Page 100 of Exposed

I always believed in Titan Securities. Kevin seemed like a genuine, nice guy. Ian reeks of malice.

“You don’t make it in this business by being soft, and Kevin never understood that.”

Mr. Crane walks back in and pulls his suit jacket together.

“We’re done here, Father.” Ian gives me a pointed look as he stands, then focuses on Mr. Crane. “Ms. Lockwood won’t be accepting our proposal.”

“What a shame,” Mr. Crane replies. “We won’t waste any more of your time.”

“Not unless we see you in court,” Matt counters. “You brought fraudulent charges against my wife without even checking your internal records. You should’ve investigated before you charged her. We’ll definitely be seeing you again, when we sue this company for defamation and framing an innocent employee.”

With that, Matt stands and waits for me to do the same. Filing suit against them never occurred to me, but it’s valid.

Ian’s face pales before it’s replaced with barely contained rage.

“You’ll never win, Lockwood, and you’ll regret going after us,” Ian seethes.

Matt gives them the peace sign, then ushers me out the door and to the elevator.

“I did an audio recording with my phone under the table while we were with them,” Matt whispers with a grin. “There’s got to be more shady crap happening with this company than we know about. Sounds like Kevin is innocent.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

We need to find a super qualified lawyer to represent us. One that fights for the little guy and goes after corporations.

I’m not free after all. Ian, and likely his father, are responsible for framing me. Kevin is innocent and beingheld without bail. I have no idea how to get us out of this train wreck.

When we get off the elevator, Matt’s phone rings.

“Hey, Dad. What’s up?” Matt answers, then he stutters. “What? Dad, are you sure?”

He looks at me with wide eyes. “My mom’s been abducted.”

My hand flies to cover my mouth. Yesterday morning, she dropped us off at the Miami airport to fly here. She brought snacks for the plane and comforted us while we cried about having to share custody of Simon.

I can’t help but wonder if this has something to do with Ian. If so, it’s my fault, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure we find Madilyn.

42

MIAMI, WE HAVE A PROBLEM

MATT

I’m stunned as we walk out of the Manhattan skyscraper.

The Miami Police Department is scouring the city for my mom. They’re checking traffic and store cams. The last my dad heard from her, she was on her way home from running errands.

The police pinged her phone and found it abandoned outside a grocery store. With zero fingerprints on it, it’s a dead end.

“Do you think Ian has something to do with this?” Jasmine asks.

“Possibly. He was sneaky as hell. If I storm back in there, he’ll have me arrested.”

That would not help in finding my mom, and she’s mypriority. We need proof to take down Ian, but we don’t have that yet.

“We need to see if we can change to an earlier flight back home.” I hail a cab back to the hotel to get our luggage. Checking my phone in the car, I find an earlier flight with availability left and book it.

Once we touchdown in Miami, my dad picks us up with Shani in the backseat. My parents took care of her while we were away. Shani licks my face the moment I get in the car.

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