New York Billionaires Series

“Of course. You did ask me to find your mole, you know.”

His voice softens. “So I did.”

“And I always deliver.”

“You always do,” he agrees. “Sleep tight, Freddie.”

“I will, thanks.”

“And Freddie?”

“Merry Christmas.”

I open my mouth to wish him and Joshua the same, but by the time the words emerge, he’s already hung up. So I close my eyes and lean back on my bed, the fixed heater humming loudly beside me, and let the tears flow.

Fish in vivid colors swirl beneath me on the dock, dancing in the crystalline waters like they’re performing a ballet recital to music only they can hear. Like so much on Tahiti, they’re beautiful. We couldn’t have asked for a better seaside bungalow, built right on the shoreline.

The place is a marvel in the Pacific, an untouched paradise, and I’ve already promised Joshua we’d start donating to marine conservation as soon as we get home to preserve pristine places like this.

And yet.

Because isn’t there always a but?

The phone in my hand lies cold, empty and near signal-less. I’d had to walk to the hilltop in the small settlement to get enough signal to call Freddie on New Year’s Eve.

But she hadn’t responded. Hadn’t called or texted back, either.

So I hadn’t tried to reach her again, instead keeping my promise to avoid making this harder for her. Even if the idea of her moving away feels like a splinter, burrowing deeper every day. In the short months I’d known Frederica, she’d wormed her way under my skin in a way no one else had. No woman, none since my ex, and that was before Joshua. Years ago.

I open the emails on my phone. I haven’t looked at them in days, and only then in the evenings, when Joshua has already gone to bed. But now he’s resting inside the bungalow and I’m allowed to sneak a few minutes of work in.

My lawyer has responded, assuring me we’ve got Clive in hand. Selling company secrets is a violation with some serious legal ramifications, and we’re going to pursue them all.

I close my eyes at the memory of the conversation. Of Clive’s usually bland, obsequious face turning red with rage.

I was second in line to take over this company. Management had groomed me for CEO. And then you and your friends took over, and I was pushed back down the chain.

It had been there, under the surface, for over a year. The hate and the envy. And I hadn’t seen it.

So you tried to destroy the company as revenge? I’d asked him. Is that any way to honor this firm or the employees?

He’d shook my words off as if they meant nothing. Lost in his resentment, they probably didn’t.

I have dirt, he’d said with obvious pleasure. Sleeping with a trainee, Conway? How do you think that’ll look in the press? You’ll be barred from every event and function in the city, with the current climate. All they’ll see is a dirty, powerful man, abusing his-

I’d cut him off.

If he wanted to hurt me with Freddie, he would have to try harder than insinuating anything had ever been coerced or sinister about us. If there’s one thing it wasn’t, it had been that.

It had been one the purest experiences of my life.

She was my informant in Strategy, I’d told him. You’re reaching, trying to discredit the employee who helped unmask you. If you think anyone will believe your attempts to save face, you’re delusional.

And that had been that. He’d been escorted off the premises, all of his company accounts shut down, his email communication on company servers seized.

The very next call I’d made had been to Eleanor. I had briefed her on the situation, letting her know Freddie had been reporting to me. Phrased correctly, it wasn’t a big deal. I’d simply been impressed with Freddie’s abilities after Thanksgiving and asked her to keep her ears and eyes open.

Eleanor had been quietly impressed, rather than offended that I’d bypassed her. “I never liked Clive,” she told me. “Something about his manners always felt too sugary.” I’d sent her the email asking her to replace Clive as my COO the very next day.

I put my phone down and close my eyes against the Polynesian sun. The anger at Clive still burns, even if it’s more at his threats than his betrayal. His complete disregard for Freddie, who had never done him a single wrong.

Freddie.

All thoughts start and end there, it seems.

A child’s skipping footsteps on the dock makes me turn. Joshua’s in a T-shirt and shorts, his hair mussed from where he’s been lying on the giant hotel bed. He’d watched a bit of a nature documentary on his iPad after we’d gotten back from whale-watching.

“What are you doing?” he asks me.

“Just thinking. Looking at the ocean.”

He sits down cross-legged beside me on the dock. Beneath us, soft waves break against the pillars. “Can we go swimming later?”

“You bet we will. Is Grandma inside?”

He nods. “She’s resting. She said she’s been on enough boats this week to last her for life.”

I laugh, mussing his salt-roughened hair. “She’s not a boat person.”

“She said she took pictures today, when you and I snorkeled.”

“But not as good as ours.”Text © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.

He gives me a cheeky smile. The underwater camera we’d brought had come in handy today, when we’d finally swum next to a whale shark.

“We’re hanging that one up at home, right, Dad?”

“We sure are, kid.”

We grin at each other for a few seconds, and damn, my kid really is the best. My phone pings and his grin turns into a frown. “Dad, were you working?”

He says the word like I’ve been busy committing violent crimes out here on the dock. “Just answered a few emails,” I tell him, grabbing my phone. “I’ll put it on silent… oh. It’s from Anthony.”

Joshua’s frown disappears. My son knows and likes Anthony, having seen him often over the years. He might be quiet, and he’s often scowling, but Anthony is a good man through and through.

“What did he say?” Joshua asks. “Did you tell him about the whale shark?”

“Not yet, but I’ll tell him now.” Smiling, I click open the text. And laugh. “He’s being cranky.”