Empire of Deception (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter 40 part 1

 The sound of the ringing landline is loud enough to make my ears bleed. My heart jumps as my hand lazily reaches over to the nightstand, grabbing the device and putting it to my ear. "Hello?" I state groggily into the receiver. Blinking a few times to clear my foggy vision, the clock reads 5:01 AM. My head pounds from the drinks taken the night before, and the air around me smells of rain and mowed grass.

"Harry," my father growls at the other end. My brain wakes up at the sound of his voice and I sit up, fully alert. "Get your god damn ass out of bed and get to the office. Christopher is on his way."

As soon as the line goes dead I leap out of bed and do my best to wash the dirt off my elbows and throw on a clean suit. I am out the door before 5:15.

Christopher arrives only a few seconds before I do and I'm hurrying to match his fast paced stride. Purple shadows hang beneath his tired eyes and I can only imagine how bad his hangover is. I don't even remember leaving The Spicy Italian, and I doubt Christopher remembers either. "Can you tell me what is going on?" I ask, buttoning my cuff links and trying my best to control my crazy hair before seeing my father.

Bolton staff move out of the way as we cut through the lobby. Soon we are in the lift and I am hitting the button that leads to my father's floor.

"I am not sure," Christopher responds, his voice slightly husky. He clears his throat. "Victoria should be here soon, she said that Des called her."

"What about Alexander?"

"I don't know, she didn't say and I didn't dare ask. This either means it's not big enough for him to be here, or it's big enough that he needs to be somewhere else. Either way, something is wrong and we are going to have to fix it."

The bell dings, welcoming us to the top floor of Bolton Inc. Christopher lets me step out first and so I lead the way.

To my surprise, Des' door is open and he sits at his desk with a phone to his ear. Beckoning us in with a quick motion of his fingers, Christopher and I take a seat as we wait for him to finish the phone call.

"I don't have time for this, Stephen! Don't answer directly, say we are not speaking about it. We need to get ahold of things on our end before we start answering to the public... Yes, I understand it's urgent, but we need to figure out what exactly we are dealing with before we start to take care of the situation... Yes, Miss Clark is trying to locate who leaked the information and maybe work in another angle—Listen, I have to go. My son and Christopher Jarwin just arrived."

"Can you please tell me what is going on?" I finally ask. Des opens his mouth to answer but quickly shuts it upon arrival of lady Victoria who strolls in before dropping two copies of today's newspaper on our laps.

"Every year an estimation is calculated ahead of time, based on the smallest intervals of numbers associated with each CEO concerning yearly income. Those numbers is what goes out to the public. Last night, someone leaked tax information to the media, where our actual income was calculated and then compared to the average employee working in a corporate office," she shares, beckoning to the newspaper in my hands. Victoria grabs the copy from her brother before reading the headline and the following paragraph; "Empire of Deception. Data shows CEO's making 937% more than average employees in corporate London—It is common that the CEO's and board directors of London's biggest and most globally influential corporations make more than the average citizen. The extent and exactness of this difference was unknown until recent data collection shows that CEO's, such as Daniel Bonet of Bolton Inc. and Kerry Matsumi of Swann Corp, make 937% more than the average worker. Research shows that they don't work that much harder than everyone else, so why the massive difference? Should this be considered a crime?" Victoria stops as my father utters a profanity.