Chapter
Fourteen
Noah had been working long hours for the past two days, but he had made good progress. Although the progress he’d made led him to have more questions than answers. As he pulled up into Mia’s driveway, he went over in his head how best to present his findings to her.
He’d had previous experience in corporate espionage cases on a smaller scale, and in his opinion, they were some of the most challenging work—but also the most exciting. The stakes were exponentially increased when you were talking about a tech company’s secrets. Those secrets could make the difference between record profits and going under.
Noah walked up to Mia’s door and rang the bell. A few moments later, she opened the door, wearing a casual pink sweater and jeans. He’d texted her that he was going to swing by because he didn’t think he should drop in unannounced a second time.
“Come on in.” She gave him a warm smile that made his stomach clench. A simple smile from this woman was making him feel like a goofy teenager.
He followed her into the living room and took a seat on the couch beside her. He made sure not to get too close. There was no point in that.
“So you’ve got something for me?” She was in business mode. Somewhere he needed to get ASAP.
“Yeah. Not the answers you’re looking for yet, but some stuff I want to go through.”
“I’m listening.”
He launched into what he had found so far. “You can rest easy on one thing. Lew and Owen are clean as whistles. I didn’t even find a lot of the junk I normally do when I go snooping through people’s computers. They are professional and on the up-and-up. No sign of any activities or contacts with the competition. Nothing that set off even a small red flag.”
“And you’re sure?”
Noah nodded. “I specialize in finding things people don’t want to be found. As far as the two of them go, they’re in the clear. I can say that with confidence.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What about the other members of the executive team?”
This wouldn’t be so clear-cut. “That’s where it gets trickier. Because Ed and Howard’s data was corrupted, I don’t have confidence at this point that either of them are clean. I found a lot more deleted files on their servers, and that fact raises my antenna a bit. I’m not saying that either of them are dirty, but that it’s too soon to make any final decision. As far as I’m concerned, you cannot rule them out and need to actively consider the possibility that either one of them could be your mole.”
“What’s your timeline like?”
“I can’t give you a hard date except to say that I’m pulling long hours and hope to get you answers soon. I don’t have to tell you that being right is more important than being quick. I wouldn’t tell either of those guys what’s going on right now. Keep the circle tight. That’s the best chance of success here.”
“So what are our next steps?” Mia asked.
“For now, I’m hoping that as you continue to look at the documents, you might be able to connect the dots on your side while I’m doing my part of the work.” Noah looked into Mia’s discerning gaze and wondered what was going on in her head. “You look concerned.”
“Shouldn’t I be concerned? We’re talking about some pretty big stuff here. And Bonnie will explode when she finds out what happened to our document data.”
“Do you have to tell her about that?” He wasn’t sure how that worked from the legal perspective.
Mia nodded. “Unfortunately. The longer I wait, the worse it is for us. At least if I disclose it now, there will be a colorable argument that I just recently found out, did my investigation, and am now disclosing.”
“What about Harper?”
“I was hoping to keep him out of it, but we’re at the point where I probably can’t. I don’t think Chase got around to telling Harper about the data. JJ thought Chase was going to, but there’s no guarantee he did, and I’m certain Harper would’ve told me if he knew. That’s not something you leave out when you assign a case to someone.”
“Why didn’t you go to Harper immediately?”
“I didn’t want him to think I can’t handle things. I needed to make sure I fully understood the landscape so I can explain to him how I’m handling it. Obviously, if he has different ideas, I’ll be open to them. But if he did know about it, I’m concerned why he didn’t tell me when we had our first meeting about me taking over the case.”
“Maybe he was trying to protect you, or he was trying to give you time to settle in and some plausible deniability.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t work that way. The judge will still hold the firm accountable if he knew. He probably won’t hold us accountable if only Chase knew, but if Harper knew, the judge is not going to be very happy.”
“Sounds like you need to talk to Harper ASAP. You have enough information now to make an informed decision and have a good discussion with him.”
“Yeah, I’m planning to do that tomorrow. I wanted to hear what your survey had to say first. It seems from your initial research that we have at least two client contacts who are clean, and I can tell Harper that as well. He’ll have concerns about the firm’s liability and potential exposure. I know that sounds bad, but we always have to worry about how these cases will impact the firm’s reputation. These are very unique circumstances. And very trying ones.”
