C6, PT. 5

“Here.”

She turned as Roth approached with three thick folders in his arms.

“Where do you want it?”

She was taken aback by the size of the files before remembering he’d been watching them for years. She pointed to the high table with the vase of ruby amaryllis and berry sprigs.

He set the files on the table and turned to her. She tensed, but all he did was grab her face, so he could steal a kiss.

“I have some calls to make. I’ll be in the office if you need me.”

She watched him walk away, mouth slack. His easy compliance was suspicious and a little alarming, but… She eyed the folders, each as large as corporate tax returns, and eagerly grabbed the top folder without taking a seat. Her sister’s name full name, Ariana Elise Hennessy-Khan, was on the tab.

She had no idea what to expect, but the succinct report on an appendectomy Ariana had two years prior wasn’t it. A doctor prescribed OxyContin and fulfilled the prescription for a whole year with increased doses before he cut Ariana off. She flipped through detailed “Observation Reports,” which listed dates, times, and even the weather when Ariana met her dealer. Each report was accompanied by photographs. Ariana’s fashionable dealer looked like a socialite, which was beneficial since they usually met in Midtown or the Upper East Side. Ariana scheduled appointments with a therapist and counselor twice this year, always when Rami was out of town, and hadn’t been back since Dad’s death. However, her sister made time to meet her dealer last week at Bloomingdales, just a few blocks from Hennessy Tower.

She shuffled through the most recent photos of her sister, who had no idea that a PI… or a team of them were following her around. It was a gross invasion of privacy, but anyone could have done what Roth did—competitors, the press, even Maximus. And, according to Roth, her father had kept an eye on her and run interference once she left her marriage, which is why Roth hadn’t been able to locate her. Was that true? Had Dad focused his attention on her and not her sisters because she was the troubled one? Did he get detailed reports on her, with pictures of her in clubs and the men she brought home? She hated that even though Dad had read about her sexcapades and been buried for months, she was still embarrassed that he knew about her wanton behavior.

She moved onto Rami Khan’s files and examined the photo clipped inside the cover of his folder. It was a Rami she had never seen before—lanky with white short shorts and thick, cracked glasses squinting at the camera. He couldn’t be older than twelve, with his arm around a much taller boy with a big smile. According to the notes, the picture had been taken in Delhi, where Rami grew up with his friend, Anil. After university, they moved to Bengaluru, the IT hub of the country, and started their software company.

She scanned personal emails between Rami and Anil, which highlighted their differences in ambition and the future of the company. Rami described some lucrative opportunities in America’s Silicon Valley, but Anil wanted to stay in India and argued that Rami was straying from their initial vision.

Things changed when Anil’s wife was diagnosed with leukemia. Anil’s interest in the company dwindled as he invested in cancer research and treatment for his wife to the point of bankruptcy. When Anil went to the bank for a loan, he was denied. Rami claimed that he had nothing to do with it and offered to buy Anil out of the company since he needed the money. Anil refused. Their correspondence became increasingly hostile, with Anil accusing Rami of manipulating his wife’s doctors to refuse her as a patient, tampering with her treatment, random break-ins, a car accident, and finally Anil’s daughter being kidnapped.

Police reports documented the kidnap of Anil’s three-year-old, who was snatched in the middle of the night. The kidnappers demanded an exorbitant ten million from a man who was in dire financial straits. Jasmine stared at the last email between what had once been two friends as Anil signed over his shares in the company to pay the ransom. No one was arrested for the kidnapping, and the money was never recovered.

Rami moved the company to America the same week Anil gave up his rights. As predicted, Rami skyrocketed. His software was implemented by everyone from government agencies to online retailers. Within three years of his company going public, he was married to Ariana and living on top of the world… On the surface, at least. There were half a dozen reporters who tracked down Anil, now a widower. Anil refused all interviews, but he did confirm that the reason he signed over his shares in the now billion-dollar company was to pay the ransom for his daughter.

Every reporter criticized the sloppy police investigation. Three pointed out the odd coincidence that Anil’s only option to save his daughter was to sell his shares in a company where he had an ongoing feud with his business partner. The other three quoted a source who hinted at Rami’s ties to a violent underground organization that was suspected to have carried out the crime. It was incriminating, but still circumstantial… aside from the fact that not one of the investigative reports made it to publication. Half of the reporters were paid off, two were fired, and Rami bought the newspaper of the most recent investigation before the article could be published.

