Page 30 of Bitter Confessions

Jasmine flipped through police reports documenting 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 bankrupt man.

Jasmine stared at the last email between what had once been 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. 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. Half a dozen reporters tracked down Anil, who confirmed the reason he signed over his shares in the now billion-dollar company was to pay the ransom for his daughter.

Reporters 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 and several incidents with rival companies that went under. It was incriminating but circumstantial... aside from the fact 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.

Jasmine 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 had used thugs to kidnap a three-year-old to force his business partner to sell his shares in their company. It sounded insane, but... if it weren’t true, why had he gone to such efforts to keep these articles from being published? The handsome bribe the reporters had accepted was 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 with money (as Roth suspected), they could cash in on one hell of a lucrative favor in the future. Jasmine’s fingernails rapped on the table. She knew Rami worked in tech, but she had no clue what he actually did or how he’d made his fortune. Now that she was informed, her mind was bursting with questions. Most of this happened long before he ever met Ariana. Had Rami changed once he had children of his own?

She smoothed her hands over her pocket for her phone before remembering she’d 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 had made his former business partner’s life hell to gain full control of the company. It was unlikely Rami would confide in his wife about something he’d gone to such great lengths to conceal. But if there was the smallest chance Kye and Bailey were at risk, shouldn’t Ariana be informed? Ariana and Rami had a more amicable marriage than Colette and Lyle, but it had still been arranged by her father. Had Maximus dismissed the rumors since the claims were unproven? Jasmine checked the dates on the news articles. Most of the reports had cropped up during Rami’s meteoric rise, but two of them had been made within the past year.

Roth’s succinct rundown last night 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. “Disillusioned” didn’t begin to describe how she felt. Was there no one in her family she could trust? She looked down at the stack of papers and had the insane urge to burn the evidence, as if that would make this all go away.

How the hell had Roth managed to get his hands on private emails and unpublished articles Rami had gone to great lengths to destroy? Rami was in tech—surely, he could delete what he didn’t want anyone to find. Which proved whoever Roth had employed was able to override what should have been impenetrable software.

She eyed the last folder, which detailed Colette Delphine Hennessy-Caruso’s secrets. She was already acquainted with Colette’s sins, so this shouldn’t be too painful. Her mental bandwidth was almost maxed out, but this might be her only opportunity to get specifics on the deterioration of the company so… 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 had he acquired reports detailing every business decision Colette had made as CEO since their dad handed her the reins? She muttered under breath as she propped her cheek on her fist and dove in.

Jasmine recognized eighty-five percent of the names and companies Colette had done business with, but 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, fetching a notepad off the bookshelf and jotting down some figures, dates, and companies, and froze.

What the hell had Colette been thinking?

She had blindly defended her sister and given her the benefit of the doubt, assuming 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 a high-risk contract? Sure, if everything had gone in their favor, they would have made a windfall, but they’d nearly lost everything instead. Clearly, Colette had been driven by something other than common sense, statistics, and good counsel. What was she trying to prove?

There was no way their 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 lost faith in Colette, and that was why he excluded her from his final trust?

Jasmine had idolized her sisters and seen them as infallible, lethal bombshells who were able to hold their own against hard-nosed tycoons, but now... Now, she could see them for what they really were: human, flawed, prone to mistakes, and all too often, they let their emotions get the better of them.

She sifted through photographs of her sisters at luncheons, Hennessy headquarters, running errands, even attending 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.

CHAPTER 8

Jasmine sensed his presence a second before his hand slipped beneath the fall of her hair and clamped her nape.

“Is the evidence sufficient?” he asked.

If he provided any more evidence, a jury wouldn’t need to deliberate. She wasn’t surprised he’d returned once she’d finished. Based on his surveillance of her family, bugging her phone, and the cameras in his New York penthouse, she knew the great room was probably rigged as well. He’d excused himself to give her time to look through the files and come to her own conclusions before returning to hear the verdict.

It was tempting to believe Roth had doctored the evidence and her family hadn’t made such terrible choices, but his investigation was too thorough and meticulous to disregard. Also, there were details and contacts she could personally verify, which led her to believe the other data was certified and true.

“With this level of surveillance, they could charge you with stalking,” she said, her gaze on the view instead of the man pressed against her side.

“I’d be happy to show the court why I felt the need to look into their whereabouts.” He stroked the side of her neck with his thumb. “What are you going to do with what you’ve learned?”

“I have to talk to Ariana.”

“About?”

She looked up, realizing he hadn’t granted her permission to discuss what she’d learned with anyone. “I can’t let her addiction continue. She’s endangering herself, her family, and the company.”

When Roth nodded, she relaxed.

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