Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“How did you figure it out?”
I gave a short laugh. “Lillian helped me. Elizabeth brought cookies to my office when she knew we all would be at the Stew Peters meeting. That was when she planted the bugs.”
“Cookies? Why would she bring you cookies?”
I sighed. “We had a one-night stand. She thought it was going to be more, but for me, it was just a stupid mistake. Never should have mixed business and pleasure. It happened more than two years ago, but obviously she never forgave me. This could be her way of taking revenge, or maybe she thinks this is a good way to run a business.”
“But I went through the visitor book for myself. She was never slotted in to see you.”
“Yeah, I’ve looked. She popped into my office after an appointment with Ted Nugent, from Mergers and Acquisitions. So you would not have seen her name on my list of visitors.”
“I see. Does this mean Lillian is off the hook?”
“Yes. Yes, she is.” I felt so ecstatic I wanted to shout with joy.
“Oh, man. I’m so happy for you. But to be honest, I never thought it was her.”
“I had a strong hunch it was not her too, but I had to be sure. I couldn’t throw away a whole lifetime of work on a hunch no matter how strong it was.”
“Yeah, I’d have done the same. What happens now?”
“I pay a visit to Elizabeth and make her an offer she can’t refuse.”
“Do you want me to get the guys in to remove the bugs?”
“I’ve already ripped the damn things out. They were driving me crazy. I hated knowing some creep was listening in.”
He laughed. “This is great news, Max.”
I heard Jennifer’s voice in the background asking if everything was okay.
“Go back to bed, everything is perfectly fine, honey,” Chris replied.
“I better let you go back to bed too. Speak to me when you get up.”
“Great job, Max. Well done.”
“All the credit goes to Lillian and her two wonderful little nieces,” I said feeling on top of the world.
“Have you told Lillian how you feel about her?”
“Not yet.”
“Not yet? Get off the phone now and go get her, man. Full throttle. No more ifs or buts.”
“On it, boss. That’s exactly what’s next on the plan.”
Chapter 55
Lillian
Iwas just putting away the washed dishes when Max came back. He looked almost as if he was vibrating with suppressed excitement.
“What’s going on?” I asked curiously.
“Sit down and I’ll tell you.”
I sat down on the sofa and curled my feet under me while he perched on the edge of the sofa next to me.
He took a deep breath. “Okay. Let me start at the beginning. Soon after you arrived, we lost the La Zaire deal. Someone front-ran us and bought the company before we could, but the funny thing was they had also already anonymously contacted Jed Burner to ask him to run the company for them, exactly as we had planned to do. So we knew we had espionage in our organization. Chris did a sweep of our whole building and found out that both my office and phone were bugged.”
I stared at him in amazement. So that’s what happened to the La Zaire account.
“We planned to dangle another company we already owned as bait to see if we could flush out the mole. Until today when the kids mentioned the cookies, I had completely forgotten that Elizabeth had brought them, or even connected her appearance with the spying. But now, I’m certain it is her. She knew I would be at a meeting because everybody in the industry attends it every year. She had the means and she had the motive. She just took over the company from her father.”
I felt cold suddenly. Things were falling into place in my head. Things that didn’t make sense were rapidly making sense. My voice sounded far away when I spoke.
“You’re certain it’s her now. Who did you think it was before today?”
He flinched. “You.”
I blinked with hurt. “I see.”
“I’m sorry. Everything pointed to you. You had the opportunity, you needed money, it happened just after you arrived. What else could I think?”
There were tears, an ocean of tears were waiting to fall, but they didn’t because a rage I had never known swept through my body like wildfire.
“So the whole time you were fucking me and pretending to be interested in me, my life and my financial problems, in reality, you thought I was your enemy and you were trying to trap me into revealing myself as the mole.”
He scowled. “No. Okay, yes. That’s true, but I was-”
Before he could carry on, I sprang to my feet and started running for the door. He caught me by the arm. I didn’t think. I just reacted. I swung my arm as far as it would go and slapped him. So hard the sound was like a clap of thunder. His head jerked sideways, and my hand left a white imprint on his cheek.