ESTHER

Chapter twenty two

"Sir?" I exclaimed as I opened the door, surprised to see my boss standing at my porch.

"What are you doing here?" 

"Can I please come in?" He said a small smile on his lips. Suddenly remembering my manners, I let him in.

"Esther, who is- oh, welcome." My uncle exclaimed, recognizing my boss. He faced the clock and looked back at Jack Rhodes.

"You came at a rather suspicious time. Is anything the matter?" He asked curiously. My boss faced me, then looked back at my uncle.

"I have so much I want to talk to Esther about. I apologize for coming so suddenly, I just couldn't wait- "

"Oh, please then take your time if it's important. I'll be in my room." My uncle gave me a pointed look, before heading to his room.

We heard the sound of a door shut before the atmosphere became awkward.

"Please, have a seat," I said, pointing at one of our leather couches in the living room. He sat down on it, and I took the one directly opposite him.

I didn't know how to start a conversation. That was the only time after I had gone to visit him in his house, that we were left alone together, with nothing relating to work between us. I fidgeted in my seat, and it must have been obvious to him because suddenly he inquired;

"How have you been?"

I looked up at him. This was also the first time he had genuinely asked after me. I didn't know what to say. Should I have asked him where he had been all day? Or why he wasn't doing anything to stop his uncle from his tyranny at work? Or the fact that I'm considering submitting my resignation? All these options were just swimming in my head and so I opted for the easiest.

"I have been fine." I let out, a genuine smile on my face. I might have been going through a tough time, but for the fact that he came over all the way just to see me, I was over it.

I was falling too deep.

"I have to apologize to you, Esther. I have been keeping some things from you again." He started. I didn't say anything, instead waited for him to explain himself.

"I have been going through serious issues, both at work and personally."

"Does this have anything to do with your uncle?" I asked.  He nodded in response, his face solemn.

"I just found out that my father is not so perfect as I had assumed him to be. He had made some pretty bad choices as CEO, and now those choices have come back to affect him...and me."

I scrunched up my brows, confused. "What do you mean?"

My boss took a deep, shaky breath as if preparing himself to expose a very huge secret that can be used to destroy him.

"My father falsified some company important documents. I recently just found out his reason why was because our company was in a dangerous place. And so to prevent it from crashing, he committed a crime. A lot of hard-working people lost their jobs that year, and nothing was done about it. But that wasn't even the worst." He sighed.

I waited for him to finish his story. I was itching to hug him, console him. He looked like he hadn't slept for days. Sadly, he had drawn a boundary and I have to respect it.

"He manipulated the stock market." My mouth fell open in shock. That was a huge crime, and one must spend a lot to achieve that.

"He said he did that all for the company, I just don't know where he was getting all those ideas from." Jack Rhodes dragged his hands across his hair, his frustration evident in expression. I couldn't even begin to phantom what he was going through.

"My uncle was there throughout the whole process. Now, he is using it to blackmail me. He never had the guts to when my father was still the CEO, why he suddenly has it, I have no idea." He took in a deep breath.

"He wants me to hand over my shares to the company." I gasped loudly. He chuckled, self-depreciatingly.

"You can imagine how that went."

I stood up, unable to sit anymore. I started to pace around my living room, my hands held akimbo, and my eyes scrunched deeply in thought.

"What happens now?"

"Well, I do not know." He said with a shrug.

"Have you told your father?"

"I have. It didn't go well with him. He had a stroke and I do not want him to go through that stress again."

I sat down, fatigued. I haven't rested since I came back from work, and now, I'm hearing this. There is just so much I could take.

"There has to be something we can do, I'm sure of it," I mumbled. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head.

"Have you tried doing a background check on him? See if he is doing anything secretly?"

"I'm currently doing that now, but there has been no progress."

"But what if, you change the target of your investigation?" I said, embracing the flow of inspiration I was having. Jack Rhodes raised his brows, clearly interested.

"What if, while you investigate Mr. Haman, you also carry out another investigation on the twins?" Jack Rhodes nodded his head, finally understanding where I was heading to.

"Getting the dirt on my uncle might be tough, but on the twins would have to be far easier!"

"Yes, exactly!" I replied, feeling hopeful.

"But, I have no idea where to start from. I know nothing about them." He said.

"I can share some of my ideas with you. And also, why don't I arrange a dinner date?"

"A dinner date?" He asked, curious.

"Yes," I replied, nodding my head. "It would allow us to search through their office. I believe that there must be something there we can use against them."

"Yes, yes. You are right." Jack Rhodes exclaimed as he nodded his head,  probably imagining the whole scenario. Suddenly he stood up and took hold of my hands.

"Thanks so much, Esther. I regret not coming to you with this earlier. You have proven to be a huge support and help to me. Thank you so much!" He said, then bent down to kiss my cheeks.

I drowned.