Page 25 of The Meeting
“At this point in time, I want to destroy him,” she said as she spooned some ice cream into her mouth. “And I want to know what the fuck Jessica was doing. She was stealing from me! Her friend. How fucked up is that?”
“It’s very fucked up, and I would expect you to want to destroy them. I’ll think about our different options. Bringing it up to his lawyer wouldn’t be advantageous at this point. Let’s keep our cards hidden until the right moment, so they don’t have time to come up with a backstory.”
Kailynn nodded. “That makes sense. Does this mean I shouldn’t rip Jessica apart?”
“Not yet. It’s best if you keep it a secret from her. We don’t know how far deep she’s in this, and we don’t want her tipping Drew off.”
She licked her spoon, and he almost groaned, watching that pink tongue licking every last drop.
She held the spoon off to the side thoughtfully. “Do you think his lawyer knows?”
He cleared his throat and shifted to hide his growing erection. “I’m assuming yes, based on the amount of junk she sent me. But there’s no way for me to know for sure. She may have just forwarded me whatever Drew gave her. I don’t know how much she has looked into it, especially if Drew didn’t tell her what was going on.”
“I’ve always known him to be an honest guy, so I would assume he told her. But... he cheated on me. At least, I think that’s a safe assumption.”
Chase nodded in agreement, so she continued.
“So I guess I don’t know him as well as I thought.”
Her face dropped again as the sadness took over. Chase leaned forward and grabbed the wine bottle, twisting the corkscrew into it. When the cork had been extracted, he poured two glasses and handed one to her.
“To hitting him where it counts.”
She held her glass up and clinked hers with his. “I’m assuming you’re talking in the business sense, but I was thinking more of in a sensitive spot.”
He laughed out loud as she cracked a smile. “I wouldn’t stop you, but that may hurt your chances of getting what you want for the business if you have battery charges tacked on.” He winked at her.
She laughed. “Dang. I guess I’ll try to refrain.”
* * *
Over the next several days,Kailynn met Chase at his office to go over the paperwork. He was helping her write up demands of what she wanted for the company. Now that she knew Drew had been writing bogus checks to other women, she was out for blood.
She had spent most of the night after leaving Chase’s apartment researching Sheila’s name. Coming across her social media profile, she saw several pictures of her and Drew dating back two years. Based on the photos, she knew they weren’t just friends. He had been dating this woman behind her back and giving her money from their company. It made Kailynn sick to her stomach.
But what had he been doing with Jessica? He was also writing her additional checks outside of payroll. Was it possible he was playing all three of them at the same time?
Kailynn wanted to believe Drew wasn’t that smart, but he had already gotten away with it for at least two years. Clearly, she had given him too much credit in the loyalty area.
For a few years now she knew the company was pulling in money, but was always surprised when they barely broke even. And on the rare occasions when they had extra to spend, they had invested it in something else for the company, leaving little extra cash for Kailynn and Drew to take as bonuses for themselves.
In hindsight, she kicked herself for not looking at the books sooner. Maybe she would have caught it.
Chase added up the checks he could find written to Sheila Cale and the additional checks written to Jessica outside of payroll and discovered the amount to be fairly damaging. Kailynn could only stare at the numbers. She didn’t want Chase to see how hurt she was, but he knew. It was written all over his face. Why wouldn’t he know? This was terrible for a business partner to do, but a boyfriend? That was a whole new level of betrayal.
Suddenly, everything made sense to her—how Drew was no longer interested in engaging with her when they would get home. He was only ever critical of her work when he used to be encouraging. He no longer cared. She was being used—used to pay for his girlfriends to have whatever they wanted. She was his work horse.
“I think we’ll have a fairly good shot at getting you the business without owing him much money. He spent an exorbitant amount of money, which will be viewed as a loan if this goes to court. I don’t think his lawyer will want it to go that far, so I’m guessing they’ll settle.”
She shook her head, still shocked at the news, despite knowing the signs were there all along. “That’s good, right?”
“Very good.”
She sat across his desk with her arms settled on it, picking at her nails. She was thrilled she was likely to get the business without needing to shell a lot of money out to him for his half, but at the same time, it stung. It’s one thing for him to cheat. It’s a whole other thing for him to use her hard earned money to pay girlfriends who didn’t work for it. And for Jessica to betray her like that…
“You okay?”
She looked up at Chase, who had concern written all over his face. She shrugged.
