When I went to bed last night, the phone had been working fine. Hell, it worked all day yesterday. I'd spent most of the morning avoiding Frank's calls while I pretended to enjoy my last hours with Angela. And then last night, I spent twenty minutes on the phone with Angela assuring her that this was all temporary and thanking her for her ‘sacrifice’ while pretending to give a shit about how the drive was going.
But when I woke up this morning, I saw an email from Kyle’s company telling me that the password to the app our home security system operated on had been changed. The robot voice had been my answer when I tried to call the customer service line to find out why it had been changed.
The only other person who had access to either account was Melanie, but my wife would never mess with passwords or my phone.
Maybe she finally told Kyle? He wouldn’t be able to mess with my phone though…
Thankfully, the hotel had a phone, and I could still use the Wi-Fi to operate most of the stuff on my phone.
“Hello, my name is Benjamin Landon, and I received an email this morning saying that the password to my home security system had been changed but I didn’t change it.”
“Oh no, let me confirm a few details and then I’ll see if I can figure out what happened.” The young woman on the line replied in an appropriately concerned tone.
After I confirmed my identity, I waited patiently while she clicked away on the computer, looking through my account activity.
“Hmm, it looks like your account has been flagged already. I’ll need to transfer you to another department.” Her voice had a tightness to it that hadn’t been there previously, and I knew right away that the flag wasn’t a good thing.
“Hello, this is Griffin Bose, Chief Cyber Security Officer at KG Securities. Is this Mr. Landon?” The man had an authoritative air to his voice, but I recognized the speaker immediately.
“Yes, Griffin,” I rolled my eyes, “you can call me Ben… we’ve shared every Thanksgiving for almost a decade after all.”
I had never liked Griffin. To me, there was something wrong with a man turning away from a family legacy like he had. Granted, Kyle and Griffin had a very successful business, but Griffin came from real wealth. The kind of wealth that kept generations afloat without even needing to work.
Melanie had teased me once that I was just jealous that he stole my best friend, but it was more than that; Griffin had also successfully shoved me out of the company plans from the get-go. Had it been Kyle’s company alone, he would’ve had me run the finance department, but Griffin said that it wasn’t wise to hire family. I think the prick had been threatened by how long Kyle and I had been friends.
I make way more money than I would've with them anyway.
“Of course, Benjamin, just needed to confirm who I was speaking too.” He said smoothly, unbothered by my attitude. “It appears that there is a problem with your security system?”
“The password has been changed, and I didn’t make the request.”
“I see.” He sounded smug. “Well, that would be because I changed the password, Benjamin.”
“Why? Who authorized that?” I snapped.
“Melanie did. But I assure you the security system is still operational at all three properties. I’m looking at the one in the primary residence as we speak.”
“What?” I could suddenly hear the blood pumping in my ears as his words sank in. Not only was the prick in my housewith MY wife, but he had just said out loud that I had three properties on the account.
“Why are you at my house?” I croaked out as I found my voice.
“To support Melanie, of course.” He said as if it were the most obvious reason in the world.
“Of course…” I mumbled as I tried to figure out how to handle the property issues. “Well, do you think you could share the new password with me? Also, please don’t mention the Vegas property to Mel… it’s a surprise for her.”
Perfect cover story.
I hadn’t been to the Vegas property in a few months, so the odds were slim that Melanie would feel the need to look at the footage… If I convinced her that I had bought it for us, then it wouldn’t raise any red flags. I was suddenly very grateful that I hadn’t used KG Securities for any of my other properties.
“Oh?” Griffin sounded amused, “But you added the property to the account over a year ago… unfortunately, I think the surprise has been ruined.” He tried to sound apologetic, but there wasn’t any sincerity to it.
FUCK.
Everything was falling apart. Too many lies were unraveling at once, and I was starting to feel an unfamiliar sensation of regret and panic rise inside of me.
“That’s too bad, but the property itself should more than make up for a ruined surprise.” I pretended to comfort myself.
“Oh, she was definitely surprised by the property. She liked a lot of the décor she saw in the videos.” Griffin replied as if he wasn’t casually dropping a bomb on my world.
