Chapter 41: Forty-One

Sydney

“Yeah. I think you were seeing a detective one time weren’t you?” I leaned forward, a little too eagerly. “The one who was helping when someone forged your pictures.”

She stared at me blankly. “I know, Syd. What’s the point?”

I let out a sigh, struggling to form the words. “Look babe, I need someone to look into this quietly. I don’t want to go through any official channels that can tip off Eric.” I bit my lower lip. “Do you think he could help?”

Her lips twitched. “You don’t think it’s funny that I have to ask a man I’m seeing to investigate your husband?”

“Celine….”

“Just leave the man, Sydney!” She sighed in exhaustion, rubbing her forehead. “Why can’t you just be with someone else? Like Bryce for example?”

I felt something twist in my chest. I couldn’t be with Bryce because I couldn’t start trusting another man. Besides we hadn’t spoken since and I should even go see him for the partnership anyway.

“Will you help me or not?”

She stared at me for a minute, her eyes darting between my face and the folder. Sighing, she closed it, tucking it into her tote. “Of course I’ll help you Syd. What are friends for?” She shrugged. “Besides, Daniel owes me a favour anyway. I did his sister’s wedding photos for free.”

I couldn’t help the smile forming on my lips. “Thank you, Celine” I reached to squeeze her arm. “Really. Thank you.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Now don’t get mushy on me.” She snorted, waving me off. “I’m just worried about you, Sydney. I don’t like all of this and I wish you’d just leave this man before he hurts you.”

I tried not to snort. He already killed me once and I knew he was trying to kill me soon enough. What could be worse than that?

“You don’t need to worry Celine. I’ll be careful.”

She shot me a look, reaching for her wine glass. “You better be.”

Bryce

I leaned back, staring at the architectural renderings for the Hudson Yards expansion project. It was such a risk. It could either make us a fortune or send us to shit if the market shifted wrong. I had buffers but still, a risk was a risk.

Rolling up my sleeves, I reached to mark up a rendering when someone knocked on the door. I glanced at my watch. It was past 7. It was a little late for my assistant to still be here.

Probably Darien.

“Come in,” I called, not looking up from the rendering.

The door opened and Darien walked in, carrying a tablet and a Manila folder. He nodded at me.

“Working late?”

I smirked as he sat in one of the leather chairs across my desk, adjusting the collar of his gray shirt.

“What do you have?”

He sighed, holding up the folder. “Eric Stanley’s latest moves. Thought it was something you should see.”

I frowned, dropping the pen and reaching for the folder. “And what’s that?”

“Board meeting minutes from Prestige Global and….” He opened the folder, pulled out several printed pages, and handed them to me. “Mrs. Stanley was in attendance and he’s pushing to restructure the executive leadership. What they don’t know however is that he wants to install someone named Marcus McBroten as the new head of their West Coast operations division.”

It felt like a punch to the face, my grip tightening on the papers till they were crumbling.

“Marcus McBroten,” I repeated, anger filling my chest.

Darien raised an eyebrow. “You know him?”

“Yeah.” I glanced at the papers and there were emails from Eric to Marcus.

Proposed salary: $850,000 annually, plus stock options.

He wanted him to be ready to resume as soon as possible. I dropped the papers, resisting the urge to squeeze them and toss them in the trash.

“Tell me everything you have on McBroten. His current operations, associates, every damn thing.”

“That’s the interesting part,” Darien smiled widely, pulling up his tablet. “His crypto tie is mostly legitimate. I mean…” he shrugged. “It passes all regulatory scrutiny and he’s also been involved in some real estate. But! I did some more digging…” He looked up, looking at me pointedly. Before he even said it, I knew what was coming.

“And I discovered he worked with Westin Enterprises once and the SEC investigated him for embezzlement but nothing was proven and he walked away clean.”

Closing my eyes, I resisted the urge to punch a wall. “How much did he embezzle?”

“Estimated? Three to four billion, funneled through offshore accounts and shell companies.” He swiped to another screen. “The really interesting part is that most of his clients lost significant amounts of money when his business collapsed”

I knew the story and technically didn’t need Darien to tell me. I just wanted to feel angry again. Westin Enterprises had been one of those clients mostly because it was my idiot elder brother, Andrew running the business.

He was friends with Marcus who then suggested that Andrew invest with Marcus’s company and the fool did. The pressure was worse because they were both friends with Eric fucking Stanley who had been married to my sister, Natasha, and convinced her to push Andrew towards the investment. Marcus walked away with billions and our family almost lost everything.

Eric of course divorced Natasha and ran off to the next unsuspecting victim who was, well, Sydney. Andrew was forced out by the board, and my father had a heart attack and a stroke. Nat was devastated by Eric’s betrayal and the role she played in destroying the business and ruining Andrew. She spiralled.

She got so depressed, she…

I shook my head pushing away the thought. It hurt like hell to know my sister had killed herself because of Eric and while Marcus hadn’t known me personally, Eric had. He’d looked us in the face and made a fool out of us.

He was the one behind it all and Marcus was just his tool and heaven knows I won’t rest until I get him fucked up.

“Bryce?”

I blinked, suddenly realizing Darien was staring at me.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine.” I nodded, trying to stay calm. “Does Sydney know about this? About Eric’s plan to bring Marcus in?”

He shook his head. “Not sure. She’s not been present at all his appointments with McBroten.”

I scoffed. Of course. I also knew he’d gotten Sydney to adopt that child and now he would keep her occupied while they tried to steal the company from under her nose.

My blood boiled.

Then suddenly, it hit me. That was why McBroten was in town.

Fuck!