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“Okay, I’m going to work here today. All our documents are here, and the bullpen feels more confrontational than usual.”
“I agree. I may have smacked a coffee out of Smith’s hand earlier.”
“Accidentally on purpose?” she asked. “Did he forget to use his internal monologue again?”
“Does he say offensive things to you in the office?” Finn asked, trying to school his annoyance.
She shrugged. “You can’t fight my battles, Finn, but yes there are men who think they can treat any woman like a piece of meat, even in the workplace.”
“I may not be allowed to fight your battles in the office, but it’s inappropriate for him to create a hostile work environment, and I doubt the partners would tolerate it if they were privy to it.”
“Finn, we agreed, strictly professional.”
He gritted his teeth and nodded. “I have to see Baxter, something about a new client. But then I’ll complete my tort and see you for lunch. One o’clock?”
“Okay.”
He didn’t want to leave, and he didn’t want to pretend he wasn’t seething to learn that Smith had been harassing her and probably every woman in the bullpen for the last year. It had only been a week of working together, but in truth, he’d felt tied to Hailey for two years. Before he’d admired her beauty and intelligence, now she was more than just a colleague; she was special to him already. Of course he wanted to protect her. And he wanted to spend as much time with her after work as possible. It was Friday, and he hoped she would agree to spend some of the weekend with him. He knew she often worked on the weekends, but what else did she do?
On his way up the elevator, he decided exactly where they could go to spend time together, his family’s lake cabin. At the lake, they could be alone and wouldn’t run into anyone in the city.
With a new spring in his step, his shoes made a clacking sound along the marble floors as he walked through the senior partners’ lobby. He stopped outside Mr. Baxter’s door.
“Come on in,” Mr. Baxter said and patted him on the back.
Finn was surprised to see Admiral Maddox sitting relaxed in a chair across from Baxter’s desk. The man stood and also shook Finn’s hand before they all took a seat. Maddox was in his late fifties but carried himself like you’d expect a man who had served twenty years in the military, ten on an elite team, and built a multimillion-dollar business from scratch. He wore a fitted polished suit, perfectly shined shoes, but nothing else that said money. No flashy watch or shiny cufflinks. Simple, impeccable style.
“Finn, I’m appointing you to take lead on a legal matter Mr. Maddox is having that requires discretion. We both know you’ll maintain the privacy of attorney-client privilege, but this is delicate,” Mr. Baxter said.
Leaning forward, Mr. Maddox steepled his fingers together and met Finn’s gaze.
“I’m looking for someone, but I’m not very confident we’ll find them. I’ve hired a private investigator, but he’s run into several legal issues. I’d rather not use my usual firm that handles my business engagements for reasons that will become obvious.
“I have reason to believe I fathered a child twenty-eight years ago, and I intend to leave her an inheritance.”
Finn was surprised by the story Mr. Maddox was telling but schooled his features to remain neutral.
“I’d be happy to handle any legal documents to create a trust in absentia. Although, I’d counsel you to have a backup plan if you can’t find the child, or woman. What exactly did you plan to leave her?”
Mr. Maddox stood and walked to the windows. “I don’t have any other children. I never married. So I’d like to leave her my life’s work. A pathetic attempt to apologize for not being there for her.”
Finn doubted his shock was written all over his face. The man was worth almost fifty million, having turned his engineering degree and experience in close quarters combat into sensor technology that was patented and snapped up by the leading manufacturer of drones for commercial use.
“If you put me in touch with your PI, I’ll see where the case has run cold and if we can make any additional progress. You may want to include the requirement of a DNA test for the heir, in order to confirm.”
Mr. Maddox nodded. “Yes, Baxter has lectured me all about the dangers of false claims.”
“Should I also vet the source, Mr. Maddox? Perhaps the child’s mother found out about your success and is just claiming there was a child?” Finn said.
“You don’t really need all the sordid details, but suffice it to say, a woman I spent time with between deployments had a child. But she never claimed me as the father because she was married to another soldier when she discovered the pregnancy. Fast-forward, the destructive marriage ended, the mother died, and a child bounced around to a few homes before she ran away or maybe worse.”
“Sir, what makes you think the story is true or that you could still find her?” Finn had to ask.
“The child’s maternal grandmother sent me a letter, claiming I was the father of her grandchild five years ago. I’d been deployed on my last tour in Iraq at the time, and the woman’s health was failing her. By the time I could meet with her she was living in a nursing home after a terrible stroke, so she wasn’t able to communicate. The facility wouldn’t give me any information about a next of kin, and the woman died. I did confirm her daughter had been a woman I thought I loved once. The PI managed to track down the child by birth records, but when her mom died, it wasn’t clear who raised her or what name she was going by.”
“I’m sorry you missed out on knowing her, but I’ll do my best to create a trust in case the private investigators can find her.”
“Thank you, and I appreciate your attention to how delicate this is. If my board at Maddox Corp. finds out I want to leave the majority of my wealth to a child I’ve never met, I’m afraid there could be a mutiny. I just can’t help but think maybe one day my daughter will figure it out and come looking for me. But mostly I just need to know if she’s ever found out that I didn’t completely abandon her.”
