Empire of Deception (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter 34

My office is quiet. The only sound I am able to hear is the sound of my breathing and the rustle of paper as I sift through the never-ending stack of paperwork I am trying to catch up on. I've only been gone the weekend yet a million things have happened and been passed without my approval. Bastards. They wait for moments like these because if I am not at work for a reason that isn't "legitimate", they don't need my okay to move along projects or take amounts of our funding.

There is a soft knock at the door, drawing my attention away from the paperwork in front of me. Oh thank God. April peeks her head around the corner as she slowly opens my door, giving me her warm smile. "Sorry to bother you, Mr. Styles, but Miss Soderstrom is here.

"Thank you, Miss Maurice. Did you have the rest of my messages for me?"

"Yes sir, I'll drop them by as soon as I can," she responds before opening the door a little wider and letting in Mia.

She wears a pantsuit tailored perfectly for her petite frame, her brown hair tied up in a bun.

Mia closes the door as she steps inside, her usual happy face solemn.

"Here," she says, dropping a folder onto my desk as well as a flash drive. The prototype for the beta is on the drive, and passwords and usernames that you need to get into the web version of the beta is in the file. Mads managed to photocopy everything she could find.

"Thanks for getting these," I say, taking both items and putting them into my briefcase.

"Mads wasn't happy, you know. She did it anyway, but she wasn't happy."

"I know. She was hesitant on the phone. She said it wasn't right."

"Harry are you going to tell me what is going on? With everything? With Madison, with Bolton, with Swann? If I knew more, I could help you. It doesn't do you any good to keep me in the dark about all of this."

"I don't think you want to know... I have a feeling something really bad is going on and I don't want you around when it turns out it's true," I confess, gritting my teeth together.

"Harry, come on," she urges. "You can't keep everything to yourself. It's killing you."

I lean my head against the back of my chair, letting my eyes flutter closed as I concentrate on my breathing.

"Mia, I'm so scared," I whisper. "Bolton can't have a drug scandal, it'll destroy us."

"Drug scandal? Is that was is going on?"

"I don't know where Swann is getting it from but I know they are somehow distributing it because of the certain baggies they use. But it's so much more than that, Mia... I can feel it. There are too many people involved and too many variables and too many empty profiles, and too many people being kept on the down low. And worst of all, I'm out of the loop and I don't even know what that means."

"Your loyalty is being questioned," Mia says, thinking out loud as she sits down in one of the two chairs in front of me. "Alexander Jarwin doesn't trust you, especially since you took the blame for Zayn when you could have easily pinned Niall's death on him. Or me. But why?" she wonders, sinking back as she tries to put pieces together. "He needs you for something, Harry. That has to be it. But he's unsure of your motives or your loyalty, but I feel as if he is testing you. What does he have you do, normally?"

"I still look over financial affairs for the Project... But he also has me checking the Underground and he usually has me with one of his children."

"To keep you in check..." she mumbles.

"If this blows up in our face, Bolton will crumble. We're big but we aren't Alexander Jarwin nor Malik Enterprises. We wouldn't be able to come back from something like this, especially because we have so many environmentalists and naturalists who support us and give us good press. We thrive on the idea that Bolton Inc. is the original 'mom n pop' corporation of England. We are one of the people and that is one reason why we stay rather small but this... And it's my fault. If I hadn't been such a bad judge of character, the shit with Niall never would have happened, I never would have gotten arrested, and Des never would have had to make a deal with a Jarwin. Bolton supports so many families. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people would be out of a job, all because of me. I can't let this get out. I have to make sure that everything stays in between these walls. Not just for me but for every single person who works here and who feeds their families using the money that I am in charge of."