Page 81 of The Truth of Loving You

“Why would he do that?” I asked, dumbfounded.

My mind raced back to Shane’s relief that I’d sold my shares and his reaction to finding Pax’s paperwork.

“Shane,” my father charged his desk, and I put my body in front of him, “if you stop what you’re doing and never see my son again, then the Chief Data Officer position is yours.”

My heart fell out of my ass. The job offer represented all of Shane’s ambitions and aspirations; he couldn’t turn it down. The situation felt like history repeating itself, but I wouldn’t stand in Shane’s way.

There had to be more going on than this odd confrontation, and I had faith in Shane.

“Interesting,” Shane said, still typing as if the keyboard was on fire. “What would my compensation package look like?”

“We can discuss that. I’ll go to my office to get the contract.” My father smiled as if he’d won.

Shane tilted his head but wouldn’t look at me. “I need more details before I sign anything.”

“Sure, sure,” my smug father agreed. “Just stop your current project, and we can sit right here and review the new position.”

“Great.” Shane didn’t pause his fingers. “I’m just closing out the documents, and I can’t wait to hear your offer.”

I stepped back, unsure how to play my part.

“Cole, stay a minute. I need to pay you for dinner,” Shane said, as his eyes flicked to mine. His voice was devoid of emotion, but his eyes told me everything I needed to know.

“You should’ve known better than to try to seduce Paxton’s replacement.” My dad’s words were designed to hit me below the belt. “I’ll pay the errand boy.” My father chuckled, taking out his wallet.

Shane remained silent, and my hand accepted the hundred-dollar bill from my father. I stared at the man who shared my DNA yet still couldn’t believe this narcissist was my father.

Shane pushed his chair back, blinking as if he’d emerged from a doomsday bunker. Slowly, a smile split his face. With his gorgeous brown bedroom eyes on me, he said, “That won’t be necessary.” He walked to me and plucked the money from my fingers and handed it to my father. “Donald, I resign.”

“What did you do?” Donald seethed.

“I prepared my presentation for the board early. I was finally able to balance our accounts with our clients’ assets. I took the liberty of sending it to the board of directors and the Treasury Department. I included the OFAC list and documentation of Branson Financials’ process to whitewash the banned clients on the list from our accounts. I assume you don’t want me to stay the required thirty days’ notice.”

I never saw my father’s punch coming until my head snapped back. “Did you put him up to this?”

Rubbing my jaw, I said, “The first time in my life you decide to give me credit for something, and I don’t deserve it. I have no idea what any of that means. Shane has never talked to me about work. Good luck with that.” Whatever an O-fact list was, it sounded bad.

The last shred of control my father had snapped as he vowed to take everything from me.

“I have something you can never take from me, father.” I said “father” as if it were toxic in my mouth. “Something you’ll never have.” My father sneered so I enlightened him. “Love.”

He turned to Shane. “I will make sure you never work in finance again.”

Shane grinned, tugging me out of the office. “That’s okay. I’ve got a backup plan. I’m going to try a career as a singer.”

I threw my arm around Shane, and he steered me away from the elevators toward the stairs.

“We’re walking down seventeen flights of stairs?”

“No, we’re walking down five flights, and hopefully, Richard will use his key to the freight elevator for us. Unless you want to try to get past security.”

I wasn’t sure if I was more impressed that Shane personally knew the guy with a key to the freight elevator or that he’d just given my father an aneurysm.

“Do I want to know what just happened?” I asked as we jogged down the stairs.

“Your father did some very illegal things. There was an alert put on the accounts in question, so I had to write code to gain back-channel access. If your father left or used his phone, he’d crash the server, he’s done it in the past. If that had happened, I’d have been fired, and he’d keep on breaking the law,” Shane said matter-of-factly as if it weren’t a big deal.

“What’s an O-fact list?”

---