Chapter 45
MATTEO
This is all kinds of fucked up.
I was so wrong. I doubted the woman I love, and I hurt her badly. I ruined what we had—all because of something the old man did. Him pulling hospital funding, led to internal sabotage by a man I trusted with my life.
I sat for hours in my office after Elizabeth left, trying to comprehend the enormity of what she’d revealed, and the circumstances that led to where we are now.
Her acknowledging that she also had a part to play in this should make me feel better, but it doesn’t, because the distance between us is as great as ever.
I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to fix it, but I’m not one to give up easily.
Later that evening I go to the old man’s penthouse.
Not with an army of my brothers, and not for another fucking dinner.
Because I need to tell him, and I need to know.
The housekeeper lets me in and leads me to the Great Room.
He’s sitting on a sofa reading a newspaper.
He looks frailer than last time, like he needs my fucking kidney badly.
I’m not so sure that he’s going to get it.
He looks up as I walk in.
“Need to talk to you about something,” I say.
He studies me for a moment, and then I see the fear settle in his eyes. Maybe he thinks I’ve come here to tell him I’ve changed my mind.
“We found him.” I don’t sit down. “The person who was doing all this. The one behind the technical glitches at the company. It was Alex.”
“Alex?” He looks completely shocked, just like was.
“Alex Crawford.”
“Alex. Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever suspect?”
I shake my head. “Never. I was completely blindsided. He’s smart and he hid his tracks well, but we baited him out. Or rather, Elizabeth did.”
“It was just Alex?”
“What do you mean?” He’s hinting at something I’m not understanding.
He folds his newspaper and places it on the coffee table beside him. “Are you sure he was working alone?”
I hadn’t even thought about that. The question didn’t arise, and Alex never mentioned anyone else. But the old man seems to think he didn’t act alone. I shrug. “It was just him, but he tried to frame Elizabeth.”
The old man scoffs. “Why?”
I pace around in front of him, not wanting to sit, and eager to keep this short, so I can quickly make my exit. “Because she was smart enough to figure out that it was an inside job. It wasn’t an external threat.”
“Hmmm.” He rests his elbows on the armrest, before intertwining his fingers together. “I can’t say I’m too surprised.”
“About Alex?”
“About it being someone internal.”
“You suspected that?” I ask, in disbelief. “From the start?”
He pauses. “I wasn’t sure.”
This is news I hadn’t expected. “What made you think it was an internal job?”
“Not sure … but at least we’ve gotten to the bottom of it. You’ve been looking at it for months, dragging your feet—”
“Wasn’t dragging. I was combing through things carefully.” He’s always been on my back about this, believing I was too slow. That’s why he went behind my back and hired Elizabeth without even consulting me. “Did you have suspicions about Alex?” I ask, because he’s being his usual evasive self.
He looks away.
“Did you?” I ask again.
“He framed her, did you say?” He ignores my question. I find his reaction
too quiet, and too controlled, even for him. He’s known Alex for much longer than me, so this should have hit him harder than it hit me.
I lean against the wall. “He tried to. He called me when I was in Dubrovnik and said he'd found activity linked to her credentials. Login records. Authentication logs. Access attempts that appeared to originate from her account.” I make a face, feeling shame when I recall that phone call.
“Everything pointed to Elizabeth being involved. At the time, it looked convincing.”
“She used to be a hacker, in her very early days.”
I turn and stare at the old man.
He knew.
I had an idea that he knew, but now he confirms it. I turn away from him again, pretending to be unaffected, but I bite my tongue and fight the urge to put a hole through the window.
I knew something didn’t add up about the way he hired her, without consulting me, and taking her on despite her not having the required qualifications. I was convinced there was a reason for it.
And now I know.
He hired her knowing she was a hacker. The pieces of the puzzle I’ve been trying to put together, begin to line up.
But why did he hire her?
“Don’t you have anything to say?” he asks.
I refuse to turn around to see that smug look on his face. That “Gotcha” grin. He thrives on things like this, on lies, secrets and subterfuge. I clench down on my teeth, fist my hands inside my trouser pockets. “I always suspected there was a reason for why you chose her.”
He laughs. “I needed an external consultant to audit the department. I had an inkling that it might be an inside job. I just needed to find out who.”
