The Perfect Secret

Chapter Ten

Hannah gripped the door handle of her apartment. Thanks to the conversation with Dan, she knew what to do about her brother. But it didn’t make it any easier. She took a deep breath, reminded herself Dan understood her point of view, and pushed open the door. At first, the apartment was quiet, but as she took a few steps inside, murmurs from the kitchen made her stop.

Dan had prepared her for this possibility. Straightening her shoulders, she walked into the kitchen.

“Hi Bubbe, Jeff.” She hugged her grandmother and nodded to her brother.

“Sweetheart, where were you?”

“I’m sorry, I should have called. I was with Dan.”

“Who’s Dan?” Jeff sipped a cup of coffee.

As far as she was concerned, her brother abdicated any and all rights to know about her life the second he took his first injection of heroin. If her grandmother weren’t here, she wouldn’t deign to acknowledge his presence. But Hannah wanted her grandmother reasonable when she talked to her later, and this was the second time she’d seen Jeff when he wasn’t high, so she answered.

“My boyfriend.” She walked over to the sink and helped herself to a glass of water. “You’re still here,” she said, over its rim.

“Well, Grandma was worried. I thought I’d keep her company.”

Hannah’s chest burned at the irony of her brother providing support to her grandmother, but she bit the inside of her cheek and kept silent. “Why did you come in the first place?”

He waved an arm over his shoulder toward the living room. “I needed bedding and Grandma said she had some extra.”

Hannah swung around toward her grandmother, who nodded in affirmation.

“Bedding, huh? Well, I’m home and I’m going to bed. Sorry I worried you, Bubbe.” She bent, gave her a hug, turned, and walked toward her bedroom. Locking the door, she got undressed and lay in bed until the front door closed. When she was sure Jeff was gone, she returned to the kitchen.

“Jeff left.” Her grandmother’s disapproving tone made her cringe, but she kept to her resolve.

“I want to talk to you, Bubbe.”

“I don’t think I’m going to like this conversation.”

“We need to have it.”

Her grandmother sighed and paced the living room. Returning to her chair in the kitchen, she sat, folded her hands on her lap and looked at Hannah. “Okay, go ahead.”

“I know you love Jeff, and I know you love me. I also know you want to do what you think is best for us. But your vision and mine are different.” She knelt by her grandmother and took her hands. “I can’t be here if he is. I’d never tell you not to have him here, but I would like to know ahead of time so I can make plans to be somewhere else.”

“Is that why you stayed at Dan’s so late?”

“Yes. I came home from work and heard you two talking. So I left.”

“He’s trying, Hannahla.”

Hannah shrugged. “I still can’t be in the same apartment.”

“So you’re abandoning your brother?”

Hannah’s ears burned as the first stab of guilt sliced through her. She didn’t want to abandon him, but she couldn’t continue to watch her grandmother enable him. “He abandoned me when he started using. I’m protecting myself.”

Her grandmother shook her head. “This isn’t right. Am I supposed to call you whenever he comes over? It would feel like I’m warning you. About your own brother.”

“I know, but it’s the best I can do.”

“You won’t change your mind?”

“No.”

“I don’t approve. I think you’re making a big mistake, and I hope you can somehow find it in your heart to forgive him. Because he’s trying.”

“I love you, Bubbe.”

Hannah’s grandmother shook her head. “I love you, too, sweetheart, but you were raised better than this, Hannahla. Everyone makes mistakes.”

The next day at work, Hannah’s office phone rang.

“Hannah Cohen.”

“You’re sexy when you’re professional, you know that?”

Hannah’s face heated. “I didn’t expect you to call at work.”

“I missed your voice.

“Aww, you’re sweet.”

“Really, that’s all I have to do to get that reaction?”

“Well…” She smiled as he chuckled on the other end of the phone.

“I’m in your neighborhood this afternoon. Want a visitor?”

“Really? What are you doing over here?”

“A meeting. I know we talk all the time, but I want to see you.”

“I’d love you to stop by. I can introduce you to my friend, Aviva.”

Was it okay for her boyfriend to come to her office? She’d seen others do it. As long as they didn’t spend too much time, it would be fine.

Besides, she missed him too.

Later that afternoon, Jim stopped at Hannah’s office at the same time her intercom buzzed: “Dan Rothberg is here to see you.”

Jim frowned. “Expecting someone?”

Great timing. “My friend is in the neighborhood and asked if I’d mind if he stopped by. It’ll only be for a moment.”

“It’s fine, I’ll catch you later.”