Noah looked at Mia and felt the pain she was going through. Not only was she dealing with the loss of her friend, but also now the questionable antics of her own client. “You’re not alone.”
“I appreciate all your help, I really do. Between you, Sophie, and realizing that God is actually willing to be there for me, it’s helped a lot.”
“He is there. And always will be.” Noah believed that with all of his heart.
She paused for a moment. “Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Mia hesitated for a second before continuing. “How can you be so sure? You have a level of certainty that I don’t know if I’ll ever get to.”
He decided to share with her how he had gotten to this place. “My life experience has made me certain. My journey is not like yours, because we come from different places and circumstances, and that’s completely okay. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. We’re not all the same.”
“You’ve always believed?” Mia asked.
“Well, I was raised as a preacher’s kid.” But that was only the beginning of the story.
She smiled. “I can’t even begin to fathom that. I was raised the opposite of that. Meaning no sense of religion or faith or anything. It would be a stretch to say that my mom taught me basic principles of morality. She struggled to make it through each day, so that type of thing wasn’t a priority. It was more like survival. I’m sure your life was very different from that.”
It was, but he wanted to share the fuller picture with her. “Faith was instilled in me from day one, but I had to find my own path as an adult. And that path had many twists and turns and valleys. Really dark valleys that I don’t ever want to go back to again. But even in those valleys, God was with me, even if I didn’t believe it every day at the time.”
“Did you go through something traumatic?”
“It was traumatic for me. I found out that my girlfriend was cheating on me.” He put his head down. He dreaded talking about this, but he felt that maybe if he did, it would show Mia something that he couldn’t otherwise show. “It wasn’t just the fact that she cheated on me. It was who she cheated on me with.”
“Someone you knew?”
“Landon.”
Mia sucked in a breath. “Are you serious?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Noah took a deep breath himself, trying to settle his nerves. “Landon went through a really dark time when he returned from his final army deployment. I’ve gotten past it, but it took a long time. It hurt so badly because it was the woman I loved and my best friend. But that part of my life made me wonder why God had left me high and dry like that. I was always trying to do the right thing in life, Mia. I was trying to live life the best way I knew how. Trying to follow God. And I thought to myself, this is what I get? The harsh betrayal of my best friend and my girlfriend? A woman I had hoped to marry. It really shook me to the core. It made me question my beliefs. Question whether God really loved me. Even to the point of asking if He really existed.”
She placed her hand on his. “Seriously? You really had those doubts?”
Oh yeah, he had. “Yes. I had never had those thoughts before, because it had been so ingrained in me that there was a God and that He was there for me. That trial in my life made me reexamine things, and I even went through a time when I didn’t talk to God that much. Which for me was a departure from what I had been like the rest of my life.”
“Based on things you’ve said to me, you obviously aren’t that way now, so what changed?”
He looked down into her eyes. “When my father died suddenly, things shifted. At first my dad’s death was just another thing that made me question everything. I thought I had hit rock bottom over the cheating, but his death really pushed me down another level. Once I actually processed my grief, I found myself at a fork in the road. All these trials and obstacles could make my faith stronger, or I could just walk away from it all, wash my hands, and be done with it.”
“And you didn’t walk away,” she said softly.
“No. I chose the first path, but it was far from easy and didn’t happen overnight. But as I reflected back over my father’s life and the things he taught me, I found myself yearning for the closeness I had once felt with the Lord. The foundation of truth that I knew as a young person was still there. I did still believe. Even after all the questioning and angry moments. It took time, and I’m still working my way through it all. If I didn’t have my faith to hold me up, I never would’ve come out on the other side.”
“If I was put in your shoes, I would’ve probably taken the easy way out. Cut and run.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe that about you at all.”
“Maybe I’m afraid,” she replied, her voice shaky.
Noah hoped she understood that her feelings mattered to him. And to God. “It’s okay to be afraid, but the more you grow, the more confidence you’ll have. God has an interesting way of tugging at our hearts and opening up our minds. Using the dark and painful challenges of life to speak into our hearts.”
