Chapter 15 Griffin
I wasn’t a cruel man by nature, but hearing Ben’s voice crack as he realized that his kingdom of lies was crumbling all around him filled me with joy.
It was a long time coming. I had always known that Ben was a slimy fuck, but the Walshs had been blind to his hidden nature because they still saw the young boy that Kyle brought into their home.
He was good at hiding it, I’d give him that much credit.
Not only because he was extremely charismatic, but because, unless you knew what to look for, he hid his steps well.
I had never thought to look for infidelity.
I had looked into his finances when Kyle wanted to bring him on board at the company, but never found anything criminal…
after a preliminary glance through the paperwork Mel had uncovered, I was fairly certain that was no longer true.
Kyle had been difficult to convince that Ben wasn’t a good match for the company, but over the past few years, even he had started to become suspicious about his brother-in-law's controlling nature with Mel. I had always been adamant that she deserved better, and I wished I had known her before Ben got his hooks in her. Maybe I could’ve helped convince her that a man who actually cared about a woman encouraged her independence and success.
No one in her family liked that he had kept her from pursuing an education and instead turned her into a trophy wife, but they all assumed it was because they were going to be starting a family soon.
Apparently, soon was coming sooner than anyone had anticipated.
My mind conjured up an image of Melanie smiling lovingly at an infant and playfully nipping at tiny fingers, while the baby squealed in delight, flashed through my head as I remembered our conversation from last night. She was going to be a wonderful mother.
“Melanie…” I called as I headed back to the office, “Ben is on his way here.”
She looked up from the screen she was intently studying and scowled.
“Why?”
“He realized his phone has been disconnected and that his access to the security system has been revoked.” I felt my lips twitch into a smirk. “I happened to mention that you were currently reviewing the footage from the Vegas property.”
Her scowl deepened, and the smirk fell from my face.
“I wish you hadn’t told him that.” She sighed and leaned back in the seat.
“Why?”
“There is a lot of footage to go through and there are a lot of files on this laptop. He’s definitely going to take it with him this time.”
“I can upload everything from the hard drive including the internet history before he gets here.” I assured her and motioned for her to let me take the seat. “You should go get yourself ready for his arrival while I do that.”
She nodded and trudged out of the office with her shoulders slumped. It hurt to see her looking so disheartened, and I felt a pang of regret for having mentioned anything to Ben. It had been selfish of me not to consult her first.
“Mel…”
She paused in the doorway and looked back at me. Her eyes were shiny with tears that hadn’t started to fall. I rose quickly and wrapped my arms around her.
“I’m really sorry that he’s coming here. If you want, we can lock the doors and pretend we aren’t here?”
“He will be an absolute nightmare if he gets here and thinks I’m disrespecting him.” She mumbled into my chest.
“Don’t care. We can call the police if he acts up.” I tensed at the implication that she was scared of his reaction.
“Do you think we can keep him from coming into the house?” she asked quietly.
“Yes.” I nodded and gently pushed her back far enough that she could see my face. “We lock the house up tight, and I can wait for him on the porch.”
“He will want to speak to me.”
“What he wants doesn’t matter.” I growled.
“I’ll wait on the porch with you.” She sighed.
“You shouldn’t do anything that you don’t want to do.”
“Part of me wants to see his face, wants to hear what lies he tries to spin.” She admitted with a little shrug.
“It’s going to hurt like hell but not worse than the threesome I just watched him have the week before Valentines Day.
” I winced at the mental image and then cursed the man when I saw the devastation in her eyes.
“I don’t think you should watch anymore of those… I can pay someone to go through and isolate the incidents and note the dates they occurred for you lawyer.” I softened my voice, “There’s no need for you to put yourself through all that pain.”
She closed her eyes, and a single tear streamed down her cheek. I wiped it away with my thumb before it could hit her quivering lips.
“I don’t understand how he could…” Her voice broke as a little sob escaped, and my chest tightened. “He was my world and our whole marriage was a joke.” Her voice sounded so small as she vocalized the most devastating part of his betrayal.
