Chapter 121 – Ogden
If anything, I was ready to go home. Event after event happened and I was beyond tired. I wanted to have a relaxing day of meetings and then being with Willow. But of course, that was not what happened.
Another wrench was thrown into my life, and I couldn’t possibly deal with another. There was too much going on as it was, and I was trying to keep it together. What I really wanted to do was lock myself up in my house and not leave for a week. Or kidnap Willow and go find a serene beach somewhere and sip Mai Tais.
Willow has been a little off since we left the hospital. I knew today was a stressful day and then learning about Grace’s most recent ridiculous stunt. But there seemed to be more on Willow’s mind than just the chaos of the day.
“Are you okay?” I glanced over at her as I took a turn down our street. She hasn’t said a thing since we left, and I wasn’t sure if she was angry at me.
Willow let out a breath. “Yeah. It was just a lot today.” She didn’t look at me, she only looked out of the window. Fuck. Something was wrong.
I searched for the words that I wanted to say, but they were not coming. Anything that I came up with sounded like I was begging for her attention. That I was needy and was begging for her attention. “What did you want to eat?”
“Does pizza sound good to you?” She gave me a quick glance.
“Sounds amazing.” I gave her a smile. I didn’t like this. I was planning on officially proposing tomorrow and I didn’t want it foiled because of something she wasn’t telling me.
I pulled into the garage and sat there for a moment. I wanted to clear the air before we walked into the house. I wanted to share the evening with Willow and cuddle on the couch as we ate pizza. It felt like we couldn’t do that until we talked.
“What’s wrong?” Willow looked at me with wide eyes. Was I just reading into it?
“Something seems off and I wanted to make sure that we were okay.” I looked ahead as I said it, I couldn’t look her in the eye in case I saw something that I didn’t want to see. “I know there has been a lot going on and it seems like one thing after the other has been happening. But I want you to know that I will be there for you.” I wanted to tell her I loved her right there, but I couldn’t just yet. I had a plan and I wanted to wait until tomorrow to do it.
Willow let out a breath and bit her lip. I could tell she was choosing her words. “Today took a lot out of me. My mom having complications during surgery, I really thought I was about to lose her.” She picked at a piece of lint on her jeans. “Then seeing the lipstick and hearing about Grace being bonkers again, I am just drained.”
She opened her mouth as if she were going to say something but then quickly closed it. I wanted to know what she was about to say. I felt like that was going to be the most important thing she was going to share with me.
I turned to look at her. “That’s all?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Because if there is something else, I want to know.” Maybe if I just pried a little she would spill.
She averted her eyes and bit her lip again. She was hiding something. “That’s all.” She glanced at me and then looked forward again.
“Really?”
Willow sighed. “I will tell you soon enough. Just trust me, okay?”
That had my heart pumping in my chest. She did have something else, I already knew that, but I was hoping that she would tell me now. I nodded. “Okay.” I moved to open the door, but she grabbed my arm.
She held my gaze; her eyes were pleading. “It is not a bad thing. I am just waiting.” She gave me a slight nod.
“What are you waiting for?” I looked back at her.
Willow furrowed her eyebrows. “It might sound stupid, but the right time.” She gave me a small smile. “Tomorrow.”
When people were waiting for the right time, usually it was a bigger thing than what Sophia and Willow were letting on. I clenched my jaw.
“Ogden.” The way she said my name drew my attention back to her. “It isn’t a bad thing. I promise.” She tilted her head toward me to show that she was serious.
I nodded at her. “Let’s go inside and get some food.” It was obvious that she wasn’t going to tell me now and there was no point to pry any further. “Did you want your usual?” I unlocked the house door and ushered her in.
“That sounds good.” She was trying to make her voice light and happy, but I knew she was over thinking everything just like I was. “I’m going to go shower.” She went up the stairs without waiting for my response.
I pulled out my phone and sent in our order. I sat at the kitchen island. I didn’t like feeling like this. There was too much going on and I didn’t need to worry about what Willow had to tell me. I fought the urge to move the place mat in front of me.
My phone buzzed; it was Roger. “Hello?” I crossed my fingers that he had good news.
“Hey, boss. I just wanted to give you an update. Jennifer and I have gone through everything, we even have a couple of paralegals doing some research.” He paused.
“Roger, out with it.” My jaw was starting to hurt from how tight I was clenching it.
