14. Oscar
CHAPTER 14
OSCAR
It had been forty-eight hours since he spent the day with Gregory. They hadn’t ended up doing any sightseeing, but had spent the afternoon fucking instead, and Oscar’s arse was sore from both the paddling and the hard dicking he’d had once they’d both recovered from their first orgasm. He’d left before any of Gregory’s flatmates had returned. He’d caught the occasional look from them before and knew they had an issue with him, no doubt due to what had happened when they were at school. Gregory might take complete control in the bedroom and know how to be a CEO, but Oscar had seen his vulnerability that afternoon. It made his feelings for Gregory grow deeper.
Speaking of confrontations, he’d been ghosting his mother since Monday, when he’d spoken to the solicitor. He wasn’t calm enough to have that conversation with her yet, but he also couldn’t pretend like everything was normal, so he was ignoring her, which he knew wouldn’t last long. She would eventually come down to his office, and this was the last place he wanted to cause a scene. Josh was off sick, so it felt busier than normal. He’d been in the office yesterday looking like he might pass out, so Oscar had sent him home. It was becoming clear just how much Josh did for him, not that he didn’t already know what an amazing job he did, but it was clear he also acted like a guard dog in terms of people getting time with Oscar. His diary had exploded in the last twenty-four hours, and all he wanted to do now was get to the end of the week with no more problems.
“We’ve got a problem,” said Claire, walking into his office and closing the door.
The look on her face told him this was serious. He gestured for her to sit down, but she shook her head and paced around.
“What’s happened?”
“Barty fucking Balfour. That’s what’s happened.”
“How?”
“Someone chirped to the regulator.”
“Fuck!”
“Exactly. Someone gave me a heads up. There’s a Section 166 heading to your inbox.”
Oscar threw his head back against his chair and groaned. A Section 166 was something the regulator could impose, forcing financial-services firms to appoint a skilled person to investigate the systems and controls they had in place. They’d reported Barty’s dismissal for conduct because he was in a regulated role, but had said it was an isolated incident of an individual going rogue and they’d taken swift action. It was the truth – mostly. However, Barty’s competence in getting and holding onto the role was questionable at best, and the independent review would be all over the hiring and training process. This was going to be a shitshow.
“Do we know who’s on their approved list of investigating firms?” he asked Claire.
“It changes all the time. Might be best to let them appoint someone. It’ll show them we have nothing to hide.”
“But we do have things to hide. Barty should never have gotten a job here in the first place, and we know that.”
“People get jobs based on their personal networks all the time.”
She had a point, but it was why these vetting and approval processes were now in place. It was the groupthink and old boys’ club mentality which had caused the 2008 financial crash and led to the regulators being given more powers. That excuse wouldn’t wash. At best, they could be sanctioned with a hefty fine, but it was the reputational hit Oscar was most concerned about. It looked like his shitty week had just gotten ten times worse.
Thursday was no better. The Section 166 had arrived in Oscar’s inbox the afternoon before, and the investigation was to cover their entire hiring, approval, and exit process for all regulated roles. His portfolio and investment managers were all captured in the scope, which was almost two-thirds of his employees. Plus, all his executive team were in regulated roles as well, but as the regulator approved them directly, they were less of a focus. The others were all certified internally as being “fit and proper” to conduct their roles. It was the internal certification process which was being scrutinised, and it was going to be a fuck-tonne of work, so he’d need to pull some of his support staff onto it. He had an HR Manager, but she also doubled up as the office manager, given they rarely had HR issues. That would need to change after this. Oscar still hadn’t replaced Barty, so was managing some client assets himself as well, which gave him little time to think about his mother, or Gregory. He’d exchanged a few texts with the latter, but they were more like well-being check-ins rather than anything which showed what Gregory was feeling. He was hard enough to read when he was standing in front or you, let alone through text messages that were often less than five words.
“Get out of my way; I’m here to see my son,” came the all too familiar voice from outside.
Josh was still off sick, and although one of the other PAs was helping him out, she was no match for his mother when she was determined. A few seconds later, his office door burst open, and there was Victoria Montgomery, wearing a hopefully fake fur coat and hat, looking like she was part of the Romanov era.
“I’m so sorry, Oscar. I told her you were busy,” said Georgina, looking flustered.
“Oscar?” said his mother. “You will address the CEO as Mr Montgomery. How long have you been here?”
“Two years.”
“Then you should know better. Show some respect for your superiors.”
“Mother, everyone calls me Oscar here.”