“And you hired a hacker?”
“I needed someone way smarter than all those prissy boys you've got working for you. Someone who can think like a criminal.” He pauses for effect. “Did you know about that?”
Thank goodness Elizabeth told me about her past.
I smile. “Of course I know. I know more than enough about Elizabeth.”
“Every inch of her body, too, no doubt.”
I turn around in disgust. The dirty, slimy bastard. He's baiting me. Trying to elicit a reaction from me but I won't give him the satisfaction. We stare one another down like enemies.
Because we are.
Blood means nothing when it comes to him.
“Should the company brace itself for a slew of sexual harassment claims?” I ask, walking towards him with a casual nonchalance I don’t feel.
“The filth that comes out of your mouth when you talk about women is truly revolting.” I bend down, so that our faces are level.
“Think about it,” I whisper, inches from his ear.
“How bad it would look if our investors discovered what a sack of shit you really are. A dirty old man, with ailing health, and maybe not so invincible after all.”
I straighten to standing, staring down at him in revulsion.
See his impenetrable cool exterior, but the tiny twitch along his jawline tells me he’s fighting for restraint.
I twist the knife further. “Is that how you’ve been with women all your life?
With Mama. With Aurora? They deserved so much better. ”
He tilts his chin up at me. “Careful, boy.”
I chuckle. I’ve got him. “Anyway,” I say, brightly, my bravado getting the better of me. “It’s not your job to audit my department. That’s something I could have taken care of myself.”
He laughs. “You know I hired her to audit you.”
Fucking, what? “Me?” Something inside me snaps. “What do you mean you hired her to audit me?” I growl.
Was that why he hired Elizabeth without telling me? It would explain why he was surprised to hear that it was Alex, and not me. This is how Elizabeth must have felt when I told her I suspected her.
“I thought it might be you. What better way to find out than to audit your department?”
I take a step back, letting his words sink in.
Trying to make them make sense. Why would he think I was behind this?
I take a few calming breaths in the thick silence that hangs heavy.
I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. This man has always believed the worst about people, but thinking that someone like me, his son, might want to stab him in the back, that's ...
that's another level of paranoia altogether.
“Why the hell would you suspect me?”
He lets out a heavy sigh, something rare from him because he is always the picture of composure. Even if the world was burning down around him, he’d be calm and collected.
“I’m getting older, and I’m not sure how things are going to work out for me during the surgery, after the surgery.
” He pauses for the longest time, his mind drifting elsewhere.
I suddenly know what he's afraid of; what fueled his paranoia—he’s afraid he might die. He’s weaker than I’ve ever seen him.
I can’t wait to tell the others.
He rests his hands, palms down on the armrest, looking casual and relaxed, when I’m certain he is anything but that.
“I'm leaving a legacy behind. Consider yourselves extremely fortunate that you'll all be taken care of forever, but the way you people—”
“You people?” I cut in. “Who are you referring to?”
“You boys,” he says, dryly, picking what looks like a hair off his sleeve. “You’re all becoming closer. Spending too much time together. Nobody wants to come to the dinners here. None of you have checked in on me much.”
I sit down, to absorb the meaning of his words. Is he lonely and sad? Or mad at us? What does he expect from us?
“Maybe if it was a family dinner, instead of a business meeting dressed up as dinner, we might think of it differently,” I counter. “Maybe if you’d shown us some love and affection and raised us with the same love and affection Mama has ...”
“You think I could have built up the Knight name like that?” he yells, his carefully controlled anger erupting.
I feel sorry for him. He’s been busy creating wealth, and we get to enjoy the fruits of that labor, but there are other, more important things in life. Things the old man has let pass by.
“You haven’t explained,” I say, my tone accusatory. “I still don’t understand why you thought I would have done this.” I wonder if his medication might be affecting him. But Zach doesn’t think he’s taking his medication properly, which would explain why his kidneys are failing so fast.
“I considered the possibility that maybe… maybe it could be you, or one of the others. Or all of you together. You've all resented me for years, and lately you've been standing shoulder to shoulder in a way that concerns me.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I growl, running my hands through my hair and looking up at the ceiling. “Your paranoia will kill you, if your rotting kidney doesn't.”
I wince inside. Elizabeth wouldn't like me saying that.