Noah's POV:I know Eden is scared out of her mind that she's going to mess this up. She told me so enough times last night when I dropped her off at her apartment. But you wouldn't know it from looking at her. She's got a confident look on her face and her shoulders are squared, ready for whatever crap the others are going to throw at her.She's pretty impressive but I might be biased.Everyone takes their seats around the table where Mrs Clancy usually holds our team meetings, Eden taking the seat at the head of the table. There's a tension in the air and there's definitely some animosity coming from James and Lewis. It's pretty evident in their matching smirks. They think they have the upper hand.James opens his mouth to speak but Eden gets there before him."I understand that someone has been spreading malicious rumours that Clancy's Comforts is in financial difficulty," she says without hesitation. Her voice is strong and it carries over the silence in the room. "Of course, t
I'm a little in over my head at the office but I do my best to keep a smile on my face. If I look confident, that's half the battle, or at least that's what my grandma would say.It's hard to concentrate when I'm waiting for the post to arrive. It's been a few days since I visited the police station and I've been impatiently waiting for the police report to arrive. I try to not let it distract me from my work but it's easier said than done."Post is here," Martin says, popping his head around grandma's office door. It still feels weird using her office as my own.I try to seem indifferent. He doesn't know anything about my visit to the police station and I'd like to keep it that way, at least for now. I wait until he's dropped several envelopes and a larger bubble-wrapped envelope on the desk and is turning to leave again before I reach for it.He turns back though and I pull my hand away."Can I get you something for lunch?" he asks."Sure," I agree with a smile. "Thank you, Mar
Noah's POV:Eden's smile is significantly more forced when we return to work in the morning. I feel awful leaving her to go to my own office, not that she needs me to babysit her. Quite the opposite. She's more than capable of handling all of this, even if I do wish I could shield her away from it.The morning flies by but just as I'm trying to decide where I'm going to take Eden for lunch, there's a knock at my office door."Come in," I call out, closing down the booking window for Eden's favourite restaurant.Stacey makes her way into my office, closing the door behind her. She doesn't say anything until she is standing directly in front of my desk."Sir..." She hesitates in a way that is very unlike her. "Is Mrs Clancy sick?"Her question catches me off guard. As far as I am aware the department heads have all agreed to keep Mrs Clancy's health status on the down low, at least for the time being.Who would tell? It doesn't take me long to work out who would go against Eden's
Eden's POV:I end up working late over the next two days. James Artie is certainly right about one thing. My grandma's job isn't easy. There's a heck of a lot to do and it's fair to say that James and his nephew Lewis aren't making it any easier. If anything their making the whole thing a d*mn sight harder.It feels like every day there's a new company coming forward to sue us because of Lewis's team. At this point, it seems impossible that Lewis will be able to even try and pass the buck onto someone else. His whole team can't be responsible, if he's not.It just seems to get worse and I seem to be spending an insane amount of my time apologising for Lewis's actions. It would be significantly easier if he'd just scr*wed over big conglomerate but the man has no moral compass at all, and seems to have stolen ideas from the biggest names in the furniture business to little start ups and even one or two family run shops. I don't like having to apologise for something I didn't do and wh
Noah's POV:I'm momentarily lost, not at all sure what she's referring to. What would she possibly have to go to the police station about? I find myself looking for injuries, scared that something has happened to her and then it hits me."You asked them about your parents' death?" I ask hesitantly.I have about a million questions but I don't want to overwhelm her. Walking her through to the kitchen, I pour us both a glass of wine as she begins to explain. Sitting down at the kitchen table, she places a brown envelope down on the table between us.Biting inside of my cheek, I stare down at that envelope."Have you opened it?" I ask."I can't do it…" She says it like she thinks I'm going to be disappointed in her. Silly fool. Why would I be? If our situations were reversed, I'm not sure I'd be handling any of this half as well as she is."You want me to?" I ask, my hand moving towards the envelope slowly as I wait for her confirmation."Please."The noise of the envelope openin
Eden's POV:I spend most of the crying, curled up in Noah's arms and when we get up in the morning my face feels raw from tears. Hurriedly, I wash my face, trying to ease the red hue that has resulted from all that crying, before getting ready for work.Noah insists on having breakfast before heading out, not that I have an appetite. If I had a choice, I'd just go back to bed and stay there but that isn't an option.Perhaps more so now than ever, I need to resolve this matter once and for all. And that means going to work. I need to find out who is stealing from the company. Noah is still unsure whether we should trust Martin and maybe he's right.Maybe no one should be trusted…For the most part, my day runs like clockwork. I do everything like I'm going through the motions, completing a check list of tasks without stopping to think about what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. Fortunately, I don't have any important meetings or I'd be useless.It's Friday and so for the first time
Eden's POV:Sitting in a dingy corner of the pub, I wait for Alice and Holly to arrive. I can't even begin to imagine what they could possibly have to tell me. This whole thing is very cloak and dagger; it's like something out of a spy film. Perhaps they know something about this whole lawsuit drama with Lewis. It would be a big help if they could give me something I can use to fire him.I'm nervously tapping my foot on the ground.I wish Noah was here with me. He always manages to calm me down. I can't get the two women's scared facial expressions out of my mind. Who has made them so terrified that they can't even talk to me outside the company building?"Eden?"I jump slightly at the sound of someone talking to me. I'd been distractedly staring out the window and had completely missed the two women entering the pub."Can I get you both a drink?" I offer politely."Er… That's not necessary," Alice says. "We won't be here long.""But we'll look significantly less suspicious if
I'm feeling uneasy as I let myself into my apartment, filled with an urgency to check the contents of the USB drive. There are answers on this little stick and I need them.My mind is a jumbled mess as it tries to process what Alice told me. It wasn't anything particularly new, nothing that I don't already know. Just more d*mn whispers and rumours, overheard conversations. The sort of things that won't prove anything.Instead of helping, her words had only made me feel more annoyed. Frustrated that it's taken us months to find out this much and yet we still know practically nothing.I stop on the doorstop, the door wide open as I stare into the apartment. The sight before me is a bit on the bizarre side. Noah and Martin are both sitting in my living room drinking tea."Eden!" Noah's eyes dart to me. "Where have you been?"I'm surprised to see how worried they book look as I close the door behind me."Why are you both here?" I ask, although I'm not particularly displeased at their