“I was raised by a single mom who didn’t believe in anything—except her own reckless behavior. While your foundation was faith, mine was learning the hard lesson of not being like my mother—a struggling addict with a revolving door for men. That’s the lens through which I have seen the world, and in that world there was no God. I’ve had to get to the place I am today through the back roads and a lot of uphill climbing.”
“It doesn’t matter how you got there, Mia. All that matters is that you’re there now.” He laced his fingers through hers and figured he’d deal with the consequences of his feelings later.
The next afternoon, Mia sat in Harper’s office. For the past hour, she had debriefed him on the secret files Chase had hidden and the data corruption issues that she’d uncovered.
The more she talked, the paler Harper became.
“Mia, I had no idea.” He rubbed his chin. “Chase didn’t tell me anything about this.”
She had to push him on this point. “Are you sure? I know you’re super busy. Maybe you could’ve forgotten?”
His eyes widened. “About a bombshell revelation like this? No way. I know I’m not young anymore, but my memory is still good. Especially about something with a large impact like this.” He paused. “Why didn’t you come to me sooner?”
“Honestly, sir, I wanted to make sure I had a good plan in place to move forward, and then I could tell you about everything at once.”
Harper nodded. “I know you’re under pressure to perform on this case on top of everything else. How do you think Lew is handling things?”
“Both he and Owen are rock solid.”
“Do you want me to take a hands-on role? I can jump in and do whatever it is you need.”
She wanted to immediately answer no, but she figured she needed to be more diplomatic than that. “I’d really like to continue managing the case myself, but I understand if you feel like you have to be involved.” She needed to give him the option because of the huge implications.
“No. You’re doing everything right, as far as I can tell. As long as Lew is both innocent and happy, that helps us a lot. At the end of the day, this is wrongdoing at LCI. It’s not on us at the firm. If we can help them ferret out the mole and get out of this lawsuit relatively unscathed, it will be a huge victory for the firm, and more importantly, for you. This type of situation would go a long way in a partnership discussion meeting. This case and the facts we’re facing are unique. I know you’ll say the politically correct thing, that it’s all about the client, so I’m saying this for you, because your future and career aspirations at the firm matter.” He smiled. “You’re very talented, Mia. The only thing I see you lacking is a drive for power, but I think that can be developed with time.”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she took the easy way out. “Thank you.”
“I’m here if you need me. Please keep me posted on any major developments. I don’t need to know the day-to-day, but given the larger picture here, I know you get it.”
“Of course.” She rose from her seat. “Thank you for letting me continue to run with this.”
He stood up and walked over to her. “Don’t let me down.” He patted her shoulder.
She nodded and exited his office. When she got back to her desk, she picked up the phone and called Owen.
He answered on the second ring. “Hey, you got anything for me?”
They’d had so many calls lately that they had quickly dispensed with the usual pleasantries. “Noah is still hard at work, but nothing concrete yet. He’s good, though. He’ll find it. And I’m doing a separate review of documents that my team has gone through to see if by chance anything could help me figure out what’s going on.”
“Everything here is business as usual. I keep expecting something crazy to happen, but frankly, it’s boring. Nothing out of the ordinary. Everyone just going about their daily business.”
“And the other executive team members?” Mia asked.
“No change in behavior. Howard is his usual needy and paranoid self, Ed does his own thing and only comes to me on major issues, and the other two team members are in Switzerland, working on some large projects. I don’t expect them back for two months.”
She jotted down a note about the whereabouts of the team. “Once we clear everyone on the executive team, we’ll move to the next level below them. I’ve got that list ready to go. Thanks for your help in compiling it.”
“Of course.”
“Have you talked to Lew?”
“Yeah. He’s definitely down but doing his best to put on a bright and smiling face. Frankly, I think I’m probably the same way. Keeping the game face on is something we lawyers have to be good at, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy.”
Mia empathized with the difficult position Owen was in. “I’m sorry you’re in the middle of this and having to walk a fine line.”
“It’s not your fault. Lew and I appreciate how on top of everything you’ve been. We’re going to catch the culprit. It might not be as fast as we want, but we also have the upper hand, because he doesn’t know we’re on to him.” Owen paused. “I’m calling him a guy because we’re a very male-heavy company, especially at the higher levels. I would be surprised if we were dealing with one of our female employees.”
She didn’t want to put on any blinders. “I understand, but right now everyone is suspect except you and Lew.”
