster for the happy couple. With the pressure mounting and the eyes of the world upon her, Ani is undoubtedly feeling the heat. Based on her online portfolio, a wedding of this grand scale is far out of Ani’s comfort zone. Will she rise to the occasion, or will her financial woes lead to yet another headline-worthy snafu?
One thing’s for sure—Grace Zhang’s wedding is shaping up to be far more dramatic than the role sheplays on-screen opposite Robert De Niro in her upcoming filmMafia Princess. Stay tuned as we continue to bring you the latest updates on this unfolding saga.
She felt like this reporter had reached through the phone and stabbed her. The humiliation nearly overcame her.
A charity case. Her modest clientele. Her inability to handle a wedding like Grace and Kami’s. That was all true. Even if Kami didn’t know it when she hired her, there was no denying it was true.
At least one thing she could defend. Her lifestyle?Please, Basil, she thought, she didn’t have a lifestyle. She lived in a beat-up apartment with a roommate, driving her fifteen-year-old car, and the fanciest thing she did was style cheaper outfits to look nice. She owned a dress that was more expensive than her entire wardrobe put together, but that was Raffi’s doing, not hers.
Raffi.
Hopefully he wouldn’t see this article. It wasn’t the biggest news of the day, not by far. It’s possible he could have missed it.
However, the Armenian community talked, and she was sure at the very least it’d be widely circulated. He’d find out. He’d find out she’d kept this secret from him.
After everything they went through yesterday, how they were both, she felt, on the brink of telling each other they loved each other, of proposing a lifelong commitment, that she still held back from him. Didn’t trust him enough to share. What did it say about her and her relationship with Raffi?
And before she could answer that question, she received a text from Talar. She couldn’t open it. Could not even look at itwithout feeling the shame of her sister knowing what an incompetent person Ani was. Not today. She would not talk to Talar today.
She realized, then, that she would have to tell Sanan, too. She wanted to crunch herself up in a ball like a scrap piece of paper. But there was no hiding. The phone was already in her hand. Ani dialed.
“Boss, everything okay? Sorry, notboss. Ani?”
Ani, despite herself, gave a small smile. “Sanan, not really, but it’s not about the wedding.”
“Oh.” A pause. “Then what?”
Sanan hadn’t seen the article. Ani put Sanan on speaker and began to text her the link.
“Just texted you. Read it, and I understand if you don’t want to work together anymore.”
“Wha—!” Sanan sounded panicked. “Why would I ever? Wait, what is this?”
Ani waited, since it seemed Sanan was reading.
“I’m confused,” Sanan said. “How can this be true if you’ve been paying me? They’re direct deposits. Can’t fake those.”
“I couldn’t not pay you, Sanan jan,” Ani said. “I—”
“Wait. Was this because of the Avedissians? I remember the day of the wedding, I overheard you asking them for a check, and the bride was so angry, she scribbled something off and threw it at you. Was it that? They always gave me this feeling, kind of a shady couple. They openly told me about the many ways they cheated on their taxes.”
Ani nodded, impressed, despite the mood she was in. “You got it. That check bounced.”
Sanan groaned. “Ani, I am so sorry. I wish you’d told me. Icould have taken a hiatus. You know I’m still working in customer support. I didn’t need—you didn’t need to pay me. I would have taken an IOU.”
“You are too sweet, Sanan. That’s exactly why I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t let you work for free. You deserve to be paid for your time, for your effort. No matter how bad things got, I wasn’t about to take advantage of your kindness.”
Ani heard a deep sigh on the other line. “Well. I appreciate you trying to keep everything going even while all of this was weighing on you. I do still want to work with you, Ani. I love working together. I want to keep going and going until I can quit CS. You’re an amazing boss, and I feel like you always have my back.”
Now Ani was going to cry—because of Sanan’s words, but also because everything was starting to hit her at once.
“You are the best, Sanan,” she said. “Let’s forget all this today and pull off the biggest, baddest wedding of the year.” Ani tried to rouse herself with false enthusiasm, but it wasn’t working.
“You got it, Ani,” Sanan said.
