Chapter 30
Molly couldn’t decide if she wanted to punch Leo, Johnny, Knox, or the people who’d told Leo it was his fault for what had happened to his mother.
The door opened, and Neil walked in. Leo called, told me what happened and asked me to come over. Alasdair’s on his way back too. Luckily, he had a layover in Greece for a meeting, so he isn’t too far. He saw the state of her, then the papers. Although he didn’t mention what exactly happened.
Your brother’s being an eejit, is what’s happened.
Molly fluttered the papers she had been reading for the past hour.
Rose had woken up a few minutes ago and was now on her playmat playing with the Peppa Pig stuffed toy Leo had brought her.
She had also asked for Leo first thing after Molly had gone to her.
Neil eyed Rose on the floor, who was now blinking up at him in disappointment. No. Where’s ’Eo?
Er… um… busy? Neil said, not knowing how to respond to the baby.
No, Molly wasn’t going to explain to Rose where her favourite eejit person was.
Molly stood up. We’re ordering food in and discussing this. If Leo needs time, the bass turd can have it. Could we get Alasdair on a video call?
Given the wealth these Buchanan guys possessed, surely they would be using a private plane. Neil’s cheeks pinked. I guess so.
While he pulled out his phone to arrange that, Molly carted the papers into the kitchen. The dining table would be the best place to discuss this. It was also the perfect place to keep an eye on Rose.
The moment Molly turned towards the dining table, she heard Rose take off. The little sneak had pattered over to the front door again.
Rose! Molly strode over to her daughter. We were outside earlier, remember? And it’s too late now to go out.
She picked Rose up. But her daughter kicked, her lower lip trembling. ’Eo!
Oh hell. Come on, baby, do you want to listen to—
No! Where’s ’Eo? Rose squirmed, her little body trying to wriggle free of Molly’s grip. I want ’Eo!
Honey, Leo’s busy. He’s got work. It was on the tip of her tongue to placate Rose by saying Leo was having a temporary holiday away from his senses and would be right back, but of course Rose wouldn’t understand that.
Molly wasn’t sure how long Leo would be gone.
But seeing how attached her daughter had become to the man, the part of her heart that was a mother was raging and also sobbing.
She had done it again, hadn’t she? Hitched her cart to an idiotic man. But this one had a hero complex and needed time away at the slightest hint of adversity.
After she was done with Johnny, she’d make Leo pay, that was for sure.
Now, Molly held Rose and patted her back.
You know, baby, sometimes adults mess up.
I should never have let him near us. She sighed.
Who am I kidding? He’s been there for us, has shown you what a healthy male is like, although right now he’s being very…
man-like. They can be thick eejits sometimes.
Molly muttered some choice words about Leo—all PG-13 of course, so Rose wouldn’t pick up on any words she had no business knowing as a three-year-old. Somehow the lull of her voice calmed Rose down, pulling her back from the edge of a massive bout of screaming and crying.
Leo had come to mean something to them, and he hadn’t even considered what it would be like for a three-year-old to have a father figure like him walk out for an indeterminate amount of time. After he’d expressed interest in being her father.
Bastard.
When Molly and Rose returned to the kitchen, Neil was already sat there, Alasdair on video call. She could see the plush furnishings of an airplane around him. Hey, Rose! Molly! I’m still about three hours out.
Plenty of time for what she had in mind.
With Rose draped over her front, Molly began setting up the papers the way she wanted and explained what had happened with the embezzlement accusation.
So Knox has given Leo the boot from Buchanan Security.
According to Leo, that also means he no longer stands to inherit his share of the estate; it’s being passed over to Johnny.
Alasdair gave a sombre nod. Knox got in touch with me.
He won’t listen to reason, and it’s fu— stupid that it’s all his sole decision.
Besides, does it even make sense for one of us to embezzle from the company?
We literally own the place and get profits from it.
I would think running Newtar without the news getting to Knox is a bit of a stretch.
Neil waved at the papers. Clearly, Knox now knows, if it wasn’t him running Newtar. And he had files on us. Perhaps he was investigating which one of us is running Newtar?
Well, unless there’s a fifth brother we don’t know of, it’s not Leo, you, or me. Alasdair shook his head and stared outside what Molly assumed was the window. Then he muttered something about I don’t like not trusting yous.
Molly interrupted their little tennis match.
It’s Johnny. He’s framing Leo. He now gets what he wants, his share of the company.
There is always a possibility that Knox is framing Leo, but why would he bring out the matter for everyone to know?
A clandestine op like this is way more profitable the fewer people know.
Neil sat back, his head tilted to the side. Right, so Johnny’s taken the queen out of the picture, so the king is vulnerable to an attack.
That wasn’t how she’d put it. In chess, though Molly was no pro at it, she’d always thought the king was just useless. He couldn’t do any of the protecting himself and needed a whole load of people to die for him.
If she played king, she’d just be the person Johnny had told her she was. And Molly was not someone who needed a man to save her. Not anymore.
She stubbed a finger towards herself. I am the queen.
And I don’t need others to protect me. But I do need your help.
She waved towards the papers. What Knox or Johnny didn’t realise is that in sending through these official documents, telling us how and where Leo allegedly embezzled the money, they’ve given us a trail to trace Newtar’s activities.
It might help us figure out how Johnny’s involved in Newtar.
And they could send him away for good and keep him away from Leo’s inheritance.
But before she could dream about that utopia, they had a lot of groundwork to lay down. “Right, let’s get started. Alasdair, I need you to be a global relations guy and get me a list of all the places you think Newtar might be involved. And any gossip you’ve heard of them.
Neil, would you be able to access the CCTV footage and check if there are any people or places Johnny’s been hanging out at inside the Buchanan building?
See if there’s a guy Johnny’s been bullying into doing the drudgery for him.
Someone like an intern who makes coffees and prints stuff out.
Johnny is bound to have one. The man hadn’t even been able to boil water when they’d first got together.
He’d have someone wipe his bum for him if he were a medieval king.
Neil frowned. It’ll take me ages to go through the footage and get that answer for you. As far as my experience goes, Johnny is everywhere like some omnipresent ghost.
That made sense. She knew as a security company, they probably had a bunch of cameras around the place. Going through all that footage would be a nightmare.
Just find out who gets Johnny his morning coffee.
I just need that person. And you can take over babysitting duties.
She stood and reached her free hand to gather up the papers, especially the ones that highlighted the embezzlement.
And keep these papers safe for the law officials or someone with a finance brain.
Wait. This was Alasdair, leaning so close to the camera, the top of his forehead was cut off. You said we needed those documents to create a map of the whole organisation.
It’s something to cross-check against. But legal and financial jargon mean little to me.
I don’t have any use for legalities. I told you, I can’t sit back and be an armchair sleuth.
I need to get out there. Even in her previous life, Molly had been the doer.
The person who got her arse into the field.
She had loved it. Now her body revved to use those dormant powers.
Of course, she remembered what had happened the last time she’d stepped out there. Her brain also alerted her to the fact that this time she had Rose to think about.
And yet, she couldn’t pull a Leo and hide. She had to fight this, with or without that bastard. If she waited for Johnny, he’d come at her better prepared. That fight would be on his terms, and she had no hope of winning it.
No, she would do what he least expected of her: Fight back on his own turf and show him what she was made of, what she was capable of. And, most importantly, prove to herself that her old kick-ass self was well and alive somewhere inside the years of belittlement and fear she’d lived with.
She might achieve the first two, but the last one… Now that was a tall order.