She closed Rami’s folder and stared, unseeing, at the view. Under other circumstances, she would have gone onto the terrace and sat in the rare sunshine, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t merge the shy, introverted brother-in-law with the cold-blooded bastard described in this file. They couldn’t be the same person.

Rami used thugs to steal a three-year-old to force his business partner to sell his shares in his company? It sounded insane, unbelievable, but… If it wasn’t true, why had Rami gone to such efforts to keep these articles from being published? The handsome bribe the reporters accepted had been paid from an offshore account. It was logical to assume it was linked to Rami even though there was no paper trail. No one’s reputation would be impacted by these articles except his.

Rami had access to government agency databases and some of the largest online retailers in the world. If he hadn’t paid off the terrorists, they could ask him for one hell of a favor. Her fingernails rapped on the table. She knew Rami worked in tech, but had no clue what he actually did or how he made his fortune. Now that she was informed, her mind was bursting with questions. Had Rami’s mindset changed now that he had children of his own?

She smoothed her hands over her pocket for her phone before remembering she left it in the kitchen during their skirmish. It was just as well. It wasn’t like she could ask Ariana if she knew her husband extorted his former partner into selling his share in their company. Would Rami confide in his wife, something that he went to such great lengths to suppress? If there was the smallest chance that his children were at risk, shouldn’t Ariana know? Ariana and Rami had a more amicable marriage than Colette and Lyle, but it had still been arranged by her father. Had Rami managed to keep the rumors about his former business partner from her father or because they were unproven, Maximus shrugged them off? She checked the dates on the news articles. Most of the reports cropped up during his meteoric rise, but two of them happened within the past year.

Roth’s succinct rundown the night before was an easier pill to swallow than sifting through photographs, reports, and damning emails. She was suddenly grateful she didn’t know Lyle’s secret. Bone-weary didn’t begin to describe how she felt. Disappointed, disillusioned. Was there anyone in her family who wasn’t involved in some scandal or underhanded deal? Was there no one she could trust? She looked down at the stack of papers and had the insane urge to burn them, as if that would make this all go away.

How the hell had Roth managed to get his hands on private emails and articles that Rami had gone to great lengths to keep hidden? Rami was in tech. Surely, he was capable of erasing or hiding anything he didn’t want someone to find on the internet. Whoever Roth’s resources were, they were able to override what should have been impenetrable software.

She eyed the last folder that detailed Colette Delphine Hennessy-Caruso’s incriminating secrets. She was already acquainted with Colette’s sins, so this shouldn’t be too painful. She was maxed out, but this may be her only opportunity to find out what her family was hiding. She pulled the folder toward her and flipped it open.

Ten pages in, she turned to glare at the hallway where Roth’s office was. How the hell did he acquire reports detailing every business decision Colette made as CEO since Dad handed her the reins? She muttered under breath before she propped her cheek on her fist and dove in.

She recognized ninety percent of the names and companies Colette did business with. A quarter of the way through the pile, she paused. She flipped a few sheets back, a few forward, and paused to study the figures intently. She looked around for something to write with and fetched a notepad off the bookshelf and jotted down some figures, dates, and companies and froze. What the hell had Colette been thinking?

She had blindly defended and given her sister the benefit of the doubt, assuming that a few bad deals were responsible for Colette losing control over the company. Not so. Colette had been downright reckless. Why hadn’t Ariana stopped her from taking such risky deals? Sure, if everything went in their favor, they would make a windfall, but they’d nearly lost everything instead. Clearly, Colette had been driven by something other than common sense, statistics, and good counsel. Did Colette get caught up in trying to prove herself to Dad or Lyle?

There was no way her father hadn’t been aware of Colette’s troubles. If he could keep track of Roth in other countries, there was no reason he wouldn’t know his daughter had suffered major losses, especially with so many of his friends being shareholders. Had Maximus encouraged Colette to recover her losses, which resulted in her losing even more? Had he lost faith in Colette, and that’s why he hadn’t included her as an heir in his final trust?

She idolized her sisters and saw them as infallible, lethal bombshells who were able to hold their own against hard-nosed tycoons and now… Now, she saw them for what they were—human, flawed, prone to mistakes, and who, all too often, let their emotions get the better of them.

She sifted through photographs of her sisters at luncheons, Hennessy Headquarters, running errands, and even meetings in other countries. She flipped to the report at the very back of the folder and stared at the date. Roth’s first report was dated the month he signed the divorce papers.

**This is a raw draft of Bitter Confessions. Please do not share or distribute.

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