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It feels a bit weird that I have her in my home. I had not expected my day to take this turn, but it's a welcome distraction from the devastating ache of the past couple of hours. I wonder whether I'm supposed to offer anything. God, a visit from one's mother is not supposed to feel this awkward.
When her eyes land on the open bottle of gin, her brows shoot up in a silent question.
I simply shrug, choosing not to offer any explanation, but I do gesture towards the white wine.
“Want some?”
She shrugs. “I don't see why not,” she says as I move over to pour her a glass.
“You look a little sad,” she says, her expression soft and full of concern. My heart constricts because, no matter what, my mother is always going to know me a little better than anyone else.
“I am alright,” I assure her, hoping the smile I flash in her direction reaches my eyes. “So, you came here without Father's permission?” I ask as I hand her an almost full glass of wine.
My mother makes a face as she gets the glass from me. “Are you not the one who has always talked about stepping out of another's shadow?”
I chuckle because she is right. But why she would do that at this point is something I cannot wrap my head around. For a brief moment, I ponder again if she might be aware of what happened. It wouldn't be an impossibility. My parents have always had connections and eyes everywhere. It would better explain this unexpected visit.
“Is there something you're not telling me?” I question her as I look at her more closely, but my mother, who has mastered the act of never giving anything away, just smiles at me.
“Is there something I'm supposed to know?” she retorts as she takes a sip of her wine. When I say nothing, she looks a little closer at me and asks. “Hey, is there something you're not telling me?”
I shake my head, knowing that she now has the upper hand in the conversation.
“You don't have to worry about your father, Mitch. You're doing well for yourself, and for now, it's enough.”
CHAPTER22
MITCHELL
Going into the office the next day, Yung is already there with Sam, who is hovering over him with a cup of coffee, looking like he does not quite know what to do with himself.
“You're early,” I say the moment the door closes behind me.
“I don't get paid to waste time,” Yung says, looking up with a smile. Sam has arranged a temporary desk for him in the corner of my office, and I shoot him a grateful look. Sometimes, I forget how efficient Sam is at his job.
“So, have you found what the problem is?” I ask, ready to get this hurdle well and out of the way.
Yung stalls for a minute, fingers flying over the pads of the keyboard, his rounded face lit up by the sensor light of the computer.
“Not yet, but it will be up soon.”
“Can you tell what caused it?” I ask as I move to stand beside him. Sam gets the hint and moves to the door.
“I don't think the crash is a result of some technical mistake by one of your staff,” Yung reveals as his eyes meet mine. And at his words, shock arcs through me.
“Are you saying it was sabotage?” I ask, needing to be sure that I heard the young man correctly.
“It's what I've found here,” he says, moving his fingers over a series of codes displayed on his screen. Even though coding is not my forte, I can tell even with my limited knowledge that something has been tampered with.
“So, there's a mole in my company,” I say more to myself than to the Chinese man running numbers on the screen over and over.
“Sure looks like it,” he answers anyway. “And it looks like you'll have a lot of digging to do.”
Shaking my head at myself, I mentally smack myself for being too trusting. I have been open with all of my staff, trusting every single one of them. I move over to my desk and settle, my mind already running through the people working for me and who could possibly have been. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it could have been anyone. It could have been the janitor, Mateo, or the product designer.
But what would the person stand to gain?I wonder because All4One is simply a startup. What is in it for them, doing what they did? Or had they only been all out for revenge in a fit of rage? But who? And Why?
Who else had complete access to All4One's data except for Beth?
