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“Okay, let’s go have dinner,” he called to the kids, walking out of the den.
We ate dinner, and then I bathed the children, followed by Lorenzo reading them their bedtime story.
He went back to work in his study afterward.
Plucking up courage, I knocked tentatively at his door.
“What do you need?” he gritted out, making it obvious that I was disturbing him. “I’m busy.”
“I just wanted to talk about the accounts for the bakeries.”
“I’ve got a new team of accountants reviewing them.” He didn’t even bother to look up from his paperwork. “It doesn’t concern you.” It was clear he was dismissing me.
“Actually…I think I may have found the problem.”
He stilled, then sat back in his chair.
“You’vefound the problem?” He raised an eyebrow at me, his tone incredulous.
“Yes.”
He looked at me carefully. “Go on.”
I licked my dry lips. “There’s too much money allocated to raw ingredients at times.” I walked over to his side, and opening the accounts to the appropriate page, I pointed to the price listed for wheat purchases. “See, in this month for example.”
He gave a sigh of impatience. “I’m not that stupid. I’ve noticed that already. And Alberto’s explained it due to the bakeries buying in extra wheat supplies before grain prices went up.” He turned the page to the following month and showed me where there was an increased wholesale price for wheat. “It’s standard practice when prices are due to go up.”
“Yes, but grain prices didn’t rise that month. They actually fell.”
That grabbed his attention. “How do you know that?” he asked in a sharp tone.
“I read the newspapers, including the business pages. And for some reason, my brain tends to like remembering numbers.”
He didn’t shoot me down, so I continued. “Although the extra wheat purchased is listed in the inventories, the reality is that the business didn’t spend extra on it as claimed.”
“And Alberto kept the money he claims the bakeries spent on the extra wheat,” Lorenzo said slowly.
“Yes. And I’ve found another month when he did exactly the same thing. The accountants checked the figures, and the extra purchases would have tallied up with the physical inventories; but they didn’t think to check the commodity prices listed under the quoted purchase prices.”
He nodded, deep in thought.
“I know you think that I’m just a dumb girl.” His whole attitude toward me this evening had bothered me.
“No, I don’t,” he responded, somewhat unconvincingly.
“Yes, you do. You think I’m brainless because I’m blonde and I’m cat-mad—and because I missed when I shot my gun at you.”
He waved his hand at the accounts. “I think this has proved you have a brain—even if I didn’t give you enough credit on that front to start with.”
I took a deep breath. “And…has it convinced you enough that you won’t mind me continuing studying for my college degree?”
He hesitated for a few long moments but then nodded. “You can continue with your studies as long as it doesn’t interfere with looking after the children.”
I resisted rolling my eyes at him. I hadn’t let it interfere with the kids so far, and that wasn't going to change. “Good.” I gave him a small smile. At least I could stop all the sneaking around I was doing with my books.
His mouth tugged up into a grin. “And, just for the record, I’m glad you missed that day, Anni.”
And I could help myself from grinning back at him.