He let out a laugh. “You are not going to believe this. After reviewing some of the work that Grace was doing, it turns out that she created a whole case file in her computer that was password protected.”
“Okay? I have a bunch of files password protected on my computer.” I held my head in my hand as I spoke.
“It took a few hours, but after getting into it. We have evidence against Grace that she has been stealing funds from the company. We have proof that she has been embezzling money from the company as soon as she started working here.”
My face dropped at his words. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. She had access to client funds and has been scraping money off the top and writing it off as client relations. But one of the paralegals cross referenced the paperwork from accounting and it is all a bunch of bullshit. The receipts are for airlines, restaurants, hotels, nail salons, and even a fucking car dealerships. And there are a lot of receipts for a few thousand dollars here and there with the tag miscellaneous. We are digging more into it, but so far she has stolen close to a half million dollars.”
I pounded the counter in front of me. “She has stolen that much without anyone raising any red flags?”
“That’s what we are looking into.” I heard Roger shuffling through the papers that were in front of him.
“Who dealt with Grace’s accounting paperwork?” I wanted to know who would have processed all of this information without letting anyone know.
“It looks like Shawn Perkins processed all of these receipts.” I could hear him shuffling through more paperwork. “Yeah, no other names were associated with Grace.”
“Hmm.” My mind was reeling. While working for me, Grace had the audacity to steal from my company. And not only that, she roped in someone from the accounting department to process everything. That’s when it struck me. “I want more on this. Have someone go into the surveillance footage going all the way back to Grace starting at the company. I want to see her interactions with Shawn.”
“It seems like you have an idea…mind sharing?”
“I’m thinking that Grace paid off Shawn. Hence the miscellaneous receipts. If we can get them to verbally confirm that they were stealing from the company, I can counter sue for the losses.”
“Very devious, Moore. I was going to say the same thing, but I have had some witnesses say that Grace was, and I quote, very friendly, with Shawn. I’m thinking that she was paying him with more than just money.”
I rubbed my chin. “Yeah, she isn’t above sleeping with people for what she wants.” I let out a breath.
“But to put your mind at ease, we already have enough against Grace to bury her.” Roger laughed. “I always thought she was a bright lawyer. But it is turning out that she was just a duplicitous bully.”
Willow walked into the kitchen and raised her eyebrows at me. I shook my head at her. “Thanks, Roger. Be sure to make copies and save them in multiple locations, and let me know if you uncover anything else.”
“Will do and do me a favor, relax a bit.” He let out a laugh. “It looks like you are burning both ends of the candle…eh.”
“Thanks, Roger. Talk to you later.” I hung up.
“What’s going on? I only heard that ‘she isn’t above sleeping with people for what she wants.’” Willow leaned against the counter.
I smirked at her. “As it turns out, Grace has been embezzling money from the company since she was hired. Roger said that she has stolen upwards of a half million dollars from the company. And apparently one of the people in accounting was helping her.”
Willow’s mouth hung open; her eyes were wide. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not kidding.” My smile grew. “Apparently she didn’t think we were going to find the evidence of her stealing. She was too arrogant for her own good.”
Willow jumped up and clapped her hands together. “That’s good news. The lawsuit she was filing against you is moot now…right?”
“Not entirely. But with this evidence, it will help our side to prove that she was doing illegal activity against the company. And we had every right to terminate her employment.”
“Now you just need to deal with the sexual harassment part?”
“That’s what legal is working on now. We think she made a deal with a man in accounting to process her paperwork without letting anyone else know.”
“When you say deal…do you mean money deal or sex deal?” Willow bit her lip.
“I’m thinking both.”
Willow exhaled. “Well, that’s a good way to end this dumpster fire of a day.” She let out a laugh.
The doorbell rang. “Not to mention we have some delicious pizza to enjoy.” I went to the door and grabbed the boxes and set them down on the coffee table. “I’m going to change, and I’ll be right back.”
Willow nodded at me and started to gather plates and napkins.
Before I got too far up the stairs I leaned over and looked at her. “Could you pour me a glass of wine? Your choice.”
“On it!” Willow sounded so much happier now. Maybe learning about Grace and her lawsuit against me affected her more than I thought it would.
I was going to do my best to let the rest of it go so I could enjoy the evening with Willow. I didn’t want to ruin another second with her by my overthinking. One more day until I proposed officially.