Zach knocks on the door, and as I take a look at him I hope that we don't look too intimidating in our professional business wear.
He takes my hand in his and I take a deep breath. Ana Marie really is my last hope.
I let go of Zach's hand as the doorknob turns.
I don't remember much of Ana Marie, since she was an accountant and I didn't necessarily make friends with the accountants as a child. Then she quite when Zach became CEO, and I didn't see her again.
She's a tall woman, with slight wrinkles around her eyes. Her hair is a deep blonde, and her blue eyes bright. She greets us with a smile that soon fades as she remembers us.
"Emma, Zachary?" She says in astonishment and clings to the door.
"Why does everybody remember my full name but not yours." He complains to me. I shrug and turn back to Ana, smiling now.
"Yes, we actually have a few questions." I say carefully. A moment passes, then she tries to shove the door in our faces.
"Wait! It's not- wait, Ms. Marie it's ok! Please help us!" I yelp, keeping the door open with my hands. The struggling stops and she mutters "Fine, come in."
It's not the most inviting way, but we have no choice. Zach and I exchange a skeptical look before I walk in First.
We sit at the table in front of Ana Marie.
"Im sorry memories just kept flooding back." She says apologetically. I frown.
"Memories?" She purses her lips and nods. She doesn't look like she's going to share what memories she's talking about, so I move on.
"There's 1.5 million dollars missing from the technology department-"
"And you don't think I stole it!" She cackles
"No, but we think you may know of some information." Zach adds. She stops laughing.
"You were the accountant that oversaw all finances for the Tech department and signed these expense reports." I pull out the documents and push them towards her tentatively. She looks them over and something clicks inside of her. She looks grim, on the verge of crying even.
"Is this what he was up to?" She looks at us with watery eyes.
"Who?" I say, leaning towards her more.
"Will Collins."
I sink back into my seat. I don't move, I struggle to breathe. Could it be that he is responsible for this?
"Emma." Zach puts a hand on my shoulder but I keep looking at Ana Marie, who is now looking at her hands.
"What do you mean?" I say, letting go of my shock. What's done is done, and he was acting a bit weird. I trusted him, my family trusted him, and if he was doing bad things, I have to know once and for all.
"I knew these expense reports were off. I knew that I couldn't approve of them but I did anyways."
"Why?" She got up and put some water to boil, leaving me hanging. I sensed she was withholding information, probably for her safety. There must be things going on greater than me or Zach or even Ana Marie.
"Why?" I repeated as she approached the table again.
"Will Collins and I were in a relationship." What. "Well, it was more like an affair since he was married still, but—" she stops and sighs before continuing, "he was taking money out and I did catch those extra expenses. He assured me it was fine, he's the CFO after all, but I knew something wasn't right. It kept happening month after month but he threatened to fire me if I told. He said he would make sure I got fired if I even said one word about the extra expenses. You have to understand, I could not lose my job-"
YOU ARE READING
The Struggles of Growing Up-Completed
Romansa*Second book to the Struggles Series. Please read The Struggles of Being a Teenage Wife first* Emma Rembrandt has been through a lot in her past teen years. She didn't know that the death of her father, and years later his best friend's death, wou...
