Page 155 of Unwritten Rules

Dave pulled out a device from his bag and set it on the table.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“This secures the room. Feel free to speak plainly.”

Reaper set a knife on the table. “Thisalsosecures the room.”

Brent tore open the envelope with a knife of his own, cutting it with precision in anticipation of what he was to find within the pages. I hoped the list wasn’t long, but that was a pipe dream. There was a chess game afoot, and we were catching ourselves up to speed. The papers were spread out with profiles of each person deemed suspicious.

“This is the list of everyone potentially involved?” He looked to me.

“From the last time I spoke to him, he was developing a list of everyone who had authorization to access documents pertaining to what Sylvia might be planning. Some of these people dealt directly with the paperwork she moved back and forth between herself and the company. Lots of documents with my forged signature. I’m hoping we have a thumb drive with the documents along with these names. James, do you have that?”

“I will by end of day.”

“Good,” I noted. “This has been a plan in motion since my mother died. This has been years of work. She kept me quiet in her home until I was eighteen and she still has certain powers over me until I’m twenty-one. Transitioning myself to CEO will be a feat if we can do it.”

He pondered on that while browsing the profiles and handing them off to his two men. The gears in his head were turning over the information, formulating a plan of attack. “I’m still trying to find the connection to everything at large. Nothing is an isolated event.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s been infighting for years. I assumed it was because of your company becoming weaker before you took over, but something else has to be going on.”

Reaper laughed at that. “Nothing classic interrogation can’t fix. Look at all the toys we have to beat on until we figure it out.”

“How do we figure out where to start?”

Brent placed his hand over mine. “Welcome to my sect of the world, Blondie. This is where we excel at things. You won't have to worry about a thing because we will figure this out.”

I worried we wouldn’t be able to figure things out. I hadn’t seen or heard from her and things just feltoff. There was a tipping point feeling in my bones that kept me on edge. My sleep became shit and throwing up became the norm. Not to mention, my skin crawled from having someone touch me that didn’t deserve to, and someone admitted to surveilling me without my knowledge for years.

Paranoia wasn’t exactly the word I’d use to describe how I felt.

“Ineedto be involved. You can’t kick me out now.”

His men looked to him for guidance—and opinions. This small blonde girl was telling them she was to be involved when they were going out to do what it was they do. Thecleaningwork.

Brent didn’t look like he wanted to agree with my being involved, but what other choice did he have?

They had an entire silent conversation amongst themselves while I waited for someone to respond. I couldn’t help but wish Kelly was with me.

Mr. Caldwell cleared his throat to interrupt. “Let’s go over a few key legal details before you all get trigger happy. For one, I know nothing about what you all are about to do. Two, Fallon has legal bindings over her head until she is twenty-one. This document here outlines your guardianship with your aunt.”

“Then, it’s true. She really is planning to steal everything. No work on her end, just greed. Just a jealous woman with a ploy to steal. Even if she gets everything she wanted, she wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway.”

A saddened nod. “She may bring the end of a lot of things if she were to succeed. Here. This is the guardianship outline. This was hard to dig up and no one would have even known about it since it’s a private legal matter. What else she did outside of this Icandig up, but it looks like she’s heading towards stealing ownership.”

“How could she steal ownership if it’s clearly outlined that I takeover at twenty-one?” My mother had a legal savant write her will. The thing appeared ironclad, but again, I knew nothing of our world and how dirty one could get in order to get a leg up on someone else.

“There are a few ways in which your allies at the company wouldn’t have known, and we need to prepare foranyoption.” Mr. Caldwell added.

Business in the way my aunt was using it was not in my training materials. I barely understood the basics of the company and legal documents. How was I to understand the loopholes that she could have used?

I looked around the room and saw the small circle of people who were my supposed allies. Brent posed himself as my ally, but how did I know he wasn’t planning something of his own. Mr. Caldwell could be a huge liar himself. Nothing felt safe. I felt unprotected.

“What’s the most likely scenario you can think of?” My hands shook as I fidgeted with them under the table. Anxiety seeped out of every pore in my body.

“The most likely? Proxy vote manipulation or amended bylaws. Or both. We don’t know how many allies she has within the companies or how deep her plan spans. With her working with others who have a vested interest in bringing down the control Montgomery Group has; she could have multiple contingencies.”

---