Chapter 38
Jeremiah
“And you’ll do this discreetly?” I asked the sandy-haired man sitting across from me in my office. John was a private investigator I had called yesterday to come in for an interview. He seemed legit, based on the few times I had needed someone to do some discreet digging.
“Of course. I’ll be just like any other employee. I know the world of accounting enough to be able to schmooze with any of these people,” he said confidently.
I nodded, pressing my fingers together thoughtfully.
“Good. I don’t care who you have to befriend and ultimately betray to get to the bottom of these rumors. I’ve provided you with the emails that have circulated around the office.”
“Yes. I’ve read through them. While they didn’t necessarily point to who started the rumors, there were a few key names that stuck out, which is who I will target first. Casually, of course.”
“When can you start?” I asked.
“Tomorrow?”
“Perfect. It will give us time to mock up some ‘new hire paperwork,’” I said with air quotations. “This has to look legitimate.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll hire you on as a junior associate.”
He nodded, beginning to gather the emails and files on employees, filing them in his brown leather briefcase.
Though the rumors had died down in the office, at least in terms of emails being sent, I knew the hushed murmurs and employee happy hours were filled with speculation.
The press hadn’t released the story yet, but it would be breaking any day now.
I was sure they had to confirm their sources, and one of them was in this office.
Or so Sadie was convinced. I wasn’t so sure still.
There was a possibility Sadie let it harmlessly slip accidentally.
Or there was the possibility of her friends, whom she still assured me would never talk.
Either way, it was worth hiring someone undercover to look into the employees of the office.
“I do have something else I need you to look into,” I said.
After running into Anderson at my apartment building and his confrontation with Sadie, I needed answers because my mind was taking me to some dark places.
I didn’t know what he had up his sleeve, but I knew it couldn’t be good if he were coming around after all these years.
If it were just me, I would handle it. But now that Sadie was involved.
And our baby. I couldn’t take any chances.
“What is it, boss?” asked John, clicking his briefcase shut.
“I need you to look into somebody.”
“Name?”
“Anderson Bradley.”
John looked taken aback for a second. While my name was well known in the business world, so was Anderson’s. Especially now that he had come out with a book.
“We have history,” I said, not going any further in detail. “But he’s been poking around lately and I want to know what he’s up to.”
“Got it,” said John with a nod.
“Watch yourself with him. He’s slick,” I warned.
“I assure you, I’m slicker.” John said, rising to his feet and picking up his briefcase. He headed for the closed door, opening it and calling over his shoulder. “Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Mason.”
I chuckled to myself. Nice move.
Sadie looked at me curiously from her desk, her brow perfectly arched over her green eyes, which seemed to be sparkling more since we talked the other night.
As scared as I was to open up to her about my past, she listened and didn’t judge.
I should have known she wouldn’t. All she wanted was to know me.
The real me. And she wasn’t running from it. Yet.
“Sadie, can you come in here, please?” I asked.
She quickly nodded and walked over.
“Please, close the door behind you,” I said.
She looked confused. It wasn’t something we did anymore, since the rumors started about us. But I needed to talk to her about the private investigator. Besides, the shades were up and anyone could see in and see nothing precarious was going on between us.
She gently closed the door and sat in the armchair across from my desk, her auburn ponytail settling over her shoulder as she looked at me expectantly.
“We have a new hire. John. Our newest junior associate. I need you to work with HR to draw up some new hire paperwork for him.”
“Okay. I didn’t know we were hiring,” she said almost as a question.
“We aren’t. He’s actually a private investigator.”
“What?” Her brows rose high.
“He’ll be working undercover for the foreseeable future. I need to find out who has been spreading these rumors about us, and if you say it wasn’t you or your two friends, then I guess it has to be someone here,” I said firmly.
“Jeremiah…” she started warily. “Is it really worth all this? A private investigator?”
“Of course, it is. Someone among us is a traitor and I intend to sniff them out.”
“And then what?”
“Fire them.”
“For gossiping?”
“For tarnishing my reputation,” I said, my voice rising slightly. I didn’t understand why she wasn’t more upset by this.
She opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind, pressing her lips together firmly.
“What?” I asked impatiently, unable to read her thoughts.
“I just didn’t realize it was this big of a deal to you…”
“I told you what this could do to me. To us.”
“Yes, but I’m going to start showing soon. I can wear all the flowy tops or oversized blazers in the world, but the bump is coming. I can’t hide it forever.”
I looked to her midsection now, as if I hadn’t seen her naked last night. The black blazer she wore hid any sign of her being pregnant.
“Plus, my boobs are doubled in size. I’m sure that’s another giveaway.”
