Page 24 of Billionaire Corruption

She stared at me.

“This is business, Grace. I haven’t done anything unusual or out of the ordinary.”

“But the statements show…”

I interrupted her. “We were audited every year and received sign offs from the accountants. Nobody pointed any fingers at us for years. The question is why this investigation was launched now?”

“No,” she said. “The question is why you are pretending that everything was above board when it clearly wasn’t?”

I didn’t expect that from her.

The waiter chose that moment to offer us dessert. It took us a while to notice him, our eyes were locked as Grace was trying to stare me down. I had more experience than her in this particular field, but she was not budging. I was impressed.

Finally, she looked away first and faced the waiter.

“Nothing for me, thanks.”

I shook my head.

“At this level of business, the accounting is complicated, that is why we appoint the professionals, to find the loopholes and the tax breaks. Last year was a tough one, there were some… issues…”

I paused.

I didn’t want to go into the problems we’d encountered in Amsterdam. It was an important acquisition for Ladden, a big supplier and it would have increased our assets in Europe especially. The retail giant we were looking to purchase had a footprint in every European country and this was exactly the kind of exposure we wanted. But then the Dutch accountants started asking questions, changing the terms of the deal.

The whole thing fell through, a massive blow for Ladden and for me personally. I found a way to fix it, to make it look all right on the books, but I knew if it came under scrutiny, it may not hold up.

“Being the CEO of Ladden has been the highlight of my career,” I said. “But it has been harder than I thought it would be. I found myself up against challenges…. I never thought I would. Responsible for people’s jobs, their livelihoods.”

I didn’t want to say anymore.

She touched my hand and smiled sweetly. “Let’s not talk about work anymore.”

We paid the bill and made our way downstairs.

As we got to the car, I heard someone call out, “Paul?”

I looked up and saw a friend of mine, Gill Sanders, with his girlfriend Irina. They had obviously been out, Gill’s face was flushed, and he seemed slightly drunk.

I introduced Grace to them.

“How’ve you been? Haven’t seen you in ages!” Gill said.

I wondered if he’d heard about what was going on at work, but then he said. “We should have another go on the squash court, I’ve gotten better.”

“Absolutely, give me a call,” I said.

Irina winked at me as they left, a gesture I thought about for a moment or two. It had been a while since I’d been out with the two of them, I wondered when the last time was they’d seen me with a woman. Did the wink mean she liked Grace or that she thought she was too young for me?

“They seem nice,” Grace said as we got into the car.

I explained that Gill and I had been at college together. He owned an interior decorating firm that Ladden used when we remodeled offices. Bumping into them had distracted me, though. I wondered how much they knew about Ladden’s current situation and my problems at work. What were my friends thinking and how long before everyone was talking about this?

I dropped Grace off at her home, waiting for her to make it safely inside before driving off.

Chapter 11

Grace

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