Page 65 of My Boss's Sons

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***Noah***

Isat at the island in our apartment and stared blankly at my laptop screen. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since I’d opened the email, but I was frozen. I couldn’t see the words anymore, but I could hear them in my head. They were playing on a loop.

The encrypted email was from Dad’s PI. The man provided pages of documents linking Sophia to The Volley, a company based right outside of Dallas. There were copies of emails between Sophia and a man named Peter Davis regarding the bullshit company and more information from the PI showing that Peter Davis was none other than Davis Bennett. Sophia’s ex-husband. They’d stolen millions from Anderson Inc.. There was also a witness statement from Tiffany about Sophia’s comings and goings from Dad’s office. The things she wrote about hearing…

“Eat, Noah.” Mom’s voice drew me out of my own personal hell. “I know that you’re upset but starving to death isn’t going to fix anything.”

I hit print on the document I’d compiled from the email and slammed my laptop shut. “It’s all right there.”

My blood was boiling and I couldn’t face Sophia to take it out on her yet so I went to the next best thing. My brothers. The two idiots who were still too blinded by her charm to see what was right in front of us. I grabbed the pages from the printer and found Ethan and Alex on the balcony. I could tell from the smell that they’d been partaking in a copious amount of liquor.

“Here it is, in black and white.” I slapped the pages to Alex’s chest. “She’s everything Dad said she is.”

Alex pushed my hand away. “Fuck off, Noah. I’m not doing this.”

“Fucking look at the papers!” I shouted in his face and brushed off Ethan’s grip on my shoulder, trying to pull me away. “Get the fuck off of me, Ethan. I need you both to look at this. She’s a fucking monster.”

Alex stood up and got in my face. He was a couple of inches taller than me but I had rage on my side. He shoved me and jabbed his finger into my chest. “You don’t know anything about monsters, Daddy’s boy.”

“Stop it! Stop this right now!” Mom’s voice rose above ours. “Get inside right now before you push each other over the balcony.”

Alex brushed past me to go in and I was on his heels. I needed him to accept what Dad told us. “Don’t be a coward, Alex. Look at the papers.”

He spun on me and shoved me again. “I know her! She’s not what he’s saying!”

“The company is owned by her ex-husband.” I clenched my jaw so hard it felt like it would break. “The one she swore to usshe’d never touch. She’s head of research, Alex. How did her ex-husband’s company get past her?”

He swallowed. “What?”

A wave of emotion hit me and I had to clear my throat to make my voice work again. “I don’t want to believe it, either, Alex. I- I cared about her, too. You think I want this to be real? I feel like someone stabbed me in the chest, Alex. I’m fucking miserable, but I’m not a fucking fool. The evidence is all right here. She played us. She played Dad. I won’t let her do it anymore.”

Ethan took the papers and after a few minutes of heavy silence, he swore and shoved the papers back at me. He walked back towards the balcony with his hand over his mouth. I could almost feel the pain radiating off him and it just made me angrier.

“We have to be a united front. There’s no other way.” I gripped Alex’s shoulder tight. “We’re family and someone tried to hurt us, Alex. We can’t ignore it.”

Alex clutched the papers in his fist and shrugged my hand off. “I’m not agreeing to anything. I’ll look at them. That’s all I’m saying.”

I watched him walk off towards his room and went back to the island. I sat down and held my head in my hands. I was the oldest, even if it was only by a couple of minutes. I was the son who’d been groomed to take over the business one day. It was my responsibility to take care of my family and I’d let a snake into the hen house. I couldn’t let Sophia get away with hurting us.

“You can take some time to grieve, Noah.” Mom rested her cheek on my shoulder and sighed. “She hurt you. I know you and I know you want to fix everything, but you need to let it hurt.”

“Are you?” I turned my head to look at her. “Are you letting it hurt? Dad cheated on you, Mom.”

She moved away, busying herself on the other side of the island with fixing a cup of coffee. “It’s different for me, Noah.”

“How? How is it different?”

“I’ve been married to your father for a very long time, honey. We’ve been together through a lot that you boys don’t know about and I’ve always stuck it out with him. I’m crushed that he would do this to me. I’m angry that he put our family at risk. But I have to believe that your father has a good heart at the end of the day and that’s the foundation I always come back to.”

The sliver of doubt that didn’t want to believe Sophia would hurt us was loud in that moment. What if his heart wasn’t as good as she thought?

“Noah, honey, I liked her, too. I only met her for a few minutes and most of them she spent running away from me, but I liked her. Now I know why she was so eager to get away… I’m normally a good judge of character but it seems like Sophia Bennett is better at this game than the rest of us.” Mom sighed. “I’m just sorry that you boys got hurt in this mess. None of you deserve this.”

“We’ll be fine.” I hardened my heart and sat up taller. “No one’s destroyed us yet and no one will. We’ll fix this. It’ll all be over Monday morning.”

Ethan sat down heavily beside me. “Fine. I’ll be there.”

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