“He didn’t deserve to be a part of your world.
” I pulled her in again and held her in silence for a beat or two and then gently pushed her towards the door again.
“Go, get yourself ready and I will do what I need to do in here just incase we do need to involve the authorities, and they allow him to gather his stuff.”
I watched as she headed towards the stairs and then turned back to the task I needed to complete.
Uploading all of the data from his laptop was the easy part; it would only take me a few minutes.
The more time-consuming part of my mission was going to be adding the spyware, so I’d be able to monitor his activity once he got it back.
One of the things that my company offered was a keystroke logger for parents to have installed on household devices or companies to have installed on employee computers.
The FBI even purchased the software to use in their forensic investigations.
Normally, this would be considered highly illegal, but because this was a household device- not Ben’s work laptop, all I needed was Mel’s consent to install the software.
She had given it without hesitation when I explained that his work already used the software, which meant that all of his illegal or extramarital activities were on this computer.
If we missed any in our initial search, he would lead us to them as soon as he had the computer back and started cleaning up his trail.
The sound of my cell phone ringing temporarily broke my focus, and I saw that Kyle was calling me.
I hated lying to my business partner and best friend, but I also understood why Melanie didn’t want him to know until she was back in North Dakota.
If he found out now, he’d be on the first flight here, and then he’d end up in jail.
“Griffin Bose speaking.” I answered in my usual cool and collected voice.
“Where the hell are you?” Kyle hissed, “You flew back two days ago… So, why is Paulie telling me you’ve taken the company jet and left Damien in charge?” I bristled at the implication.
Damien is the Director of Physical Security and runs the security services division, and was perfectly qualified to run the company for a few days.
“Kyle…” I growled, offended by his tone.
“Don’t Kyle me… I need to know that you can keep everything going while I handle things here…” his voice trailed off, and I didn’t reply while he gathered himself. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.” He finally grumbled.
“Thank you.” I managed to suppress the urge to reply with sarcasm, “Damien is fully capable of handling the company for a few days, as you well know.” I let the subtle reprimand sit between us for a second and then continued, “I’m with Melanie.
I’m checking her home security system and updating her computers cybersecurity and then I will be bringing her back to North Dakota with the company jet. ”
“You’re with my Mel?” his confusion was understandable; in all the years I had known the family, Mel and I had never spent time together alone.
“Yes, I figured she would want to get back to the family as quickly as possible and had suffered through commercial flights enough for one week.” I tried to cover my lie with some light humor, but Kyle still seemed skeptical.
“How did you even know she would need a flight back?”
“I reached out about her security system…” I floundered to explain why I would’ve contacted his sister.
“You reached out?”
“I mean, she reached out first, of course… but then I followed up.” I cleared my throat and turned my eyes back to the screen, where a new pop-up had appeared. My eyes skimmed the message and clicked on the appropriate options to finish installing the spyware.
“What was wrong with her system?” he asked after a beat.
“I guess the passcode needed to be changed.”
“Did something happen?” he suddenly sounded alarmed, “Why didn’t she call me?”
“Nothing happened. I’m assuming she didn’t want to bother you over it while you are still helping your folks.” I quickly assured him.
I need to get off this call before I make an even bigger mess.
“Look, Kyle… can I call you back? I’m in the middle of writing some software code for her laptop to increase her cybersecurity while she finishes up some errands.”
The shower upstairs had turned off just a few seconds ago, and I knew that Melanie would be coming down soon, ready to go to battle with her shitbag husband, and didn’t need to add an uncomfortable conversation with her brother to the mix.
“If everything goes smoothly, we will be flying out tomorrow evening.” I added.
“You’re going to stay the night?” he sounded alarmed. “Ben is okay with that?”
“I’m going to stay at a hotel.” I gritted my teeth as I added yet another lie to the cover.
What’s one more lie in the grand scheme of things?
“Okay…” he said slowly, “Can you tell Mel to call me tonight?”
“Sure.” I agreed quickly and wrapped up the call just as I heard the sound of an engine roaring down the street.
Sounds like jackass has arrived.