“Why?” she asked, looking so horrified he might as well have said he was going to drown a bag of puppies.
“Because it’s my name,” he quipped. “You know, the one you gave me.”
“Don’t be facetious,” she said, narrowing her eyes.
“Georgina, we’re all good. I know what my mother’s like. Take a break.”
“Do you need tea or coffee first?”
“We can get our own.” He smiled.
His mother looked like she was about to collapse in shock, but Oscar was more than happy to get his own coffee. Josh never let him, but Georgina twigged what he was doing and suppressed a smirk as she left them to it.
“Did you want tea, Mother?”
“Not if I’ve got to make it myself.”
He chuckled, and she glared at him.
“Why are you ignoring me?” she asked.
“I’ve been busy. We have a regulatory investigation which has taken up all my time.”
Partly true, so he wasn’t outright lying to her. They needed to talk about the trust fund, but he wasn’t getting into it now, and certainly not in his office where he could be overheard.
“What does the regulator want?”
“Barty Balfour.”
She flinched. Yes, she had every reason to. It was because of her wanting to one-up Lavinia Balfour that he’d been lumbered with the guy.
“The dismissal was legitimate, wasn’t it?”
“Of course it was. It’s how he got the job that they’re looking at, as well as seventy other people in the company. Do you realise how much work this is going to be?”
“Why didn’t you say anything to me?”
“I didn’t want you feeling guilty.”
Yes, he was being a bitch by saying that, but his mother had a lot to answer for, and if she felt guilty about causing him all this crap as well, then he would not feel bad about it. If she hadn’t been so pushy, he would never have hired Barty. There was one thing he wanted to check, though.
“Did you know he had a gambling addiction?”
His mother’s silence gave him his answer.
“And yet you still insisted he work here, with all this temptation. He owes money to a mobster. You know that as well, don’t you?”
“What?”
“He owed a million pounds to the bloody mob, and who was the one who had to pay it off?”
“Gregory.”
“Yes, Gregory. How can you be friends with that woman after what she did to her own son, and what she still continues to do?”
“It’s not that simple, Oscar.”
“Nothing ever is with you, mother. I just need to focus on this right now, and make sure we come out the other side with my reputation still intact. Can we talk at the weekend?”
“Of course,” she said, getting up.
“I don’t want Lavinia to know about the investigation; we’ve been specifically asked not to share anything with Barty. Can you keep this to yourself? I don’t even want father knowing. I don’t need his judgement right now.”
“You have my word. I won’t say anything.”
She looked almost tearful. Oscar couldn’t remember his mother ever crying, and the look on her face gave him the comfort he needed to believe her. He got up and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then she smiled at him and left without another word. What the fuck was he going to do? He needed some advice, someone neutral who knew their stuff. Before he thought too much about it, he made the call.
Daniel Harper strode into his office, looking sharp as fuck in his suit. If Oscar wasn’t so hung up on Gregory, he would have gone there, despite his mother being the one to set them up. He doubted they’d work in the long-term, though, as Daniel gave off major control-freak vibes, which didn’t do it for Oscar outside the bedroom. Daniel was also so far from geekdom, which was an absolute must in any future life partner for Oscar, especially a certain type of buttoned-up geek who had a thick cock and a filthy mouth.
“Tell me everything,” said Daniel, getting Oscar’s attention back on task. “Give me the full unfiltered truth, so I know what I’m dealing with.”
Gone was the flirty banter from the Daniel he’d met on New Year’s Eve. This was the seven-figure-earning lawyer who’d built his own practice from scratch. Daniel specialising in corporate law was a bonus, but he was a senior partner, and the price tag of this meeting alone would be eye-watering.
Oscar arranged for some coffees to be made and took Daniel through the whole saga. He left nothing out, even who Barty owned money to. If he wanted Daniel’s help, he had to know everything so he could best advise on how to proceed.
“Do you want my long-winded lawyer-type summation of the situation, or the no-nonsense straight to the point version?”
“The latter.”
“You’re fucked!”
Oscar couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, the longer answer then, but sugarcoat nothing.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. If Barty had been put through a proper process, he never would have been hired. The fact he has gambling debts, whether you knew about them or not, will go against you. The regulators are fuckers with this stuff, and their argument will be that, as his employer, you should have known. Throw in the family connection and you’ve got the definition of privileged white people doing favours for each other. The people who work for the regulator are glorified civil servants and they hate the upper classes. I wouldn’t be surprised if they used you as an example. You’ll be one of those case studies that gets used in that god awful mandatory training we have to do every year.”
