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Jimmy sat in my lap, his teddy bear held to him while the van wove through the half-lit, half-empty streets of the city. As soon as they pulled up outside Anne’s house in the suburbs, I jumped out and lifted my gaze. Anne was in the doorway and beckoned Jimmy over. He raced towards her and gave her a quick hug. She coaxed him inside before emerging, a determined look on her face. She kept one arm draped over my shoulders and used the other to gesture, ensuring the movers moved quickly and quietly.
It wasn’t long before they were done and driving off into the night.
Anne steered me into the house and pushed me onto the couch. “I’m going to get you a drink. You could definitely use it.”
I buried my face in my hands. “I don’t know how this happened. I’m screwed. I paid a lot of money to move out.”
With a frown, I patted my pockets and groaned. “And I dropped my phone in the truck. Great. Could this get any worse?”
Anne returned with two glasses of wine. “I’ll contact the moving van in the morning and see if we can get your phone back. We’ll figure something out. In the meantime, I’ve got a friend who’s a lawyer. I’ll call him in the morning, and we’ll sort this out.”
“I’m sorry about this.”
Anne lowered herself onto the couch next to me and squeezed my shoulders. “You know I’m happy to have the two of you back. I’m glad you called.”
I took a sip of my drink and sighed. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell Albin.”
Chapter 22
Albin
“This doesn’t make any sense.” I rifled through the paperwork again, pushing a few things around my desk as I did. “I don’t understand why the numbers have gone down.”
Running a multi-million-dollar media empire was never easy.
And there were days when I wondered why I had even gotten into the business, but there was no denying the rush I felt when we did well. Or the thrill that raced through me at knowing I had done a far better job than my late father ever could. While I knew that comparing myself to him wasn’t a healthy way to drive myself forward, it also didn’t hurt when it worked.
Since Jimmy had come into my life, bursting forth in color and movement, things had been different. Over the past two weeks, I had been spending a lot of time with him, and I was beginning to realize how much I wanted to do for my son. Little by little, I was no longer interested in amassing wealth and landing on the cover of every business magazine and newspaper.
Instead, I wanted to build something Jimmy would be proud of.
A company he could one day take over as his own and make it even better.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t until an hour ago that I realized that my dream and my son’s future were in jeopardy. Now, Jason, my CEO and right-hand man, sat across from me, skimming through a different pile of paperwork and trying to figure out what went wrong. Over the past few weeks, we’d been hemorrhaging money, and neither of us could figure out what the problem was.
Considering I was the one to notice the discrepancy after a late night at the office a few days ago, I wanted to keep it under wraps. Thus far, no one else in the company knew what was wrong, and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. Once news of our misfortunate spread, I was not going to be able to take it back.
No matter how much I wanted to.
And I needed to have all of the facts before I decided on a course of action.
It was why Jason was the only other person who knew.
“We’re not going to be able to hide this forever.” Jason tossed the files onto my desk, stood up, and fastened a button on his jacket. “It’s only a matter of time before this comes to light, Albin.”
I glanced up and frowned. “I’d rather keep this under wraps for as long as possible. You know what’ll happen if this gets out.”
Jason blew out a breath and ran a hand over his face. “An internal investigation isn’t a bad thing. It’ll help us find out where the money is going.”
I held up a folder and stood up. “We know where it’s not going. This isn’t a case of embezzlement.”
Jason let his hand fall to his side and stood up straighter. “We don’t know that.”
I tossed the folder back onto the desk and pushed my chair back with a screech. “Look at the numbers, Jason. Look at the information. It’s pretty clear this is an inside job.”
“What are you saying?”
I walked over to my mini fridge and the tray of drinks on top of it. After pouring myself a small amount of whiskey, I downed it all. “Have you noticed how well our competitor has been doing?”
