Chapter 1 - THE PAPER MY FATHER COULDN’T HIDE
Frank unfolded the paper slowly.
For the first time in my life, my father looked embarrassed to hand me something.
Not guilty.
Not sorry.
Embarrassed.
That should have warned me.
Across the top was the Peterson Tech logo.
Underneath it:
NOTICE OF DOCUMENT PRESERVATION AND INTERNAL ETHICS REVIEW.
My eyes moved lower.
Employees named in investigation:
DEREK HOLLOWAY - REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR.
Then I saw the second name.
FRANK HOLLOWAY - EXTERNAL BUSINESS AFFILIATE.
I looked at my father.
“You didn’t come here because Derek might lose his job.”
Frank stared toward my driveway.
“Keep reading.”
So I did.
The investigation involved three employee complaints, disputed commissions, falsified customer records, and payments to an outside consulting company called Hawthorne Strategic Services.
My father’s signature appeared on two vendor documents.
A company I had never heard him mention.
“What is Hawthorne?”
“Nothing.”
I laughed.
“Dad.”
“It’s consulting.”
“For Peterson Tech?”
“Occasionally.”
“I own Peterson Tech.”
“I know.”
“Then why have I never heard of it?”
He rubbed his jaw.
“You don’t personally review every vendor.”
True.
Peterson Tech had almost nine hundred employees and hundreds of vendors across six states.
But something in Frank’s voice made my stomach tighten.
I kept reading.
Then I found the reason he had driven to my house.
One of the employee complaints accused Derek of threatening a sales analyst named Jenna Morales after she questioned suspicious invoices.
According to her statement, Derek had leaned across her desk and said:
“My brother owns this place. Nobody here is touching me.”
I read it twice.
Frank shifted uncomfortably.
“Derek was angry.”
“He used my name.”
“He says things.”
“That’s your defense?”
“I’m not defending everything.”
I looked at him.
“Yesterday you defended him burning a six-year-old’s toys.”
His face hardened.
“That’s different.”
“No.”
I folded the document.
“It’s the exact same thing.”
Frank frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“Derek hurts somebody smaller than him, then everyone is supposed to understand why Derek did it.”
“Virgil—”
“No.”
I pointed toward my front door.
“Lucas cried himself to sleep last night because his uncle burned the stuffed animal he’s slept with for three years.”
Frank sighed.
And there it was again.
That irritated, exhausted sigh people use when another person’s pain is inconvenient.
“Do you want Derek unemployed over a panda?”
“No.”
I held up the investigation notice.
“If Derek becomes unemployed, it will be because of this.”
Frank stepped closer.
“You can stop it.”
That sentence made me still.
“How?”
“You’re CEO.”
“I’m executive chairman.”
“Same difference.”
“No. It isn’t.”
“You can tell HR this is a family misunderstanding.”
I stared at him.
“Jenna Morales isn’t family.”
Frank’s jaw tightened.
“Derek says she has a grudge.”
“Then the investigation will determine that.”
“What investigation?”
“The independent one I’m authorizing tomorrow morning.”
His face changed.
“You don’t need to do that.”
That was the moment I knew I absolutely did.
I pulled out my phone.
Frank grabbed my wrist.
Not hard.
But he had never done that before.
“Virgil.”
I looked at his hand.
He released me.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“Your name is on a litigation hold connected to my company.”
“It’s paperwork.”
“Then you won’t mind investigators reviewing it.”
Frank went pale.
There.
Not anger.
Fear.
I lowered my voice.
“What is Hawthorne Strategic Services?”
He stared at me for several seconds.
Then finally said:
“Your brother needed help hitting his numbers.”
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
“What kind of help?”
Frank looked toward the new panda sitting inside Lucas’s backpack.
Then away.
“Just promise me you won’t fire Derek before we talk.”
“I don’t control the investigation.”
“You control everything.”
“No.”
I opened my front door.
“That’s the difference between me and you.”
Frank did not move.
Then he said:
“If Derek starts talking, Peterson Tech has a much bigger problem.”
I stopped.
“What problem?”
My father looked at me.
“Ask your finance department why Hawthorne has received four-point-six million dollars from your company in three years.”
The evening went silent around us.
I had expected him to beg for Derek’s job.
May you like
Instead, my father had just admitted he knew about millions of dollars leaving my company.
And he was terrified of what would happen if anyone asked where they went.
