Chapter 55 : Discovery of Lies

Aishleen was honestly reluctant to accept the offer. She had been determined not to be easily swayed by any form of kindness or preferential treatment from others, always building a wall around herself to keep anyone from getting close. This time, however, she had to reluctantly admit that the man's admiration for her was not one-way. Aishleen had secretly admired the man ever since she first noticed him, and the more she saw his hard work and love for the company - even her own parents - the more she admired him.

"All right," she sighed as she let go of her last objection and finally gave in. "One dinner. No ulterior motives, just an evening of friendly conversation."

Aishleen thought that perhaps seeing a different side of the man outside of work could help her get to know him better. She still had a responsibility to understand who he really was, and Aishleen needed time to relax, time to face things away from the noisy atmosphere of the workplace.

*Kill two birds with one stone, they say*.

"It's up to you. I can assure you that you will not regret giving me a chance, Ms. Valega," he told her with a broad smile. A smile that showed more of her innocence than any pretentious victory.

One dinner was promised to Aishleen.

One night alone with her, without judgment or hesitation. Just him and her, no labels. But Aishleen went home that night seeing a side of himself she had never seen before, and realizing a part of herself she had never shown anyone else.

Perhaps it was the ambiance of the place, the restaurant he took Aishleen to had a truly romantic atmosphere throughout the night. Or maybe it was the wine, which was a pleasant companion to eat and talk with. Or maybe it was the way he took off his coat and put it over her shoulder when he saw Aishleen shivering in the cold as he walked her to the car. Whatever the reason, Aishleen remained fascinated by the date and by the man himself.

So the dinner turned into several more dates, and the personal encounters turned into a relationship as Aishleen lost the ability to resist her feelings and fell into the trap.

****

"You obviously expected this," Aishleen told her father one morning as he sat next to her at breakfast, the day after Darrel announced to Aishleen's family at Christmas dinner that he had proposed to her. Aishleen had seen her father show no reaction, just smile and laugh as if he already knew it was going to happen.

"I don't know what you mean, daughter," he shrugged, feigning indifference, though it was hard to miss the smile he hid behind a sip of his tea.

"You planned this, right?" Aishleen asked in an amused tone, while her father just laughed.

"Oh dear, I have planned many things, but your marriage to him is certainly not one of them."

"Then what's that grin for?" she asked, knitting her brows and narrowing her eyes.

He just stared at the woman with a wide, happy gaze. "I just think this is a very happy event. That he not only managed to gain your trust, but also to win a place in your heart, something that not many people are able to do. I know that, my daughter," he gave her a cheerful smile as he set down his cup. "I believe that your relationship with him and this engagement will be the perfect solution to our problems."

"How so?"

"Because if we can truly trust this man, then he will be the answer to our prayers. And we can both realize our hopes and dreams, right?"

Aishleen accepted his words and realized that he was right. Soon things would fall into place and she could plan her own future.

Darrel would take her place, and soon Aishleen was ready to return to her own business. Though things didn't always go as smoothly as she would have liked, a promising future awaited her, and the pressure to solve the company's problems and find a way to make things right followed her every step of the way.

Until one night it all came crashing down.

Aishleen hoped it was just a dream, that they had made a mistake in calling her that night.

She sat in her apartment, looking at her laptop, trying to concentrate on her work to get rid of the bad mood caused by her fiancé's phone call canceling their dinner a few hours ago. For hours before his phone rang that night, all she could imagine was how she would react if Darrel decided to show up at the end of the night, how Aishleen would tease him until he did everything he could to stop herself from sulking.

And when the phone finally rang, she hoped it was her fiancé calling to apologize and not a formal voice asking for it,

*"Does this number belong to a relative of Darrel Stone? I'm afraid we have some bad news..."*

****

Aishleen had forgotten how many days after the funeral she found herself back at her father's office building. It must have been less than a week. The atmosphere in the office was still so somber, so dark, that she was almost invisible to her co-workers and employees.

"What are you doing in the office? You should be resting," her father asked with concern as he saw her walking toward the desk.

"I'm fine, Dad. I just... I think it's better to keep my mind occupied with work," she replied, not at all convincing to herself or anyone else listening to her. Her father insisted that she stay away from work for a while, to give her time to grieve alone. But to the woman, working seemed a better option than staying in the apartment. *Alone*. Surrounded by every little thing that reminded her of herself. Especially since everyone had returned to their lives not long after the funeral.

"All right, but don't push yourself," he sighed in defeat as he ruffled her hair before heading to the conference room.

On a normal day, Aishleen would have sulked and pushed him away. But on this day, she needed a little affection to get some comfort, one of the other reasons she had decided to leave her hiding place to look for her father.

It was noon when Aishleen called her assistant after sitting in her small office for hours, enjoying the silence.

"Could you send me the files Darrel has been working on lately?"

"Yes, ma'am," she replied over the phone before entering her office with a stack of documents and files copied from Darrel's computer.

Aishleen spent the whole day comparing all the data and numbers, as she usually did. She usually tossed the data back and forth between herself and Darrel, comparing it to the system before compiling a final report to send to her father and the advisors. And now she suddenly felt so lost, with no one to discuss it with, that nothing made sense.

"Maybe I shouldn't have pushed myself so hard on the first day," she thought to herself as she still couldn't figure anything out when the day was almost over. So she decided to give up, thinking that maybe her mind wasn't ready to handle so many things at once, and went home that night, telling herself that it was okay not to function properly so quickly.

But when the same thing happened the next day, and the next, she knew something was wrong. Aishleen went back through her files countless times to find what she'd missed, only to discover,

"The numbers don't match."

She did her best to gather more data from sales, production, and every other department she could get her hands on. For several days in a row, she would lock herself in her office, coming in early in the morning and leaving late at night-to do it all on her own, answering her father only with, "I'm just busy, Dad. Don't worry," whenever he asked if anything was wrong.

It was exactly one week after her first meeting with Detective John, the brief encounter that finally opened her eyes, that Aishleen was finally able to find out everything.

Aishleen leaned back in her chair, her palms resting on her desk, her eyes fixed on her trembling fingers as she finally got her answer.

*'No way,'* she kept repeating to herself as she tried to take it all in.

For Aishleen finally understood why she had never been able to find any flaws in the low numbers she had collected from the company's ongoing cash flow data. Why she could never find the reason why, even when sales and production were going very well, the profit numbers never went up. Why the numbers in the incoming data never matched the numbers in the reports.

And now he finally understood why Darrel had never been able to solve the problem that had hung the company's fate in the balance for the past year.

It was because he hadn't tried to find or fix the problem in the first place.

He was covering it up.