Chapter 42
Chandler
I slammed my cup of coffee down on the kitchen counter frustratedly, black coffee spilling over the rim of the cup.
I let out a long sigh and ran my hand through my hair.
This morning was not going as I had hoped it would.
In fact, the past three days hadn’t gone as I had wanted them to.
As I listened to the shuffling of paperwork on the other end of the phone, I reached for a towel to wipe up the coffee before it crawled to my laptop and made my morning even worse.
“Did you find anything?” I asked sharply, trying to fill the annoying silence between me and Alan.
“No, Mr. White. Nothing,” he replied warily. “Without access to those files anymore, I’m afraid this is a bust.”
“And you didn’t come up with any sort of conclusions about who might be doing this?”
“No, sir. Whoever is transferring the money knows what they’re doing, leaving a mess of numbers that lead nowhere.”
Damn it. If only Mr. Harold had let my team look into the matter further instead of letting his anger get the best of him and kicking me out.
Now, we had no access to any of the files we needed because the SEC had most likely seized everything by now.
Alan and his firm were unable to find out who the culprit was, and unfortunately didn’t have any hunches in the aftermath.
“I’m sorry, Mr. White…” said Alan on the other line.
I grunted in response before hanging up the phone.
I felt useless. I hadn’t heard anything from Gabriella since she chewed me out at the office.
While I was sure she had her hands full with this mess that she somehow blamed on me, I had just been trying to help.
I had no idea I would dig up the dirt I did.
I was just trying to find ways to maximize profits, not destroy the company.
But whatever she had in her head about me, her mind seemed to be made up.
However, I wasn’t done fighting yet. I drank the last few sips of my coffee and shrugged on my navy jacket.
I was going to see Mr. Harold, whether he wanted me there or not.
I had to at least try to help. I had hit so many dead ends the past few days here at my apartment, making calls and writing emails.
I wanted to be in the thick of it, wading through it with the man who had entrusted me his company and the woman who was carrying my baby.
My phone rang as I waited for the parking valet to bring my car around. I answered without checking to see who it was and immediately regretted it.
“Chandler?” my mom’s voice was soft, yet shrill.
We hadn’t talked in a while. Not since the disastrous dinner that probably ruined our favorite eatery forever. I blew out a breath through my closed lips and clutched the phone tightly. This was the last thing I needed to deal with right now.
“Hey, Mom,” I said, willing the stress out of my voice.
“What’s wrong?” she asked instantly.
She knew me too well.
“Nothing, nothing. Just work stuff,” I said.
“Mmm.” She seemed unconvinced.
I waited a moment to see if she was going to get right to it or beat around the bush. I never knew with her.
“I’m calling about the baby…” she started.
I threw my head back and looked up at the ceiling.
I didn’t want to talk about this. I wasn’t going to be able to give her the answers she wanted.
It still hurt like hell to know Gabriella had pushed me away, wanting nothing to do with me.
I couldn’t very well explain it all to my mother when everything was so raw still.
“Yeah…” I said, as if this were any normal conversation.
“Don’t do that. Don’t act like it’s nothing,” she said sharply. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I said, spotting my red sports car coming around the corner, the attendant’s hands gripped tightly around the steering wheel with nerves. The car was probably worth more than his entire year’s salary.
“Honey, please just listen to me, okay? I know Greg already talked to you…”
I scoffed.
“He was just trying to help.”
“Or overstep…”
“Fine,” she said sharply. “If you won’t listen to him, then listen to me.
You better do the right thing here, Chandler.
That baby needs a father, and whether you think you’re fit for the job or not, you need to be there.
You need to try. I know you can be amazing if you just believed in yourself.
If you just realized you are not your father. ”
I had been ready to be a father. I had been ready to step up to the plate and prove to myself that I could do it because I loved Gabriella.
I loved our baby. I fell in love with it the moment I saw its abstract shape on the ultrasound.
That was what made this hurt the most. I was ready to put my shit behind me and create a real future for myself, but I never got the chance.
I wished I could explain that to my mother to ease her worried heart, but things were too complicated right now.
“Mom, I appreciate the pep talk, but I really do have to go,” I said, pulling out a twenty-dollar bill from my wallet and handing it to the parking attendant. I slid into the front seat of my car and drove up the ramp to the early afternoon light and city traffic.
“Fine, fine,” she said defeatedly. “I just wanted you to know that you’re a better man than he was.”
“Because I had you,” I said softly. “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too.”
I heard the click of the phone and tossed mine on the seat beside me. My mother had faith in me. Hell, even Greg did. Maybe I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. I hit the gas and weaved through traffic, on a mission to get to the woman I loved and to help the man she adored.
