Lisa accosted me as soon as I entered the office. “We need to talk.”

“Okay, just let me—” I started to say, but she followed me in, tray of coffee already prepared. She plopped it on the table with an uncharacteristic rattle and handed me a pile of papers while she poured our cups. I abandoned my attempt to remove my jacket as I read through her report. With everything going on with Miles, I’d nearly forgotten that I’d asked her and Timothy Janis, my CFO, to look into the financial discrepancies on the quarterly report. But Lisa hadn’t forgotten.

“Is this correct?” I asked her, falling into the couch, my eyes glued to the words in front of me.

“I triple checked everything,” she assured me. “At first glance, the purchases had looked like simple miscategorizations, but when I looked at the receipts and the actual numbers, red flags started popping up all over the place. For instance, one of the specialized packing machines we use—we had apparently purchased forty new units, but unless we’re opening a new shipping facility, which we aren’t scheduled to this year, we never purchase in bulk, and never as many as forty.“

I flipped the report shut, my anger looming larger with each line, each piece of evidence that someone was taking me for a fool.

“What does Timothy have to say about this?”

“Well…” Lisa’s face said I wasn’t going to like what she had to say about the next part. “I didn’t talk to Mr. Janis about it. I have a folder of copies of all the purchase receipts and—”

“Let me guess—he’s signed every one.”

“You got it.”

I stood, finally removing my jacket and rolling up my sleeve. “Get someone up here from legal. A whole fucking team if need be. I don’t want that man on my property a moment longer than necessary. Is he in his office now?”

“Not yet. I checked with Opal, his secretary, and she said he doesn’t normally get in until about 8:45.”

I shook my head in disgust. I didn’t expect my employees to all hold the exact same work ethic as me, but I expected them to follow pretty damn close on my heels.

Lisa went to work. I nearly called Miles to seek his legal advice, and, if I was honest with myself, for his comfort. But I knew he was spending the morning getting his own legal ducks in a row, and it would probably be a conflict of interest if he did attempt to help me, anyway. Within minutes, I had someone drafting a severance letter, another researching state and local regulations, and three others at the bidding of the other two. By nine am, she reported that Timothy had arrived, and I had everything in place, as well as the authorities waiting for my call.

“Let him know I’d like to see him, and notify the investigation team that they can access his office.”

While I was waiting, I straightened my shirt sleeves, popping the cuff links back in, and put my jacket back on like a medieval knight donning his armor. My legal team stood silently to the side, waiting.

“Parker!” Timothy exclaimed as he walked in, his smile wide and his voice boisterous, not noticing the men standing to the far left of the room at first. “Have you finally decided to take me up on that offer to teach you golf?”

I smiled thinly, ignoring his outstretched hand. Timothy had been with me since nearly the very beginning. From when we were a company of only twenty people to now. His betrayal weighed all the more heavily from our history.

“Timothy. I was hoping you could explain this report.” I handed him the same report Lisa had handed me that morning.

Timothy’s eyes began to dart nervously, and he seemed to finally notice the lawyers standing to the side. He skimmed the first page of the report in confusion, but by the time he reached the second page, he dropped the papers and bolted toward the door, but he was too late. Two uniformed police officers blocked his exit, and I could tell the moment he accepted his defeat. They quickly read him his rights and cuffed him, leading him silently from my office. All in all, it was a much less dramatic event than I had been expecting. I’d expected Timothy to yell, to protest his innocence, but the moment he realized he was caught, he clammed up. A smart move. Probably the only smart move he’d made in this whole mess.

What had possessed him?

I’d have my answers later, I hoped, after the investigation team was done with him. I had no interest in interviewing him myself. I couldn’t spare the time or energy, not with a company to run, to recover, and an omega to tend to.

Most of my morning was taken up with assisting the police, until Lisa finally sat me down and pushed a fast food hamburger into my hands. I only ate it because she wouldn’t stop looming over me with a glare until I finished it. Then she left me alone, the cops left, the lawyers left, and it was just me and my thoughts.

My phone dinged.

My reciprocity went through! Tonight we celebrate ;)

The cold burn that had settled into the bottom of my heart when Lisa explained Timothy’s betrayal eased away as I began typing back with Miles. I gave him a brief rundown of my morning, but the anger and rage I’d felt faded. Every negative thing in my life paled in the knowledge that he was mine once more and forever.