Chapter12
When Ethan got the alert that he needed to go to the Human Resources Department to speak with the head of the investigation, it was just one more thing on his mind—one more bit of chaos in the day he had already had. Brianna had decided to go to the doctor after all; they’d gone back to his apartment after the play and made love for hours, but in the morning she’d been sick again, throwing up in his bathroom before he even woke up, though she’d felt better by breakfast.
She’d held off through the weekend, but that morning she’d told him that she’d been sick again, and would be coming late after she heard from the doctor. So as Ethan left his office to go and talk to the head of the investigation, Ethan was wondering just what was wrong with Brianna, and when he would find out about it.
If that had been the only set of problems, it would have been enough—but Ethan also had to worry about Cassidy. She’d come into his office that morning while he’d been distracted, thinking about Brianna and worried about what could be wrong with her, and asked him out again—this time to dinner and a movie. “I don’t think that’s really appropriate, Cassidy,” he’d said.
“I’ve worked with you for so long—don’t you think we have chemistry?” He’d had to put his foot down, and insist that he was not interested in dating her; but from the determined look on her face, Ethan was certain that the argument wasn’t over. I may have to fire her, he thought as he stepped off of the elevator and turned sharply left down the corridor. This is probably nothing. Maybe just a progress report. Or maybe they found out that there’s some issue with someone on the board.
Ethan continued down the corridor, taking a few quick, deep breaths to steady himself. He knew Brianna had seen someone from the office at the show a few days before, but that didn’t necessarily mean that her former coworker had noticed her, or that noticing her he’d noticed Ethan with her—or anything else. It could have been sheer coincidence. But it was—he thought—better to be prepared in the possibility that it wasn’t a coincidence. Know what you’re going to say.
Ethan stopped at the conference room door and mentally prepared himself. He would insist that there was nothing untoward between he and Brianna. But first he would wait and see if that was even what the investigation director wanted; maybe it was still a status update. Better to hope for the best but prepare for the worst—but not to prepare so much that paranoia would take over.
Ethan opened the door to find the head of the investigation already seated at the conference room table, and forced what he hoped would appear to be an easy-going, casual smile onto his face. “Mark—I came right away,” Ethan said as he entered the room and closed the door behind himself.
“Thank you for that, Ethan,” Mark said. Ethan sat down, reminding himself that there was no reason for him to truly be worried—everything that anyone might know about the situation between himself and Brianna showed it to be fully consensual.
“What’s the news?” Mark looked down at a folder he had open in front of him and shifted in his seat.
“I have a couple of things that need addressing,” Mark said. “One is that there is someone on the Board of Directors who’s been accused of impropriety with an employee—one working in the department he is supposed to be monitoring.”
“Good to know,” Ethan said. “Of course I would encourage you to investigate that fully.”
“The other is a semi-anonymous tip we’ve received this morning regarding you,” Mark added. Ethan felt his heart begin to beat faster.
“That’s interesting,” Ethan said, keeping his voice carefully level. He hadn’t gotten to where he was in the business world without learning how to push aside his personal reactions.
“Yes,” Mark said. “Someone came forward this morning via email and said that they spotted you with someone who was promoted a few months ago—after barely starting work here—leaving a play on Broadway, and that it looked like a date.” Ethan nodded slowly.
“I can understand why that would be cause for concern,” he said.
“This person feels that the circumstances regarding the person’s sudden promotion—to become one of your personal assistants—point to the possibility that the relationship isn’t a mere coincidence.”
“Did they submit any kind of evidence that there’s an actual relationship going on, beyond seeing me with the person in a social setting?” Ethan folded his hands in front of him on the table.
“They did not; they wanted us to investigate,” Mark said. “I thought it would be a good idea to approach you first, before I presented my findings to the board in general.”
“I will admit to occasionally seeing one of my assistants socially,” Ethan said; it would be foolish not to, and he knew it. It was too easy for the investigative team to have figured that out. Fortunately, the extent to which he and Brianna saw each other was mostly cloaked by the fact that the expenses were on his personal account—he hadn’t used his privileges through the agency for anything.
“We will have to speak to your other assistants, and of course, to the person who our source says you’re involved with,” Mark said. He met Ethan’s gaze. “I can’t treat you any differently from anyone else being investigated.”
“I know that, and I would never ask you to,” Ethan told the man. “I want to make sure that this investigation is thoroughly transparent, and if you do find something wrong in what I am doing with Brianna, I’ll be happy to make any changes that HR suggests.” Mark’s shoulders moved and Ethan could tell the man was relieved.
