I’d sleep at the hospital if I could, but the nurses insist I go home at night. They pretend it’s better for Olivia if I’m not there all the time. They just want me out of the way.

Carly and I spring out of bed at seven o’clock and get showered. When I come out of the bathroom, Carly is shoving some clothes into a duffle bag.

“Are you leaving?” I ask. She’s been staying here most nights since Olivia got sick, so I can’t blame her if she wants to spend a night at home.

“This is my hospital bag,” she replies calmly. “I’ve packed changes of clothes, and—most importantly—clean underwear.”

“What for?”

“Some of the doctors are cute. I don’t want to be wearing three-day-old panties.”

“Very funny.”

“Well stop asking silly questions. You know what it’s for. Tomorrow’s the big day.”

As if being unable to help my sick daughter isn’t bad enough, I haven’t even been able to track down Olivia’s piece of shit biological father so that he can do the good deed. How can one man be so damn difficult to find? He clearly lives in LA, because the P.O. Box is registered here. Despite that, the private detectives I’ve hired can’t find any trace of him. I know he has a bank account, because the money comes out of my account a few days after I write the checks.

I can’t stomach the thought of putting Carly through this operation, but I also can’t bear the thought of losing my daughter. I’d do anything for her, and apparently, so would Carly. Things are shitty at the moment, and yet I still feel like the luckiest man alive. I’m blessed with the two most incredible women on this planet, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep them in my life.

“Leave the bag here,” I say to Carly. “If worst comes to worst, and you need it, I’ll bring it in.”

“Okay, but don’t forget. And make sure you bring my iPad. I’ll go crazy if I don’t have anything to read.”

She doesn’t sound at all scared. She hasn’t once hesitated from the second she found out that Olivia might need a transplant. I don’t deserve her.

We’re nearly ready to leave when my phone rings with a call. I recognize the number as coming from the law firm we’ve hired for the sale. About half of their office is working on this deal, so I dread to see the legal fees at the end of it.

“Don’t you guys ever sleep?” I say, as I answer the call.

“We would,” Edmund replies, “but the Pacific Technologies lawyers are on the case twenty-four hours a day. We don’t want to look lazy.”

“Fair enough. What’s up?”

“We’ve got a problem. A minor one, I think, but I need to run it past you.”

“Make it quick. I’m about to head over to the hospital.”

“Pacific’s lawyers are complaining about inaccurate information in the disclosure schedules. They’re saying they’ve found an omission, and of course, they want to make a huge deal out of it to drive the price down. You know the kind of thing: ‘we can’t trust the information so we’re going to have to increase the contingent part of the payment, et cetera et cetera.’”

I’ve barely been paying any attention to what I’m signing recently, so the only surprise is that it took them this long to find a mistake.

“What are they saying we did wrong?”

“There’s a Powerpoint presentation that shows all the selling shareholders and their interests in other companies. It’s hardly a big deal. You don’t own any other stock and most of the other shareholders are minor investors at best.”

“Yeah, I remember the chart. It looked fine to me.”

“They’re saying that Grady owns 100% of another company.”

I laugh. “Grady barely has time to keep on top of the work I give him. Trust me, I doubt he’s running a business on the side.”

“You’re probably right. I’ve looked the company up. It’s registered in Delaware but doesn’t seem particularly active since formation three years ago. There’s not even a website presence as far as I can tell. Does Grady do any part-time consultancy work? It’s not uncommon for people to set up companies to receive sporadic payments. It helps them look professional and there can be tax advantages to putting those payments through a company.”

“Maybe,” I reply. “But like I said, I’d be amazed if he had the time. It doesn’t matter. If it’s a small company, there’s clearly no conflict of interest. I’m not going to let them mess us around on such a minor point. Give me the name of the company and I’ll revise the schedule.”

“You got a pen and paper on hand?”

I look around on instinct, even though I know the nearest pen and paper is in my office.

“Hang on.” I head over to Carly who is making edits to her script on her laptop. “Can I use this briefly?”

“Sure,” she replies, passing the laptop over.

“Okay,” I say to Edmund. “Shoot.”

“Alright, it’s a Delaware C Corporation called Johansen Contracting, Inc.”

“Thanks, Edmund. I’ll get it done.”

I hang up and look at what I’ve written on the bottom of Carly’s script.

Grady’s company = Johansen Contracting, Inc. Delaware C Corp.

I immediately feel sick to my stomach, but I don’t know why. That name. It’s so similar….

“What’s wrong?” Carly asks. “You’ve gone pale.”

I point to the name on the computer screen. It’s sinking in. I want to throw up.

“I don’t… oh, shit,” Carly mutters. She’s figured it out already. No surprise there.

I can’t speak. I can barely keep myself upright. My vision is blurry.

“Log in to your bank account,” Carly says firmly.

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

I shake my head and take deep breaths until I can focus on the screen. I have to go through the convoluted process of signing into my password manager, doing two-factor authentication, then signing into my bank account, and then doing the two-factor authentication for that as well. It’s a five-minute process that could have been avoided by using the computer in my office, but I’m not thinking straight.

“Now what?” I say when I’m finally logged in.

Carly scans down my bank statement until she finds the check deposits.

“We already know he’s banking the checks,” I say, hoping she doesn’t notice just how much I spend at Starbucks.

“The bank scans the check when it’s posted. Look.” Carly clicks on one of the check payments and it brings up a black and white image of the check.

“Holy shit.”

“Did your mother never teach you how to balance a checkbook?”

