The Kid, the Boss, and the Incorrigible Nanny

Part Thirty-Three

Adrian straightened his tie. His stomach gurgled with equal parts agony and anticipation. This slipshod plot to reveal Peter's attempts to undermine him could be an enormous success.

It could also be a dramatic failure.

Their best bet, he had decided with Jared (Clayborn insisted he referred to him by his first name) and John, was to treat the entire situation like it was nothing more than an exciting announcement. John was checking phone records at that moment to determine which receptionist had been receiving Jared's calls, and to whom the receptionist had been forwarding those calls.

They would call an impromptu board meeting to announce the investment, at which time, Adrian would greet Clayborn at the main lobby entrance. He would be the first to greet him and the first to shake his hand. They would enter the board room together, where John would have arranged for everyone to meet - whether in person or by video conference call. 

"Found her," John said without glancing up from his laptop. "And... found him."

Adrian approached, wanting to review the call log himself so he could know with total certainty who to suspect. Her history was flush with phone calls from various numbers, but a simple search had pulled up each instance where she had received an incoming call from Jared's number.

Each time, the calls had been forwarded to Peter's extension.

"There it is." John drummed his finger on his laptop. 

Adrian expected his stomach to sink. It didn't. If anything, he felt almost relieved. There could be multiple people behind Peter's efforts to thwart Jared's investment. 

"How often did she forward calls directly to Peter's extension?" Adrian asked.

"One second." John saved the report of her call logs to his computer. "Okay."

He returned to the receptionist's full phone history. "Definitely some repeated numbers here." He scrolled quickly through the past month's history. 

Adrian felt his eyebrows pull together and down into a frown. The caller IDs on some of these receipts were familiar to him. Other numbers he knew well just from memory. 

He had to stop himself from cursing. "At least three of these people wanted to meet with me this weekend. Peter fielded them because he said he would handle it."

"Lowell. Four calls this month," John murmured. 

"I've been trying to secure their partnership for a year, but they went quiet," Adrian said. "Did you know they'd been in contact recently?"

John shook his head. "I bet we know who did, though." He quickly clicked through the log. Each time Lowell, Inc. had called, they had been forwarded to Peter.

They continued down her history. "There are several instances of her forwarding calls to other executives," John said. "And some of those are partners or potential investors. It's completely likely any number of those can be normal calls. But it will take some time to suss out whether we should worry about any of those."

"Let's get her call history to the head of HR. Whether she knows it or not, she's been derailing at least a few of our partners and at least four contacts from making connections here."

"And Peter?"

"Split the list of numbers of contacts he's been fielding for the past month. We'll call them ourselves. Make sure they know they can come to us personally."

"And Jared?" John asked.

"I'll ask him to come in after lunch." Adrian pulled out his phone. "I want to hear it directly from everyone Peter has redirected this month so I can call him on it when we meet this afternoon."

John nodded. "Guess our exciting announcement has just turned into an emergency meeting.

---

Three hours and several phone calls later, Adrian and John found themselves shaking their heads at each other from across Adrian's desk. 

"All of them."

"I know," John said.

"If Jared hadn't clued us in on his experience..."

"I know." John was starting to sound like an echo.

Adrian sank into his chair. He'd been a complete fool. Had gone against his gut instinct time and again and trusted his father's colleague to stand in for him and be a voice for the company. 

In each instance, Peter had been snubbing organizations left and right.

"It was my understanding that you were losing interest in our company," several of them said.

"Honestly, Peter made it sound like you were cutting ties altogether," said others.

It was sickening to know that he had been represented this way. Not only to make him look like he had no interest in growing his father's company... but as if he didn't care about the organization at all.

He hadn't realized he was cradling his head in his hands until he felt the heat of John's palm on his shoulder. "You couldn't have known, A."

He wished it were true. How much easier would it have been had Adrian been completely powerless in the entire situation? He very nearly had been.

Now would have been a great time for a cigarette.

"It's on me." Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose. "I didn't feel right about letting the older executives take on as much responsibility as they did. I didn't feel right about Peter always stepping in, seemingly cleaning up messes for me before I had the chance to step into them."

As it had turned out, Peter was orchestrating a giant mess for him to stumble into. 

"If Clayborn hadn't run into me in the elevator, I might not have known the full extent of what was happening."

John kept his voice calm and steady. "Well, now you do."

"But I should have been able to forecast this, right? Shouldn't the CEO of a company know where his investors are going?"

That age-old fear was rising in his stomach again. Suddenly he was eighteen, sitting in his father's office - this office - scared out of his mind at the prospect that all of it would someday be his responsibility. He knew - he knew - even then that he'd mess it up somehow. 

Too many people relied on him to make the right decisions. He had turned a blind eye to something that was so obvious, something that already had cost losses in innovation.

"You caught it early on, early enough that we didn't feel much of it," John said, almost as if he could hear his thoughts.

"What else am I missing, John?"

"Probably nothing outside of the normal stuff." John sat on the edge of his desk. "Office affairs. Fraud. Doctors stealing prescription pills. Failing to test and update medical equipment on a broad scale."

Adrian stared at him blankly.

"I'm kidding," His friend said. "I wouldn't let any of that happen. I wouldn't let anything bring your company down. I'm here to do everything in my power to see you succeed."

"My father's company," Adrian murmured.

John's next words were measured. "Your father left it to you. He wouldn't have done that if he didn't believe in you. You know that, right?"

Adrian couldn't quite meet his gaze. His father had left him everything. The house, the company. Aiden. 

He had managed well so far, hadn't he?

A sigh escaped his chest like a gust of wind. "Thank you, John. I don't know where I'd be without you."

His best friend grinned. "You'd be right here, doing what you are now. But your right-hand man wouldn't be half as handsome."

---

Author Note: Thank you for reading! Two updates today since you were kind enough to be patient and wait all this time for an update.

Thank you so, so much for reading.