Finnegan

The receipts on the screen had my name and signature on every single one. My eyes widened in disbelief, taking in every unauthorized transaction, every account I had never heard of.

"That can’t be right,"

But it was right in front of me.

I had never signed any of these transactions.

Paid for goods to Yorkshire? Wolfe Corp had never paid for any goods to Yorkshire.

And what did they goods mean?

"What’s the first dated receipt?" I demanded to know how long this nonsense had been going on right under my nose and I had no idea at all.

How the hell had that happened?

Annette scrolled through screen after screen showing all the receipts and transactions made in my name.

Money moving out of one of Wolfe’s accounts in small amounts, small enough to avoid triggering the security system.

Most of it was moved to an account named Shelby that I had never heard of and never authorized and some of the payments were for illegal things. Hell there was a payment that explicitly stated, for drugs.

"If these documents are exposed," Annette muttered, not looking up from the screen,

"Prison," I gritted. "My ass would be hauled into prison."

"What?" Abigail gasped, stepping up beside me. "Can you trace who planted it, back then?"

"I’ll try," Annette mumbled, her fingers tapping rapidly. "The spyware entry point was through a remote installation. Someone had access to this system in person."

"I knew it. It’s that fucking decorator," Abigail cursed.

The team my mother had sent. I glanced around the office, shaking my head. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

No no, mother was cold and controlling and so fucking hard to please, but she wasn’t cruel. She couldn’t be that cruel.

Was the interview a ruse for her to send the decorator to my office? Had she planted all this?

Was that why she was so invested in everything the company did because she had been running some underground operation...what the fuck was I even saying? Drugs! She was moving drugs!

"Keep the spyware active," I bit out, rubbing my jaw.

"Uhh, that sounds like a bad idea,"

"Don’t remove it, we’ll feed it false information. Whatever they’re watching, let them keep watching. I’ll get a new system," I cleared my throat, straightening my suit.

"Can you set it up so that it can trap whatever spyware would be planted on it?"

"Sure, but why should I keep this active?"

"Is there a way to turn the spyware around instead such that we get information on the person who planted it instead?"

Annette’s brown eyes widened then glimmered with joy. She turned to Abigail, a wide grin splitting her face. "Damn, I like the way he thinks."

Abigail’s cheeks flushed red and for some reason, that heated up the cold in my chest. I suppose that meant I had her best friend’s approval.

While Annette worked on that, I strutted to the window, staring down at the city below me.

My mother had always been a difficult woman.

Controlling as hell, impossible to fully satisfy, so bloody bent on having her own way and I had accepted those things as simply the way she was.

She was the woman my father had loved and had built the life around Wolfe that I had inherited.

I had accepted her interference in my business, her opinions on my decisions, her inability to trust that I knew what I was doing, I had accepted it all so why...why was she trying to destroy me?

My hands tightened into fists, trembling with anger.

Why would she do that to me? I may not be her favorite but I was her son, dammit! I was her only son, Devin was dead, if she got rid of me then who the hell was she fighting for?

A shudder ripped through my spine. Herself?

What if... what if she got rid of Devin?

I thought the worst thing she had ever done was bribing my assistant behind my back, but setting me up as a drug trafficker?

No, I gritted my teeth, slamming my fist on the glass window. Fuck, no. I needed answers. I had to know why the hell she wanted to get rid of me. This had gone on long enough!

"I’ll be back," I announced to the room, tugging at my cufflinks.

"Finn?" Abigail’s blue eyes blinked softly at me as she approached."Do you want me to come with you?"

Cupping her face with both hands I dropped a kiss to her forehead and shook my head before leaving the office.

If James was surprised I was going to my mother’s place in the hot blazing afternoon, he didn’t show it.

Anger seared in my chest, rolling and bubbling, threatening to spill over and I almost, almost wanted it to.

My mother’s house was lit from inside when the car pulled up. James waited in the car while I walked to the front door and rang the bell, slamming my fingers on the button several times until Martha opened the door.

"Master?" She stepped back to let me in, her eyes dropping to my clenched fists. "Your mother isn’t home. She left this afternoon."

"Do you know where she went?"

Martha’s eyes darted to the door before she shook her head. "She didn’t say."

"Of course," I spat, dragging a hand through my hair, the anger morphing into pain in my chest.

She was my mother, for fuck sake. What would she possibly gain by throwing me in prison? Was the company really more important than me? Was I no one to her ever since her beloved Devin died.

I stormed off to her room, Martha following behind, trying to keep up.

"Master? What’s wrong? Did something happen?"

I kicked the door to my mother’s room open. It was clean and impeccably arranged as always.

The urge to tear it all apart, to throw a fucking tantrum, I hadn’t thrown one in ever, even as a child I wasn’t allowed to throw one.

I was supposed to be perfect, I did everything I could to be perfect, to win her love, to make her love me like she loved Devin and it was NEVER enough.

My teeth grinded hard together when I saw the wall filled photos of Devin. Just him, he’s the only one she cared about. Never me.

A warm frail hand wrapped around my right hand. I glanced down to see Martha squeezing my hand lightly, her eyes glazing over.

"You found out something, didn’t you?"

A crease formed between my brows. "Do you know something, Martha?"

She tugged me away from Mother’s room, and slammed the door shut, then lowered her voice to a whisper.

"I have to tell you something. She would kill me if she ever found out, but I cannot keep it sealed when I see how hurt you are, my dear."