Oscar wanted to bang his head on the table. He’d already suspected that would be the outcome, but to hear it put it so bluntly was sobering, even if it was what he’d asked for.
“Is this the part where you tell me you can get me off for an astronomical fee?” asked Oscar, trying to inject some humour.
“Even I’m not that good. Look, I think what we need to do here is let them do their investigation into everyone else. I assume everyone else is thoroughly vetted?”
Oscar nodded.
“Just come clean. You did a favour for a family friend, but be honest and say you had no idea he had financial difficulties. We’ll play on the third-class degree, and say you wanted to give him a start in the city given no grad programmes would look twice at him. Explain that once you found out, you sacked him straight away, and only discovered the gambling debts after he left.”
“That’s the truth.”
“Always helps. I think you’re looking at a fine, probably seven figures rather than eight, and an improvement notice. Your vetting process could be watertight, but they’ll find something, just to prove a point. You implement that straight away. Hire an HR person – and I mean a good one, not someone who does it alongside being an office manager. You need someone who’s dealt with this shit before and can train people, hire responsibly, and overhaul your policies and processes.”
Oscar’s head was spinning with everything he was expected to do, and all because of Barty Balfour. That man just left destruction in his wake, and his parents thought he hung the moon.
“Can you help me?”
“Of course I can. One of my team will draft a response to the regulator. I also know the right company to do the investigation and they are on the approved list. I can come with you to any meetings as well if you need me to.”
“Yes please. I don’t care what it costs.”
“I’ll remind you that you said that.”
Oscar laughed. “I guess my mother got something right in introducing us.”
“Perhaps she did. Now, that’s the boring stuff out of the way. What’s been happening with you and Captain Bow Tie?”
Oscar felt his face heat.
“That good, eh? Come on, details. I need to live vicariously through my friends.”
Oscar smiled at Daniel referring to him that way. It had only been a couple of weeks since they first met, but they’d just clicked and he did regard him as a friend already.
“I’m sure there are plenty of muscle queens queuing at your door.”
“Muscle guys don’t really do it for me.”
“So why did you agree to go on a date with me, then?”
“Because you’re hot, and I’m not dead. Plus, the whole ‘flung around the bedroom’ thing piqued my interest.”
“That woman doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.”
“I’m not your type either, though, am I?”
“For a night, maybe,” said Oscar with a shrug.
“Interesting. Well, if Gregory doesn’t pull his finger out of his arse, I’ll help you with the healing process.”
Daniel was looking at him deadpan, and Oscar couldn’t help but laugh. He would have to introduce Daniel to Abby, although the thought of the two of them joining forces against him when he was being an idiot was too terrifying to comprehend.
“What is your type, then?” asked Oscar.
“I’ll let you know when I see it,” he replied, standing up. “I’ll get a contract over to you later today, and then we’ll get cracking on this response. Who’s leading on this internally?”
“Er... me, I guess.”
“Do you have a compliance manager?”
“We just use law firms when we need advice.”
“For fuck’s sake, Oscar. You’re a regulated firm. Who holds the senior compliance officer function?”
“My CFO.”
“Right, add a senior compliance person to your hiring list as well. I’ll send you some names for interim solutions, but they’re contractors by trade so you’ll need a perm one.”
Oscar walked Daniel out of his office and then stopped.
“Josh, what are you doing here?”
“I heard about the investigation, sir. I thought you’d need me here.”
Josh looked and sounded awful. Oscar needed him here, but not at the expense of his health.
“I’ll see Daniel out, and then we’ll talk.”
“Who’s that?” asked Daniel as they walked towards the lifts.
“My assistant.”
“How old is he?”
“Twenty-five, why?”
“You asked what my type was. Well, it’s sitting outside your office. Is he on our bus?”
“Please don’t fuck my assistant, Daniel.”
“Is he a bottom?”
“Strangely enough, that wasn’t one of the interview questions.”
“I bet he’s a screamer.”
“Oh my God. We can’t be having this conversation in my reception area.”
Daniel laughed. The lift opened, and he shook Oscar’s hand. There was a twinkle in his eye as he glanced back at where Josh was sitting.
“You’re going to do whatever you want, aren’t you?” asked Oscar.
“No comment, Your Honour,” replied Daniel, his laugh echoing as the lift door closed.
Oscar shook his head and walked back towards his office.
“Who was that?” asked Josh.
Even though he looked sick as a dog, he was practically wagging his tail as he glanced back towards the lifts. Oscar groaned and walked into his office, closing the door. This would not end well.