Grumpy Boss

She finished the letter and watched me carefully. I couldn’t read her expression, but it was guarded, and uncertain. I couldn’t blame her: it was one hell of a confession.

“What happened between you two?” she asked, shaking the paper slightly. “What could’ve drove him to this?”

“We had a falling out,” I said, “over money, of course. It’s always over money. He thought that because his code was integral to what we’d build, that he deserved a large split, and I disagreed. Eventually, lawyers got involved, and Desmond got a settlement and went slinking away back to private life. Incidentally, that’s how I met Jack.”

“It was an ugly thing,” Jack said. “By the time I got involved, they hated each other.”

I could still see the sneer on Desmond’s face that last time we sat across from each other in a board room. He hated me by then, thought I was a total fraud and a cheat.

The truth was, I paid him more than he was worth. He’d contributed important parts of the infrastructure, and I didn’t deny that—but he hadn’t built it alone, and without me, the company never would have existed at all. I courted investors and wrote a large chunk of the code. I ran the day to day and created our strategy from thin air, and helped to define an industry that now dominates the globe. Desmond was important, but not that important.

He despised me, and I felt the same way. How’s it feel, knowing everything you have was built on my back? he’d asked, and that always stuck with me.

He truly thought he was a martyr.

Millie handed me back the paper. “I take it you two aren’t in a better place now.”

“Clearly not,” I said, and glanced at Jack. “Although I thought our rivalry was over.”

“He’s spreading rumors about you,” Millie said. “He admits it, right here in that letter. He says you don’t deserve this SPAC, and he’s going to do everything he can to stop it. Doesn’t sound like the rivalry is over.”

I folded the letter and put it back in the envelope.

I almost felt bad for Desmond. It’d been so long, and he still carried the grudge like a weight on his back. The letter was unhinged, and I couldn’t imagine the kind of man that wrote it. It must have been hard for him, seeing me succeed over the years, while he toiled away in his minor financial firm, making lazy, uninspired trades, doing well enough for himself, but never thriving, never growing beyond his own mediocrity.

That was something he never understood: without me, he was just another guy.

Meanwhile, I’ve grown, started other companies, invested wisely, made a name for myself. I could only imagine the resentment festering.

“At least now we have a way out of this mess,” I said, hitting the envelope down onto my desk.

“Should I forget about making contact with Giana?” Jack asked, sounding hopeful.

“No,” I said. “I want to show her this, and her husband. Get in touch.”

He grunted and shook his head. I could tell he thought this was a terrible idea, but I didn’t care what he wanted. So far, his ideas hadn’t gotten us out of this mess, and now it was time for something drastic.

Millie was that next step.

“Whatever you think,” Jack said, and turned away. I watched him go, wishing he’d trust me more—but almost happy that he didn’t. It was better if he pushed back against my ideas. That way, I could better sense which worked, and which didn’t.

Millie leaned up against my desk and crossed her arms. I was tempted to reach out and run my fingers down her back, or pulled her long, thick hair. Instead, I swiveled away, and looked out the window.

“Sabotage by a former business partner,” she said softly. “And he admits it in a letter. I mean, you could go to the police with this, can’t you?”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “Or to the courts. But he knows I wouldn’t.”

“And why not?”

“Because even though he tried to fuck me once, I’m still loyal,” I said, watching the clouds drift past. “We were friends once, and I’m not the kind of man to forget about that, just like I won’t forget what he’s done here.”

She didn’t say anything, and walked back to the table. I glanced in her direction, and she watched me, a contemplative look on her face, before she shook her head and went back to skimming financial documents.

She probably thought I was crazy, but let her. Desmond wasn’t a bad man. Misguided, angry, and jealous, but not evil.

I’ll destroy him, but I’ll do it my way.

7

Millie

We landed in Memphis the next morning and drove a rented Lexus out into the suburbs. The houses all looked the same: large white columns, stone or brick front, quiet cars parked on black top driveways. Rees didn’t speak much on the trip and I didn’t push him—I could tell that letter weighed on him, even though I didn’t totally understand what it all meant.