Page 14 of Rebel

Harvey’s grin was genuine and filled with relief. “Glad to have you have back, ladybug.”

I cranked my head around to see her blushing. “I’m not a little girl anymore, Harvey.”

“Yeah, I know. But you’ll always be our ladybug. Who do you want me to send in on my way out?”

She took a deep breath before responding, “Best send in Mark. I’m sure he’s harassing the hell out of my parents.”

“Your old man ain’t in any condition to deal with his dumbass right now, ladybug.”

“I know. Thanks for letting us know things were going sideways here, Harvey. We really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. I look forward to things getting back to normal.”

With that he walked out and the next thing I knew, Mark was stalking in. “Did something happen to your parents? I can’t get either of them on the phone.”

Suddenly, Lacey was all business. “Have a seat Mark and I’ll tell you everything.”

He looked like he wasn’t going to comply and then thought better of it. Once he was seated, Lacey let him have it.

“My parents rely upon the revenue from their business to pay their living expenses and for my dad’s medical treatment.”

“I know business has been bad lately, but things will pick up,” Mark interjected in a confident tone. “They always do.”

Lacey shot back, “I don’t see how that would be possible with the amount of money you’ve been skimming from the business the last several months.”

Mark opened his mouth to deny it, but Lacey held up her hand. “Let me finish. I came back to Griffinsford on Friday evening and spent the better part of the weekend in the office. Livingstone Electrical, the business my father spent his entire life building up from nothing, is a few days away from having the power turned off and we owe both of the local building supply stores more than fifty thousand dollars each.”

“Like I said, times have been tough.”

“I want you to know that my parents have given me legal power of attorney over the business. I’m taking over the office and terminating your employment as of now.”

“You can’t do that, Lacey. Your father gave this business to me.”

“Do you have paperwork to back up that claim because I can’t see my dad giving away his business to a non-family member. That was never the plan.”

“You know your father didn’t put shit like that in writing. He conducted business his whole life with gentlemen’s agreements and handshakes.”

“And look where that got him, Mark. He trusted you and you stole from the business and ran it into the ground. It only took you a matter of months to tear down everything he worked his whole life to build.”

“Look, this is ridiculous. I’m gonna talk to your old man.”

“No. You’re not. My father is very ill. He’s not competent to give you permission to remain in your position. If you start harassing him, so help me God, I’ll hit you with a cease and desist so fast it will make your head spin. Stress makes him sicker and neither my mother nor I will tolerate you trying to manipulate him when he’s doing good to remember his own family’s faces.”

“Lacey, you’ve got this situation all wrong. I’m sure he didn’t agree to put you in charge of his whole business. I mean, sure he could have made you the office manager, but he didn’t mean for you to replace me as the general manager of the actual business.”

“What part of ‘I caught you stealing from the business’ don’t you understand?”

His expression turned stubborn. “I don’t know what you think you found, missy but it sure as hell wasn’t me stealing andI won’t have you smearing my good name by saying shit like that about me.”

“I won’t have to. I’m hiring an independent auditor to come and review our books. If they find evidence that you were cooking the books the way I think you were, I’m going to the police, and I’ll also initiate a civil suit to force you to pay restitution. That money you stole is needed for my father’s care.”

Mark frowned. “Your old man owned a virtual gold mine for thirty years. Regardless of what hard-luck story they’re telling you, your parents are loaded. If a few bucks got misappropriated on my watch—and I’m not saying it did—it’s nothing compared to the money they’ve got in different banks.”

Lacey slid a piece of paper across the desk. “I’ve written you a letter of termination. You don’t have to sign it if you don’t want to. I have an eyewitness who can prove that I gave it to you.”

“You can’t do this, Lacey. You’re just a kid. I’ve been working at this company for over a decade, waiting for my chance to be in charge.”

“I can and I am. You’ve left me no choice, Mark. If it weren’t for your gross mismanagement, I wouldn’t have become involved at all. All you had to do was run the business like my father trusted you to do and everything would have been golden. My mother and I aren’t going to let you destroy our family business.”

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