Page 139 of Grumpy Boss of the Year

"No."

"About Elisabetta, sir, and the secret."

I let out a deep sigh. "I thought I told you we were never going to discuss that. I thought?—"

"You care for her, right, sir?"

"Yes."

"Don't you think she has a right to know the truth?"

There's silence on the phone. I can hear motorcycles whizzing by and Italians laughing and singing as they pass me inthe street, but all I can think about is the deep, dark secret that I'm holding in my heart.

"It's not my place to tell her."

"Her father's never gonna tell her, sir. If you don't tell her, then who will?"

"Maybe it's better that she doesn’t know. We don't know the full circumstances under?—"

"I do, sir. I can send you the file."

"What do you mean?"

"I had the investigator do some more digging."

"Why? I told you that?—"

"Because if it were me, I would wanna know, sir."

"Lucinda, I need this deal to go through, and you already know that Franco says it's over if I tell her anything. I can't afford for this deal to go through right now. You just told me I've lost almost everything."

"You have property, sir. You have money in the bank."

"Lucinda!"

"I'm just saying, at what cost do you want to keep this to yourself?"

"I have to go. Thank you for the information, and I'll speak to you later."

"Yes, sir. Enjoy your engagement party."

"I will."

I hang up and stand there, clutching the phone in my hand. I feel jolted. Like I'm in a state of shock, and I don't know what to do. Immediately, I call Max.

"Hey."

"You heard?"

His voice is somber. "I heard."

"Anything in the contracts that can help me get out of this?"

"We've got our best associates going through everything. We haven't found anything yet, Liam."

"How the fuck could this happen? How did we not know there were factories employing little kids? I thought everything was on the up and up."

"So did we. I'm sorry, Liam. I know you don't wanna hear this, but right now, it's not looking good. Public opinion is against you, and several of the big corporations who have contracts with you are canceling. They no longer wanna be associated with the business and?—"

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