She walked to reception. “Hey, Elise, here I am. Dan’s here?”

“Yes, and he’s sexy, if I might add.”

Elise, in her early sixties, found something sexy about every man who crossed her path, so Hannah laughed and gave her a wave before she headed into the reception area.

Dan wore a light blue Oxford shirt open at the neck and grey slacks with the end of his navy tie sticking out of his pocket. He was conservative and dashing and all hers. Her stomach flip-flopped.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, beautiful.” He pulled out a bouquet of flowers hidden behind his back. They were violets in purple, yellow, and white.

She wrapped her hands around his hand holding the flowers and buried her nose in them, inhaling deeply. “They’re beautiful!”

He smiled. “I saw them and thought of you.” He gave her a chaste peck on the cheek, withdrew his hand and pulled away.

“Would you like to come inside?”

On the way to her office, she introduced him to Aviva. The two shook hands.

“It’s nice to meet you, Aviva. Hannah speaks of you often.”

“She speaks about you as well.”

Before the conversation could go any further in a direction she suspected she didn’t want to hear, Hannah tugged on Dan’s arm. “My office is this way.” As they said goodbye to Aviva, she gave Hannah a look and Hannah’s face heated. They’d have to talk later.

Hannah told him about her conversation with her grandmother.

“Are you alright with how things turned out?”

“Yeah. She’s not thrilled with the way I choose to handle it, but she accepted it, which is huge for her.”

“Good, I’m glad you were able to work it out.”

“I also…had an idea.”

“What kind of idea?”

She played with things on her desk, moving the stapler back and forth, straightening the paper piles, until Dan placed his hand on top of hers. She read kindness and compassion in his expression and swallowed. “I think I need to find out more about my brother.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, he says he has a job. I thought I might go and check it out. That makes me a horrible person, doesn’t it?”

“No. It makes you a human being. And a pretty open-minded one.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re not blindly believing him, but you’re willing to consider he might be telling the truth. And the only way for you to know is to investigate. It’s not a bad thing, Hannah.”

“Even if it’s my own brother?” Her voice was a whisper and she stared into her lap.

“Especially if it’s your brother.”

She let out a breath. Her smile wobbled as she met his gaze.

“I hate to leave this soon, but I have a meeting to go to,” he said.

She hugged him. His chest was hard, his heart beat against her ear. It was solid, steady, and strong. More than anything, she wanted to leave with him, but she still had work to do.

“Thank you again for the visit and the flowers.”

“Anytime.”

Dan reviewed the paperwork Lisa gave him. It was the fourth time he’d looked at the numbers. They hadn’t made sense from the beginning, and after weeks of tracing and backtracking, he’d concluded Fortex was funneling company money somewhere, using philanthropy to hide it. Now it was time to figure out where “somewhere” was.

“Lisa, it’s Dan. Can you meet me in the conference room in a half hour?”

For the next half hour, Dan made a list of the expenses and deposits, as well as the backup documentation he had. By the time he walked into the conference room, he was ready.

“Thanks for meeting with me.” He eased into the chair, put his files on the table, and handed a stack to Lisa. “Based on your findings and my digging, I’m pretty sure Fortex funneled money somewhere, but I’m not sure where. So, you take the expense side, divide it among your team, and let’s track the money. I’ll do the same with my team on the deposit side.”

Lisa whistled. “I thought it looked hinky, and I’m glad you agree.” She shuffled through the files. “Going to be a lot of work, but okay. I hate it when companies that seem good from the outside are bad. Dammit, this will cause damage for a lot of people, not just their employees. People depend on them for lifesaving drugs.”

Dan stifled a shudder. “I know, which is why we need to keep things quiet as long as possible. If word gets out they’re siphoning money, it can affect their grants, their hiring ability, and their reputation for years to come. And I don’t want it to happen if we can avoid it.”

Lisa nodded.

He returned to his desk massaging his leg. His mouth dried at the thought of taking something—anything—to relieve the pain, and dizziness washed over him. He waited for it to pass, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth. When he could focus again, he redirected his thoughts to the investigation and its ramifications. He hated investigating pharmaceutical companies—it hit a little too close to home—but it wasn’t like he could say anything. And he hadn’t overstated things with Lisa. Whenever a company was accused of bad financials, the effect spiraled out, tarnishing everyone who worked for the company, even if some of the employees were innocent. Add research or fundraising into the mix, and the beneficiaries of the work were affected as well.

He needed to identify the guilty party in Fortex’s structure and do as much damage control as possible.