Goddammit, she was right. Althea had betrayed me.
She’d betrayed Sophie too.
Because who else had access to my home, my office, my computers? Who else had the code to my front door? She did.
She’d set Sophie up. And I was such a fucking idiot, I’d fallen for it.
What the hell was I going to do now?
33
Cox
After Sophie left and I realized I was being fucked over, I did what most any man would do. I got my ass good and drunk.
Oliver found me Tuesday morning passed out on the couch. Drunk or sober, I couldn’t set foot in my bedroom. There was too much of her in there. Her clothes, her things in the bathroom, her pink running shoes she loved so much.
Fuck.
He made tea—because of course he did—and breakfast. Then he cleared my schedule for the day. I didn’t explain what had happened with Sophie, and he didn’t ask. He didn’t have to. I was a fucking mess and she wasn’t here. He could put the pieces together. And I didn’t want to talk about it. He’d confirmed I was alive, so he left me to wallow.
I took a second personal day on Wednesday, but not because I was too hungover to function. I changed the code on my front door so Althea could no longer get in. Changed all my passwords and called the bank to lock down my accounts and get new credit cards. I went through everything I’d given Althea access to over the years and systematically locked her out.
And I put together my counterattack. Made the necessary calls. She and Dominic thought they were going to catch me with my pants down. That wasn’t going to happen.
They’d fucked with the wrong guy.
Althea’s takeover plan was thorough, I had to give her that. I wouldn’t have expected anything less. What I didn’t understand was why she’d gone after Sophie. It was clear she’d wanted Sophie out of my life, but why? Why go to all the trouble to frame her like that? She didn’t have to get rid of Sophie to execute a successful hostile takeover. And my reputation certainly didn’t matter to her, not if she was about to force me out. Why did she give a shit whether or not I got divorced?
Regardless, now that I knew what Althea was doing, I had the means to stop her.
But when it came to Sophie, I had no idea what I was going to do. I’d tried texting her, but she hadn’t answered. Not that I knew what I’d say to her if she did.
She’d left a hollow space in my chest. So I filled it with rage.
Thursday, I was up bright and early. I showered and trimmed my stubble. Put on a suit and went in to work, ready for war.
All eyes were on me when I walked into the office. I didn’t know what they’d heard, and I didn’t particularly care. An icy calm had settled over me. Anger filled the space Sophie had left, but it wasn’t hot-tempered rage. It was glacial, leaving me with nothing but cold, hard edges.
I passed Oliver’s desk and nodded for him to follow me. He got up and closed my office door behind us.
“It’s good to see you back,” he said. “Sober, clean, and dressed, no less. But what’s going on? You look like an assassin about to make a kill.”
“Is Althea in her office?”
“She was last I saw, yes.”
“Good. I’m firing her. I need you to cancel her company credit card, deactivate her building access code, and have IT lock her out of the network. I want her emails, phone records, anything we can get our hands on. She’s been working with Dominic to try to get control of Cox Development. It’s not going to happen.”
Oliver gaped at me. “I thought this was about Sophie. I made a list of ways you could grovel and have deliveries of flowers, chocolate-covered strawberries, and a giant teddy bear all ready to order.”
“No. I did fuck things up with Sophie. But it’s not something a giant teddy bear can fix.”
“That bad?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“But she was right. About Althea and Dominic.”
I rubbed my jaw. “Yeah. She was right.”
And I should have trusted her.
“Well, maybe her bloody nose wasn’t for naught after all.”
“Her bloody nose? You mean when she went out with her friends? How do you know about that?”
He opened his mouth, sputtered something incoherent, then closed it again. “I assumed if you knew about Dominic, you knew what happened at the club.”
“No, I don’t know about what happened at the club, but you better keep talking.”
“Sophie had a plan to find out what Dominic was up to. Her friend Nora was supposed to seductively capture his attention and get him talking. But apparently his taste runs more toward Sophie’s type than Nora’s. Sophie was doing remarkably well when that server hit her with the tray.”
“Are you saying Dominic hit on my girl?” I asked, my voice low.
“Somehow I think that’s the least of your worries right now.”
I blew out a breath. The thought of Dominic anywhere near Sophie made me furious. But Oliver was right. “She was trying to catch them this whole time, wasn’t she?”
“Yes, she was. I admit, I probably encouraged her. But a chance to expose Maleficent was hard to resist.”
“Fuck. Why didn’t I listen to her?”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ve spent years working with Althea. She helped you build this business. You should have been able to trust her.”
“I should have listened to you, and I should have listened to my wife. Then none of this would have happened.”
“Is she still your wife?”
“Fuck if I know. Althea set her up. Made it look like she was stealing money from me.”
“Oh, Cox. You didn’t believe her, did you?”
I glared at him.
“You’re right. I’ll cancel the teddy bear. This is going to take a lot more than an adorable stuffed animal.”
“It’s worse than that.”
“Worse than accusing her of being a thief?”
“Althea had her served with divorce papers on Monday.”
Oliver’s mouth dropped open. “No wonder Sophie went dark. I haven’t heard from her all week. How did Althea do that without your signature?”
“Somehow I doubt she’d balk at a little forgery.”
“Good point.”
I straightened my jacket. “Have building security on standby to escort her out.”
“I’ll take care of it. With pleasure. And I’d like the record to show that I’m refraining from any exclamations of a celebratory nature.”
“I appreciate that. You can gloat later.”
“You know I will.”
“Yeah, I know. Time to get this over with.”
I left Oliver to handle the details and went straight to Althea’s office.
Her door was closed, but I didn’t bother knocking. She didn’t deserve a single courtesy after everything she’d done.
She looked up from her laptop, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. “You’re back.”
I shut the door and stared at her for a moment. I was so fucking angry. But it was more than that. It was worse. I wasn’t just mad, I was hurt.