Chapter 3

Claire’s POV

Our company had been losing money, and it was a big problem because if we couldn’t solve this, we might file for bankruptcy, which wasn’t good for the family. Caleb had been trying to fix and see what had happened or what the problem was in the finances. He’d been working so hard to find a solution. We were losing money—billions of money, to be exact.

These past few weeks, I have been monitoring the marketing team to see if it was doing well, and so far, we have been earning money from the advertisements we have been doing. That’s why we didn’t know what the real problem was.

My family, who was running this company, had been so stressed lately because of this, which was why Dad called a meeting for all the stockholders to talk about it. I wasn’t in the meeting, so I didn’t know what they had discussed.

I was in my office, doing some daily work, when Caleb opened the door to my office. I could see he was very angry. Why can’t my brother relax for a bit? He is always like this.

“What happened to you again?” I asked him.

“Do you know where Cole is or where his mother is?” he asked me.

“No. We haven’t talked today yet. What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I hired someone to check on Cole,” he said and looked into my eyes.

“What did you find out?”

“He has been transferring a huge amount of money from his bank account to an unknown account. The question is, where did he get this money? I swear, Claire, if I find out he’s behind this money loss in the company, I don’t know what I’ll do to him,” he said angrily.

“Are you sure? Do you think it could be him?” I asked.

“Like mother, like son. No matter how gentle he looks, remember, the devil was once an angel, Claire,” he reminded me.

I was still shocked. Could Cole really do that? Could he betray the family? Dad? Especially me? Caleb told me not to mention this to anyone yet because it wasn’t confirmed. I appreciated him telling me about this, but at some point, I didn’t want to believe his accusations against Cole. Based on the way I knew him, he was unlikely to do such a thing. But where did his huge amount of money come from, aside from the company?

I decided to call him—not to confront him, just to ask how he was doing. In just three rings, he picked up the phone.

“Hi, Cole! Where are you? Can we grab some dinner later?” I asked him enthusiastically.

“Yeah, sure. Did you miss me, little sister?” he chuckled.

“Of course! So, let’s meet at the usual place?” I asked him, and he agreed.

I couldn’t wait for my day to be over and to meet Cole. I wanted to talk to him and ask about the company from his perspective. Caleb and Cole had been more involved in the business than I was. They spent more time at the office, unlike me, who kept chilling with friends from time to time. But I still did my job, of course. I had responsibilities, too.

When it was time for dinner, I hurriedly drove to the place where Cole and I were meeting. As I saw him, I smiled widely to greet him.

“You are okay now?” he asked.

“Yeah. Feeling better,” I said.

“I’m sorry about Mom. So sorry if she upset the whole family,” he said genuinely, and I told him not to worry about it anymore as long as she didn’t show up like that again.

“Have you heard about the company? There’s a huge problem,” I asked him. I really didn’t want to doubt Cole’s honesty and loyalty to me, but I needed to do my own investigation because my whole family was at risk if the company filed for bankruptcy. It wasn’t only us who would be affected but also our hundreds of employees.

“I heard about it. I’m trying to figure out how we lost the money. I am doing my best, too. I hope everything will turn out okay soon,” he said sadly.

“I hope so. Anyway, what have you been doing lately? Are you still into golf?” I asked him.

“I have something to tell you, Claire,” he smiled at me. “I’ve been busy with something these past few months. I haven’t told anyone, not even Mom, about this—only you,” he said, sparking my curiosity.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I’ve been venturing into real estate lately. I buy and sell houses in the biggest subdivision in the country. It’s just a side hustle, and I’m enjoying every transaction I’ve made,” he smiled proudly.

So that meant the huge amounts of money in his bank transactions were from his real estate business. Gosh, Caleb might have lost his mind accusing Cole of something so big. I knew Cole wasn’t capable of doing such a thing. I was able to breathe freely when he mentioned that.

We talked more about his business. He even showed me the houses he had sold to prove their legitimacy. I was happy meeting with Cole tonight. At least I wouldn’t overthink whether he’d betrayed our family or not. But there was still a question—why were we losing money? Who was behind this?

I couldn’t stop myself from calling Caleb once I got home, but he wouldn’t answer. He needed to know what I’d learned about Cole. It wasn’t nice to accuse our own sibling, right?

The night was still young when I got home, and I realized I needed to have some fun to shake off the sleepiness I felt. I called Arlo to meet him at our usual bar. I needed to dance and drink these problems away. Even just for tonight, I wanted to forget. And knowing Arlo, he wouldn’t say no to me. He was the best of all my friends.