“I know these kinds of things can get political,” Mark said. “I considered putting this aside for a while, waiting to see if anyone else came forward...but of course, you know…”
“Absolutely,” Ethan said, when the man didn’t finish his sentence. “I fully support you in this—you can’t make it look like you’re covering something up, especially now that another board member is accused.” Mark nodded.
“You see the conundrum,” he said.
“I do—and definitely I think you should do whatever you think is best to move forward,” Ethan said. “I will cooperate all the way.”
His phone buzzed in his pocket and Ethan had the instinct that it was Brianna, letting him know about the doctor’s visit—but he knew he couldn’t check it until he’d finished the meeting with Mark.
“I will be checking in with you, and I’ll let you know moving forward how the investigation will be going,” Mark explained.
“Please don’t give me any benefit you wouldn’t give anyone else,” Ethan told the man.
“Of course—I mean, you’re in a different situation to everyone else who is under investigation. But I won’t be, like, dropping you any hints or anything. Just keeping you updated as befits the CEO.”
Ethan agreed to that and finished the meeting as quickly as possible, anxious to find out what the buzzing of his phone had been about. He needed to know what was going on with Brianna; if nothing else, then a clean bill of health—he hoped that was what the news would be—would take one worry off of his plate. He reassured Mark again that he would cooperate fully, that he had no intention of using his position to get himself free of consequences, and then the meeting was—thankfully—over.
Instead of going to his office, Ethan stopped before he reached the elevator; whatever it was that Brianna had found out at the doctor’s, if it was her who’d buzzed his phone, he didn’t want to have the added pressure of Cassidy’s presence when he found it out. He stepped into the HR floor men’s room and found it empty, and got into one of the stalls, sitting down and taking his phone out.
The notification still on his screen showed that it had, in fact, been Brianna. Hey so I heard from the doctor and I need to meet up with you in person. Urgently. Ethan stared at the text message for a long moment, digesting the information. Whatever it was that was making Brianna sick, it obviously wasn’t something that could just be treated in a matter of days with a round of medication. He thought quickly.
There wasn’t much on his plate for the rest of the morning, and Brianna hadn’t indicated that she was coming in—at least, not yet. Ethan typed up a quick response. I need to talk to you, too. Let’s meet up somewhere? Brianna’s response was almost immediate.
Come out to Brooklyn. Black Brick Coffee. I’ll meet you there. Ethan raised an eyebrow at that, but he wasn’t in any state of mind to argue or try to press her to come back into Manhattan. If she was as upset as she seemed, it was probably for the best to meet her closer to her neighborhood, to let her have some comfort of familiar surroundings. He texted Nate to meet him at the entrance of the building and then sent him the address they would be going to, and left the bathroom. He would need to make an appearance in his own office, at least briefly, to make sure that Cassidy and Jennifer could cover for his time after the meeting with Mark.
He wouldn’t tell them anything about the meeting; he had no intention even of telling them where he was going. After Cassidy’s performance that morning, Ethan thought that he was going to have a difficult time explaining to her what the situation was with the investigation and trying to win her over into keeping her mouth as shut as possible. Ethan took a deep breath.
“I need to step out,” he told both women as he walked through the area where their desks were, in front of the door to his office proper. “Apparently my accountant has had some kind of issue—I need to help him sort it out. I’ll be back after lunch.”
He went into his office after they confirmed they understood and took care of a few things as quickly as possible: a one-sentence email to the board about his need to be away from the office until after lunch, and confirming a meeting for the next day to discuss the first quarter initiatives of the next year. Then he sent another brief missive to HR to confirm that Brianna Evers would be out for the rest of the day and that she was entitled to use paid sick leave for it, as she’d provided him with medical documentation.
He felt as if the world was spinning in an orbit around his ears and over his head, and the blood rushing through his veins murmured in his ears from the force with which his heart sped it along, pumping hard and fast. Everything—his whole life—seemed to all be coming apart at the seams at once. He had to regain control. To do that he had to know fully what was going on.
Ethan hurried down to the ground level where his driver was waiting for him, and tried to clear his mind of all the various things troubling him. Everything would fall in line once he knew what was going on. He would be able to make decisions, and he would set the ship that seemed to be sinking with him in it, back on a decent course once more. Everything would be okay, once he had all the information he needed. He just had to be patient enough to wait for all of the information to come to him.