“You’re always the voice of reason.”
She smiled. “That’s my job. I’ll keep you posted. Let me know if you need anything else from me.”
Mia ended the call and spent the next two hours reviewing email from Ed’s and Howard’s files. There was nothing suspicious at all, but she had to put her eyes on the pages to make sure she wasn’t missing anything. Out of context, an email might seem benign, but knowing what she knew now, she could look at everything through a different lens from the rest of her team.
She threw her head back and groaned, thinking about the conversation she needed to have with Bonnie. She had to prepare herself for the firestorm she was about to unleash. Looking at the time on her computer, she saw it was almost eight o’clock and decided to call it a day.
As she walked down the hall to the elevator, Harper’s words rang through her mind. He thought she lacked the desire for power. Wasn’t he right? Power wasn’t what she wanted, stability was. Given her tumultuous childhood, what she wanted the most was a stable job where she knew she could support herself and not have to depend on anyone else to get by.
Her mom had taught her that lesson the hard way. Her mother’s addictions were one of the reasons Mia had never touched drugs and rarely drank alcohol. She feared that she would end up hooked like her mom, and that nightmare was too much for her. She didn’t even like taking over-the-counter meds for headaches. It might seem irrational to most people, but to Mia it made perfect sense.
She made it to the main lobby of the large high-rise and walked to the elevator bay for the underground garage. One of the perks of working at Finley & Hughes was the parking. She never had to face the elements to get to her car, and she always felt safer leaving in the evening than if she had to walk outside to get to her car.
As she started her vehicle, her conversation with Noah came back to her mind. They had come from such different places in life and had been raised in completely opposite ways. But she would be in denial if she didn’t admit they were forming a bond. Not just on a physical level—that part was easy—but on a deeper emotional level. It was so strange to her, because initially she had assumed they would be incompatible. That he’d never be able to understand her because she wasn’t like him.
Now that they’d spent more time together, she was beginning to see that they were connecting in a special way. To hear that he had faced struggles in his past about faith and life made her realize that while their experiences were different, they did have some common ground. Maybe the stress of Chase’s murder and the kindness Noah had shown her were clouding her judgment. She would have never assumed before that she and Noah could have anything together, but maybe she was wrong. He was opening her eyes and heart to feelings she wasn’t sure existed before.
If what her heart was telling her was any indication, then she needed to stay open-minded where he was concerned. What she didn’t know was whether he had romantic feelings toward her. She thought she felt that spark between them, but she’d been wrong before. Her romantic radar wasn’t the best, mainly because she rarely used it. One thing she did feel sure about was that Noah wasn’t a bad guy—he wasn’t like the men she’d grown up around. There was something special about him.
She turned on her blinker and pulled out into the street to start her drive home. Maybe she’d get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow would be a less hectic day. Every day lately had been intense. She breezed through Midtown, making every light, and turned left down Piedmont, taking her normal route home. She couldn’t wait to turn on some mindless TV and decompress. Everything in her life right now seemed like a serious decision, so watching a TV show where she didn’t have to think about life was just what she needed. She debated which show would be the best for her current mood.
As the light in front of her turned yellow, she figured it was better not to push her luck, so she tapped the brakes. She didn’t slow down much, so she tried again. But she didn’t slow down at all. Something was wrong.
She tapped the brakes again, but still nothing. Panicking, she pushed the brakes down hard, and still the car kept moving. The light turned red, and she laid on her horn and sped through the red light. There was no other choice. She fought the urge to close her eyes.
She tried the brakes again to no avail. She needed to stop before she got into an even more crowded area. Making another attempt, she tapped the pedal softly before pushing down all the way, but nothing worked.
Something was horribly wrong. Getting off the road was key. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, and the farther she got down Piedmont, the more crowded it would become as she approached Buckhead, and the fewer options she would have to get into the grass and force the car to a stop.
She surveyed her surroundings and saw houses coming up on her right. It was now or never. She took a deep breath and got ready. For a moment, she considered that she might get really hurt.
“Lord, please, I could really use your help right now!”
Turning the wheel to the right, she went into the first yard, and the grass slowed her down a notch. But not enough. She could only hope that her airbag would deploy on contact.
The car propelled forward through another yard and didn’t stop until she ran straight into a big tree.