“Numbers go in, numbers go out. I never thought to look at the image.”

It’s a miracle that he got away with it for so long. He must have known I’d find out. Right there in the middle of the screen is a check made payable to Johansen Contracting, Inc. When you look closely, you can even see the different handwriting where he’s added ‘sen’ on the end of Johan, and ‘cting, Inc.’ on the end of Contra.

“I’m going to kill him,” I say, calmly.

“Let’s get his liver first. Then you can kill him.”

My secretary looks surprised to see me in the office so early.

“Can you go find Grady and bring him to my office immediately?” I ask.

Byron nods and heads off to get Grady.

A stack of papers is piled on the desk and there are at least a hundred little red sticky labels indicating pages that I need to sign. The electronic signature is acceptable on most documents, but Pacific Technologies wants original signatures as well just to give them something extra to put in their files.

I don’t even bother switching on my computer. I’m not getting any work done today. That’s not what this little visit is all about.

Grady shows up a few minutes later. It’s impossible to hide from Byron.

“We’re not to be disturbed,” I tell Byron on his way out the door.

Grady takes a seat opposite my desk. He doesn’t look nervous or worried. Good. I want this to come as a shock. It dawns on me for the first time that this was the man Shannon cheated on me with. I’ve known about the affair for years, but I could never put a face to the name. I always assumed he’d be like me: tall, decent looking, muscular. Instead, she cheated on me with a scrawny weasel who looks like the stereotypical accountant that he is.

It wouldn’t have been about looks for Shannon. She didn’t have an affair with Grady because she was attracted to him. She did it to get at me because she knew I liked Grady and relied on him at work. Shannon had issues, but she gave me Olivia. For all her flaws, that’s something I’m eternally grateful for.

“I wasn’t expecting you to come into work today,” Grady says, when the silence stretches on a little too long. “Does this mean there’s good news about Olivia?”

How dare he even speak her name. Carly convinced me to talk to Grady instead of beating the shit out of him, but that’s so much harder in practice. He’s sat there like we’re normal coworkers, casually mentioning my child as if he doesn’t know full well that he’s the biological father.

“She’s still in hospital,” I reply. “But we’re expecting good news soon.”

“We all have our fingers crossed for you.”

I let Grady stew in silence for a few moments before dropping the bombshell. “I’m calling off the sale.”

Grady smiles, but it turns into a frown. “You’re being serious?”

“Deadly.”

“Why?”

“Change of heart. What with Olivia’s health problems—”

“That’s exactly why you should sell. Get the money and spend more time with her. She needs her dad by her side.”

You fucking piece of shit.

“I’ll cut back my hours,” I say, “but I’m not selling.”

“You have to,” Grady protests. “You’ve signed so many of the contracts. I’m not sure you can legally back out now.”

“Letters of intent aren’t binding, and none of the contracts give Pacific Technology any rights. We might have to pay their legal fees, but they can’t force me to transfer the stock.”

“This is crazy. You need to think about this.”

“I’ve thought about it plenty. Anyway, the sale can’t go through on schedule because I have an important operation coming up.”

“An operation?”

“Olivia needs a liver donor, and as her father, I’m the best person to give her my liver.”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.” Grady pauses, his right leg twitching furiously as he resists the urge to turn my attention back to the sale. “Is it safe?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I only give up part of my liver, and as her father, I’m only too happy to do the deed.”

“Of course.”

“After all, what kind of man would I be if I wouldn’t give up part of my liver to save my daughter?”

Grady nods but doesn’t say anything.

“I’d be a real piece of shit,” I continue. “That’s what I’d be.”

“It’s still very brave,” Grady mutters. “Maybe we could push the sale forward? I hear the due diligence has been going smoothly.”

“No, there’s no time. It has to be her father, and it has to be soon. There is one potential problem, though.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m not her biological father. But then, you already knew that, Grady. Or do you prefer to go by Johan?”

Grady swallows and turns pale. He wants the chair to swallow him whole, but he’s not going anywhere. I stare him in the eyes and give him as much time as he needs to think this through. Too much time has passed for him to deny it. He could try getting angry or cocky, but he knows what I’m capable.

“Nothing’s changed here,” Grady says eventually, in a surprisingly cool tone of voice. “Remember, I have her suicide note, and you don’t want Olivia to see that when she’s older.”

“She won’t see it if you’re not around to show it to her.”

“You’re not going to kill me. If you’re going to beat me up, get it over with. Some of us are still busy with work.”

“I’m not going to hit you, Grady. I need you in good condition.”

“Why?”

“We’re going to make a little trip to the hospital.”

“You don’t think he’s going to change his mind?” Carly asks me in a hushed tone, as we watch Grady sign the consent forms in front of the doctor. Grady convinced the doctor that he genuinely wanted to be the donor, and because he’s Olivia’s father, they didn’t ask too many questions.

“No,” I reply. “He’ll do this.”

“He’s a coward. I’m worried he’ll back out.”

“The surgery scares him, but not as much as I do. Besides, if he doesn’t do this, I won’t go through with the sale of the company, and Grady really needs the money. Turns out he’s a huge gambler. That’s why he kept asking me for money. He knew he was pushing his luck, but gamblers don’t always think rationally.”

I hold Carly’s hand as the doctor runs through the schedule. Grady is a match and doesn’t have any diseases that would prohibit him being a donor. The doctor is confident Olivia will take the organ, but he doesn’t want to waste any time. Grady will have the surgery tomorrow. All we have to do is wait.