But there’s something Dad hasn’t been telling me. He’s been bad ever since the stroke, but it’s something more. He’s gotten closed off. He pretends to be asleep when I stop by so he won’t have to talk to me. He thinks I don’t know, but I do. I thought he just didn’t like looking weak in front of me but what if…
“Lady, you gotta give me a destination or we’re just gonna keep driving in circles. I mean, I’m on a meter so it’s fine with me but—”
“New Olympus city. Belladonna research labs.” I sit up straighter. If I go to Dad first, I won’t get a straight answer. No matter how much I’ve done for the company, he still sees me as his little girl. I need to find out the truth, no matter how much it hurts.
Three hours later, I step out of a ride share at my father’s townhouse, clutching a stack of papers to my chest. I spent the last few hours scouring my Dad’s offices at Belladonna, hoping against hope that I’d find evidence to refute what the Beast who stole me claimed this morning.
Instead… I swallow hard against the lump in my throat. No, don’t even think it. Dad will be able to explain. He’ll tell me how this is all some misunderstanding. A mistake in paperwork that the Beast is exploiting somehow. Making it out to be something it’s not.
Dad wouldn’t…couldn’t betray everything we’ve worked for like this.
Dad’s nurse Gemma opens the door and a smile lights her face. “Oh Daphne darling, your daddy will be so happy to see you. I know he wants to hear all about how the ball went last night. And that handsome fella Adam Archer. Rumor has it the two of you are getting hot and heavy.”
What? The ball feels about a million years ago but I smooth my expression and put on what I hope is a polite smile. “Is my father awake? I really need to talk to him.”
“Aw honey, what’s wrong? You look like you had yourself a piece of porcupine pie for breakfast.”
Gemma’s almost as old as Dad and has been working as a nurse for decades. Usually I like her spunky colloquialisms and interest in all the town gossip, but not today. I’m on a mission.
“Sorry, Gem, I really need to see Dad.”
She frowns but steps back from the door to let me through. “Okay, baby, come on in. He just woke up from a nap and I know seeing you will brighten his day.”
Ha, I think. Not likely.
I pass the living room and the bay window where someone, probably Gemma, has propped a painting of Thornhill’s gardens. The view is exactly what I used to see when I looked out the window of my mother’s home.
Mom and I used to curl up with pillows and blankets and read fairytales when it was raining outside. Everything always seemed extra magical when it was raining, like wizards and fairy godmothers were more likely to pop out of the woods when mist covered the earth after a good rainstorm. My chest aches the way it always does when I think of Mom.
When we lost her, I had no one to talk to. Dad was so lost in grief, and the only person I ever could really talk to about her left not long after she died.
Gods, I haven’t thought about Logan in such a long time. He and Adam were my dad’s research assistants back in the day.
Adam always seemed…unreachable, unattainable. He was surrounded by co-eds, the golden boy everyone wanted a piece of. But Logan was quiet, studious. He went to college on scholarship and was devoted to his studies. A lot like me.
So we’d study together and during late night study sessions and sometimes in the lab, we’d get to talking. I was only nineteen and he was twenty-eight but science is a universal language. And he knew about Mom and everything we were trying to do to save her.
I wish I could talk to him now. He’d know how to make sense out of this. Dad always treated me like a little kid but Logan treated me like an equal. I was hurt when he suddenly left without saying goodbye, but apparently he got a really good post doc across the country and had to leave right away.
People leave and let you down. Seems like a lesson I should have learned a lot earlier than now but I guess I’ve been stubborn to the end. I turn away from the bay window and push up the stairs. I’m not a child anymore.
Finally I’m at Dad’s door and I pause. My heart is racing. Gods, what am I doing here? Because in spite of the many times people have disappointed me in my life, Dad never has. And there could be other explanations…right? I mean, okay, there are some unexplained blanks in the accounting records. But Dad was never good with that kind of stuff.
He’s a lab guy like me. He might be just as clueless about all this. Yes, I know he’s the CEO, but that doesn’t mean someone didn’t take advantage of an old man… I should’ve taken a closer interest in the company as a whole long before his stroke. Gods, how could I have just let him shoulder the entire burden? What kind of daughter does that?
But I’m here now and we’ll figure this out together. Whatever this is. Whoever is trying to screw with our company. I take a deep breath and then push through the door.
Dad’s reading a thick tome, but he looks up at my entrance and his face immediately brightens. His once salt and pepper hair is now all white and I’ll still never get used to seeing him in the hospital bed we had installed up in his room, machines constantly monitoring his vitals.
“Daphne.” He sets the book aside. “I wasn’t expecting you today. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Dad, there’s a problem.” I rush to his bedside, trying to ignore how unsettling it is to see the changes in him. “Someone’s been stealing from the company. Or something. I don’t know how to explain what I’m seeing. But I need your help to figure it out or else we’re in trouble.”
I start to spread the papers out on his bed but when I next glance up at Dad’s face, it’s gone ashen.
“Dad?” My hands start to tremble. He doesn’t look surprised. He doesn’t look surprised at all by what I’m showing him.
“You knew?”
He doesn’t say anything. He just looks down at his lap.
My throat closes up. No. No no no. “Dad, tell me these are just accounting errors. It can’t be true. You didn’t… I mean, you didn’t really sell the patents.”
“Who told you that?” His head jerks up and there’s an expression on his face I’ve never seen before. He looks manic and angry and afraid all at the same time.
“Dad!” my voice breaks. “What’s going on? Please. You have to tell me.”
My father’s hand shoots out and clamps around my wrist. “Leave it alone, Daph. Walk away. Walk away now.”
My mouth drops open in shock. Is he serious? “This is our company, everything we’ve worked for.”
But his hands are shaking. “He’s too strong.” His cheeks had color when I came in but they’ve gone completely pale.
“Who?” I cry. “Who, Daddy? Who did you sell to? Who’s doing this to us?” I’ve never seen my father like this before. I was expecting him to tell me this was all nonsense. An accounting error, or that he’d never seen this before and we’d track down the culprit together.
But this? He knows my tormentor. Oh gods, how long has this been going on?