Page 67 of Return on Love

“You let others, people like Bob or your dad, decide what you think of yourself. And what’s worse, you take your life decisions based on their opinions. Don’t do that. Question them, call them out on their behavior. Take other’s advice but decide for yourself, like you do in your professional life, y’know. You don’t just accept whatever your client tells you. You dig deep and make your own analysis. Why don’t you do it for your personal life?”

I sit there, stunned, with my head lowered. Partly because I don’t like Ryan talking to me as if he’s known me forever. I mean, we’ve barely known each other for a few weeks. But more because, even though it hurts, I know, deep down, that it’s true.

“Hey, Eva. Look at me.” Ryan lifts my face, holding my chin. “I’m sorry. Don’t be upset. I probably overstepped, but... I don’t like it when someone else calls the shots on your life decisions.”

Someone else calls the shots! My brain is working double time, as a new pattern presents itself.

“What is it?” Ryan asks, still holding my face in his hands. “Your eyes have that look. You’ve thought of something, right?”

“C’mon. We gotta go back and do some digging,” I say, and jump to my feet. "I believe I have a way to get to the bottom of this."

Chapter 20

“In a dark place we find ourselves.”—Yoda

We stop by at my apartment to pick up some clothes. I have a feeling that I might not have time to come back before Monday, and I need my best dress for that day. In that room, if you’re poorly dressed, you’ve already lost half the battle. I have a strong aversion to it, but that's the way it is, and now is not the right time to challenge old perceptions.

From the taxi itself, I message Mark, Alex’s colleague to tell me about the investors in CashCross if he remembers.

“What’s going on? Will you tell me something?” Ryan asks, a little flustered. “I can’t read your mind. Not yet.”

We’ve almost reached the hotel. Once inside the room, I tell him. “It might sound bizarre, but I’ve been thinking about it throughout our drive here, and the more I think, the more likely it seems.” I pause and look at Ryan. “I think it’s all Priscilla.”

“What?”

“Remember what Bob said. That she uses people, orders them around and tells them what to do. That she may be doing so in the firm as well. What if he’s right? Could Priscilla be the one behind all of this?”

“But why would she do that? She’s already buying her way to partnership in the firm. What’s the need?” Ryan holds me by the shoulders. “Look, I understand she’s hurt you. And it’s okay for you to think that she’s the worst, but don’t cloud your judgement by this.”

I can’t help but roll my eyes. “Really?” I shrug off his arms. “It’s not my emotions. It’s true I hate her and I might get some sadistic pleasure if she goes down, but this is not about that. Bernard has been against her becoming VP and probably now against her partnership. He’s never liked her because she has earned nothing through her work. Her work is substandard at best. And he’s been quite vocal about it. So she wanted him out. Her one principal rival in the firm. No wonder she volunteered to lead the investigation against him. Because she’s behind it all.”

“Do you think that’s enough reason? And even if it is, how did she do it?”

“The same way Weber could’ve done it. If this is true, we have something specific to search for in her emails. I’m certain there’s something there.” Ryan is already opening his system. “Just check if she emailed James.”

Ryan gets to it immediately. One thing I still can’t understand is CashCross’ connection in all this. Is it possible that it’s not, just as Ryan said? The pinging of my phone brings me back. It’s a message from Mark.

It turns out, a few months ago, when CashCross went for debt funding, only the founders put the equity in and it wasn’t a sizeable amount. The debt amount in comparison is so high that it leaves my eyes wide open. That’s not the number Weber has. By far.

I open the CashCross presentation. An individual investor by the name of Richard King had invested in equity some months ago. The amount was almost 80% of the debt amount that CashCross had. Who was this Richard King? The presentation doesn't say much about him. Just his photo. He looks familiar, but I can’t place him. I comb the internet. No Richard King matches this photo. None of the high net-worth individuals, too.

“Finally!” says Ryan.

I almost jump up to him. At least one of us has some update.

“Look. I couldn’t find that email to James anywhere, but I found something else.” He shows me an auto-generated email for a one-time password in the trash folder. “This is an OTP for greybernard email id. This is proof that she has access to this email id.”

My eyes open wide. “I knew it! That means she was the one who sent that email.”

“Um. That email was sent from Bernard’s official id, so this is not absolute proof.”

“She must’ve done what we did. Got a virus in there. Or maybe she just emailed when she found Bernard’s system open somehow. I need to get into her system again. Maybe she’s behind the money transfer as well and that won’t show in these emails we’ve downloaded.”

“How? It’s the weekend. We need to be in the same local network for that.”

“Can you hack her?”

“I have friends who can, but at such short notice, it might be difficult. Plus, they’re ethical hackers. They probably won’t do illegal stuff.”

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