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I took a deep breath as I thought. But there was no way I could make a decision in the moment, not without thinking it over more or talking to Jude.
“I don’t know, Henley. I have to discuss this with Jude. Thank you again for bringing it to my attention.”
“No problem, I knew I had to say something and I doubted you two would willingly enter into something like this. At least I hoped not.” She laughed once uneasily.
I smiled softly, “That’s kind of you.”
“I suppose. Look I gotta go, I’ll… talk to you later, I think.” I could practically hear her biting her lip.
“You will, I promise. Now you know why we’ve been so absent. I’m sorry, we’ll get this all figured out. ”
“Bye.” She hung up before I could say anything else. I sensed she was angry with me, but I needed to handle this first. And stressed out.
I sighed and decided to table the issue until the next morning. I could speak with Jude about it while we were in the office and it was appropriate. Now, I just wanted a somewhat relaxing night and it wouldn’t involve stressing out about work.
I got up from my desk and changed into my swim trunks to use our roof top pool. We had to blow over a lot of regulations to get it installed, but it was worth it in the end. I liked not having it out in the backyard because that’s where the garden was. We kept our grounds nice, and Jude didn’t care much but we had hired a designer anyway.
I took a long swim in the pool to relax and clear my head and I still didn’t see Jude all night. I retreated to my room and showered before settling into my silk sheets to try and get a good night sleep. It was no fucking use, I tossed and turned until my alarm went off at five, and I got up for my morning workout. Our gym fit like a sky room, and the sun shined through as I went through a weight circuit, skipping cardio because I didn’t feel like it. I had my usual egg white breakfast and coffee, dressed in a gray suit to match my mood, and then headed to work.
The office looked the same, everyone was acting normal, and had no idea the company was in the middle of a shit storm. I guess we were good at being secretive. I dreaded talking to Jude so much that I checked all my emails first, and replied to the important things first. I had a few meetings scheduled that I just rescheduled for later, and planned to go over things with them once Jude and I came to a decision. Finally, I shot him a text and he arrived in my office minutes later.
“What do you want, man?” Jude said his usual greeting and sat on my desk. Which he knew I hated.
“We need to talk. It’s serious.” I looked at him pointedly. He blinked and nodded once before sitting on the chair opposite my desk.
“Okay. What is it?” His pointer finger went to his temple as he leaned on the chair.
“Henley brought some things to my attention last night.” I started. His brow raised in interest and I continued. “She had done some research and found some things that were off about Hatchett.”
“Besides his gout?” Jude chu
ckled.
I frowned and stared at him. “It’s serious. Look, the whole operation is a Ponzi scheme. His company, the investments… everything was a fucking scam.”
Jude widened his eyes I was sure the same way I had, and stared at me dead pan. I did the same and took in my own words. Saying it for the first time made everything so real.
“Shit.” He finally said.
“Yeah. Shit.”
“And we’re sure she’s right?”
“She definitely isn’t wrong. I don’t know where all of information came from, but it’s good. She’s a better lawyer than we thought.”
“What do you want to do?” He leaned back in the chair and huffed. Neither of us wanted to do anything, quite frankly.
“The first thing we have to do is cut our losses. Just cut off the investment and cut it even for how much we went in. That way the company isn’t impacted, and it can even be written off in back taxes.” I thought quickly.
Having Jude there fueled my ideas, his brooding face helped me think a lot, honestly. It was how we made most of our investments in the beginning, and started everything up.
“Sounds good. Put it in play.”
“On it.” I did some clicking on my computer to send the right stuff off to financial. They knew not to make a fuss over it.
“I still can’t believe Henley found this out.” Jude said.
“Yeah. She’s something else man, we never would have caught it.” I said. Jude nodded and grinned slightly.
