Alex's POV.
I was already up, preparing for work when my phone rang. It's Steve.
“Hey, ma—”
He didn't even let me finish.
“See the news!! Have you seen it? Where are you? I've been trying to reach you for over an hour now. Our investors are calling! Where the fuck are you?” He yelled nonstop.
I could recall the last time he called me frantically like this was when the media took it upon themselves to talk about my relationship with Sophia.
We were no longer together, so what could it be this time around?
“Okay. So what happened this time around that you're calling to yell at me at 7:00 in the morning?”
“The deal you signed with Mr Shein, what were you thinking?! Did you even check what was written in the clauses? Or did you just sign it in your sleep?”
“Of course I read.....wait a second. I didn't read it myself but Sophia went through it very carefully like I instructed. She said the deal was good to go. And on top of that, when I had meetings with Mr Shein, he agreed to my terms.”
“Oh God, Alex! What have you done?! I get that you still nurture a soft spot for Sophia but professionally, you should've checked the deal yourself too.”
“Why, what happened? Can you just tell me already?”
“The deal you have signed states that the new business venture you're going to start with Mr Shein in Chicago, seventy-five percent profit after tax, goes to him. You will be serving just as a del credo agent. Plus all the expenses of construction of the office in Chicago is to be borne completely by Hayes Industries.”
My mind blew to pieces. What did he just say? This can't be real, must be a nightmare! Oh god!
“Please tell me this is one of your pranks,” I asked.
“I wish it was, Alex. But right now, just get to the office. We have to find a legal solution to this soon. Because our investors, shareholders are already agitated about this whole situation.”
“Yes yes, I'm coming.”
“And please get in touch with Sophia. We will have to talk to her because she was the one who read the deal papers. Do you think she's involved in this?” Steve asked and for a moment, I was numb.
Could this be a firm payback for breaking her heart? How could she do this to me? To the company? She knows how much my work and my company mean to me.
She surely cannot be behind this. But then, how did this happen? She was the only one who read the clauses.
“I don't know Steve. Will be there in 30.”
As soon as I got off the phone, I quickly rang up Sophia.
“Ms O'Brien,” I called immediately and she picked up. “There's an emergency and I need you at the office right away.”
“Why, what happened?” I sensed the urgency in her voice.
“The deal with Mr Shein....it's all haywire. The clauses which we put are absent and all the clauses present are not beneficial to us. That is why our investors and shareholders are demanding we cancel the deal.”
“How did this happen? I read the file you gave me so minutely. I mean.......”
“Not right now. First, you need to get to the office.” I was too pissed to listen to an explanation right now as I hung up the phone.
I don't want to be suspicious about Sophia. I know she can't do such a thing. She has a heart of a cup. She can't even scold her juniors at the company. How could she do this?
The first thing I'm going to do is check the CCTV footage in my office. Nobody knows there's CCTV footage in my office.
I got to the office and Sophia was already there, looking at me with a tense fear but I ignored her deliberately. I didn't want to have to shout or yell at her for someone else's wrongdoing.
As soon as we reached the office, Steve was already there.
Steve was about to talk to Sophia but I stopped him.
“Before anything else, we're going to check my office's CCTV footage.”
“Wait, what?! You have a camera in here?” Steve asked in shock.
“Yes, I do. Now everyone, sit.”
I noticed how tentatively Sophia sat down. She was nervous, I could tell.
“How don't I know about this, Alex?” Steve asked.
“Now's not the time for this,” I answered as I started the CCTV footage from the previous day when I gave the file to Sophia.
We were all looking at the footage very carefully, we didn't want to miss any single detail of what might have happened that day.
We saw Sophia coming inside the office at 3:55 pm, she kept the file inside my desk drawer. After that, she left the office.
At 4:13 pm, we saw Trent coming inside my office. Why exactly would Trent be here? I didn't call him and I wasn't in the office. Wait.....
He opened the drawer with a duplicate key. How does he have this? We watch him take out the file of Mr Shein's deal. He exchanged the files and took the real file with him.
Bloody bastard!
How dare he do this? How dare he betray me and the company? I considered him a loyal employee.
As I thought about that, I felt a sense of relief wash over me to know that Sophia had nothing to do with all this.
I looked at her and she seemed lost in her thoughts.
“Sophia?”
She jumped at the sound of my voice.
“Mr Hayes, I...I mean do you now believe me that I had nothing to do with this? Please understand that I would never do this to you or anyone else for that matter.”
I could feel the desperation in her voice and berated myself for even thinking she could do something like this.
“Sophia please get that I never doubted you. I was not talking to you at first because I was tensed myself thinking about who and why would do something like this. And I didn't want to unnecessarily yell at anyone because of someone else's doing. So please don't get the idea that I don't trust you, because I do.” I said.
“Thank you.” She whispered with a little smile on her face. “No need to say, thank you,” I mumbled.
“Let me see if Trent is present today or already left the city,” I said, turning to Steve as I dialed the finance department.
“Hello?” Came the voice from the reception.
“Alexander Hayes speaking. Send Trent Kane to my office right away.” “Hello, Mr Hayes. I'm afraid Mr Kane is on leave for a week.”
“Okay. Send me every material he kept in his workplace, even his laptop.”
“Will be on it, sir.”
I kept the phone down.
“As suspected, he's claiming to be on leave,” I said to both Steve and Sophia.
“But why do we need to talk to him? We can directly sue Shein. Of course, he's involved in this.”
“Yes, we're going to do that. But I also need to find Trent. He was a trusted employee of mine and he betrayed me. He has to pay for his deeds. I said, slamming the table.