The office was still a ghost town when I arrived.
I hoped Mr. Harold was here, and Gabriella, too.
I walked among the empty file boxes and open-drawered desks, looking for any signs of life.
It felt so eerie, I almost wished the SEC agents were here.
I stopped outside my old office and heard voices from inside.
I knocked loudly on the door, the voices halting at the interruption.
“Come in,” Mr. Harold’s voice drifted through the door.
I took a deep breath and opened the door. He hung up the phone as I did, and I tried to swallow down the disappointment that Gabriella wasn’t in the room with him.
“Back again?” he asked, but there was no bite in his voice. It was as if he was too worn down to keep up with his resentment toward me.
“Yes, sir.” I nodded.
“Hmm.”
“I want to help. I need to help. Even though it wasn’t my intention, I feel like I brought this mess upon you and I want to help fix it. Gabriella can be mad all she wants, but I’m not going to stop fighting for you and your family’s business.”
Mr. Harold sat back in his chair and studied me for a moment. Silence filled the room. I shifted my feet slightly, wondering what he was thinking. Hoping he would let me do this.
“You’re a decent man, Mr. White,” he said finally.
“Not always, sir. But I’m trying to be.”
Thinking, he pursed his lips to the side before drumming his fingers on the desktop. He stood up and walked toward me.
“Let’s go then,” he said, opening the door behind me.
I breathed a sigh of relief and followed after him. He only took a few steps and opened the door to Gabriella’s office where she sat behind her desk, her brow furrowed in concentration. My heart felt like it stopped just at the sight of her. I couldn’t help the longing that stirred in my stomach.
“What is it, Dad?” she asked, not looking up from her computer. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun, a pencil holding it in place.
I cleared my throat and as if recognizing the sound, her eyes shot up and landed on me.
“What is he doing here?” she asked, turning to her father, who stood next to me with his arms crossed. It was almost as if he was enjoying the show.
“He’s come to help us.”
“Like hell he has. He’s the reason for this,” she said irately.
“What are you talking about?” asked Mr. Harold with a shake of his head.
“He deliberately sabotaged the company after you told him to step down. He’s an egotistical ass who couldn’t handle losing. That’s why he called the SEC on us.”
I opened my mouth to finally defend myself, but Mr. Harold stepped forward.
“That’s not true, Gabriella. Whatever story you’ve spun in your head is wrong. Chandler was only trying to help when he brought in his own accounting firm. He didn’t know what they were going to find. None of us did.”
“It’s true,” I said, hoping she would look at me and see that I meant it, but she didn’t. She just continued looking at her father for answers because she clearly had no interest in mine.
“If he were going to call the SEC, why would he alert me to the problem?” asked Mr. Harold, raising a brow. “He could have left and let me drown, but he tried to warn me. I was just too angry about everything to listen.”
“It still doesn’t make any sense why this would happen now,” said Gabriella harshly.
“I don’t know, dear, but it’s happening. And Chandler wants to help us. Does that seem like a man who would want to sabotage me?”
She rolled her eyes, not softening her edge at all. She grabbed her purse from the desk and stood up hastily.
“Fine. Help. But you can do it without me,” she said, shooting me a look before she pushed her way between us toward the door.
“Gabriella…” started Mr. Harold.
“It’s clear you don’t need me, Dad. He’s more than welcome to take my place. He’s done it before,” she said coolly, disappearing out of the room.
Mr. Harold closed his mouth tightly and shook his head warily. The cut he had given her clearly still ran deep. I turned to go after her, but Mr. Harold placed his hand on my arm to stop me.
“Sir?” I asked, looking down at him.
I wanted to go after her and shake the stubbornness out of her.
She could be so hard-headed, but I was the same way.
But if she would just listen to me and really hear the truth about all of this, then maybe we could work through this mess, and then hopefully work through everything else.
We did need her. Especially me, in more ways than one.
“Don’t,” said Mr. Harold sadly, his eyes defeated.
“But—”
He held his hand up before looking at the doorway she had just walked out of. “My daughter is stubborn. I’m sure you know you know that.”
“I do.” I feigned a small laugh.
“And she’s also independent. Fiercely so. She needs to work through this on her own.”
I nodded and he released my arm. I still wanted to make a run for it, but I figured I should listen to the man who knew his daughter best.
“It’s best to just let her cool off,” he said, gesturing for me to follow him back to his office. We would have to work together, just us two, for now. Gabriella and I would have to sort through our own problems later. In the meantime, at least I could try to help salvage her family’s legacy.