I couldn’t help but smirk slightly. They had been my favorite thing about pregnancy so far. Sadie’s cheeks turned a rosy shade of pink as she saw the look on my face.
“You’re ridiculous,” she said, biting back a smile.
“I can’t help it.” I shrugged.
Her expression changed back to serious. “But I’m serious, Jeremiah. This is going to come out.”
“They don’t have to know it’s mine,” I said thoughtfully.
Her brows pulled together as a look of hurt washed over her.
I knew I had said the wrong thing. Something I had proved to be good at with her.
I wasn’t trying to hurt her though. I was just trying to protect us.
Well, me. I was trying to protect everything I had built and the reputation I had earned.
“What’s your plan exactly?” she asked, her gaze narrowing. The hurt now replaced with irritation.
“I don’t know…I thought we had a plan. To keep this a secret.”
“And once the baby is here, we are still to keep this secret?”
“I hadn’t really thought that far, but yeah. Maybe. I don’t know.”
She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. I knew what I was saying was probably unrealistic, but we could at least try. I thought we had been on the same page.
“So you’re never going to hold your baby out in public?” she asked.
Before I could say anything, she asked more questions.
“You’re never going to have a picture of him or her in your office? You’re never going to tell your friends you’re a father? You’re never going to let me tell anyone about you?”
She was challenging me, and her questions were legitimate, but I needed time to think. I thought we had time.
“I have to be sensible about this,” I said, running a hand through my hair.
“Sensible?” Sadie laughed. “Nothing about us has been sensible. But I don’t care. I’m so happy with how everything has turned out. Sure, it’s not traditional. And it’s not what we had planned, but we’re here now. Being sensible is kind of out the window at this point.”
“Not for me, it’s not.”
“God,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re so twisted up inside. So scared of what everyone else will think.”
“Of course, I am,” my voice rose. “Look around you. Look at what I’ve built. It can be taken away because of what people think.”
“No, it won’t,” she said. “People will talk for a little bit, and then another scandal will come out for them to care about. Then this will all blow over.”
She seemed so confident, but she didn’t know the business world like I did. A scandal like this could ruin people. Affairs in the office are a one-way ticket to your stocks taking a dive and clients second-guessing their business.
“You don’t get it,” I said with a sigh.
“Maybe not, but I do know you have trust issues. And I get them. I do. After everything you’ve told me, it makes sense. But at what point do you move on from your past?”
“I don’t know if I can…”
“Well, you’re going to have to sort yourself out,” she said sternly.
“If we are having this baby together, you have to work on yourself. I refuse to raise a child with a jaded father, passing his own traumas onto his child. And I refused to be a doom and gloom mother, scared of the world because you shield us from it. I believe most people are good. If you opened your eyes, you’d see that. ”
“And if I don’t…” I said, challenging her. “Sort myself out?”
She hesitated, taking a breath as she searched my eyes. “Then I’ll walk.”
I let out a small laugh through my nose. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t.
“I can do this on my own,” she said, lifting her chin proudly.
She was digging her heels in and it pissed me off. I didn’t like being threatened like this. I clenched my jaw, biting back the seething anger that was creeping up.
“No, you can’t,” I said. “You’re living under my roof. You’re accepting my money. You’re taking my gifts without questions. The crib, the changing table, the dresser. Everything right down to the burp cloths and onesies. You wouldn’t have any of it without me.”
“And here I thought you were trying to build a life with me for our family. I didn’t know you were keeping count to hold it over my head,” she muttered.
“I wanted to do it. But I don’t like this…” I said, pointing her up and down.
“What?”
“The ungratefulness.” My face pulled into a look of disgust. “And I thought you weren’t a gold-digger…”
I knew the words were poison as soon as they left my mouth and were headed straight for Sadie’s heart. I watched as they hit their target and her face crumpled at the accusation.
“Fuck you,” she said, her voice shaking, with anger or sadness, I didn’t know.
I wanted to apologize. To take it back. I didn’t mean what I said.
I knew her better than that. But my anger took over and the words were out, and there was nothing I could do to fix it.
At least, not right now, when we were both heated.
So heated that it made me remember we weren’t really alone.
I looked past her through the open windows to see if anyone was watching our exchange.
No one seemed to be paying any attention.
“Of course, that’s where your attention goes. To them. Not to the woman whose heart you just broke. Again.”
“Sadie…”
“I’m done,” She stood from her chair. “Done trying to find redemption in you. Every time I think I see the good in you, you go and tarnish it. I won’t raise a baby with someone like that.”
I stood to follow her, but she was already at the door. Before she opened it, she said over her shoulder. “This is over. I’m moving out.”
Then she was gone.