I move quickly up the stairs, cringing as each step creaks, and dart down the hall to Callum’s office.
He refused to move into our father’s old office after he died, considering what happened in there. Perhaps it might just be better to burn the entire estate to the ground becauseonce all these secrets get out, there’s no chance of our family ever recovering.
I doubt even being married to Ronan Sullivan can restore the McCarthy name.
The door is unlocked, and I quickly dodge inside and close the door behind me. Even though I have every right to be in this house, I have no right to be inside Callum’s office. It’s like going through a girl’s purse. It’s strictly off-limits. So, if my brother comes home early, I need to make sure I’m as far away from this room as possible because I’m a terrible liar and wouldn’t be able to hide the fact I’ve been snooping through his computer.
A quick glance around the room has me cursing under my breath. It’s a complete mess, with books and papers covering every available surface.
“How the hell can he work like this?” I wade through the sea of boxes to get to the desk, which is also covered in papers and empty beer bottles.
I think of how terrible my brother looked the last time I saw him and feel a pang of guilt.
It’s clear he’s hurting and using alcohol and god knows what else to slowly self-destruct, but my sympathy only runs so deep because I’m hurting too, all because he decided to keep the truth from me. So, I push past the guilt and pull his laptop toward me and start trying to guess his password.
I try my father and mother’s names and the years they died, then type in the name of our first and only dog followed by the year he died.
I get in.
“Seriously, Callum? Remind me to give you a lesson in password security.”
I reach into my tote bag and pull out the laptop Ronan bought me, setting it beside Callum’s before logging onto the Sullivans’ payment system.
“Here we go…”
For the next twenty minutes, I lose myself to spreadsheets and bank statements as I comb through my family’s accounts, comparing the dates and numbers against the encrypted payments I found in Ronan’s system, but nothing matches. Not one single entry.
In fact, there is no trace of the money at all.
I double-check every business account linked to McCarthy Enterprises, but I still come up short.
What am I missing?
I know for certain that the money passed from Seamus Sullivan to McCarthy Enterprises, but apparently not to any of the accounts I was aware of.
Sighing, I scroll back through the encrypted trail, retracing every transfer Ronan flagged for what feels like the hundredth time. “Come on, there has to besomething.”
Then I see it.
It’s barely a blip, but it’s there. A redirected payment buried beneath layers of proxy routing.
I follow it through a tangle of dummy corporations until I finally land on a single offshore account tucked away in a Cayman-based bank.
An account inCallum’sname.
“Oh, my god.”
This wasn’t just some accounting error or misfiled record. This was intentionally hidden, which means my brother has known about these payments from Seamus Sullivan as well as everything else.
“Son of a bitch.” I slam my laptop shut.
What else has my brother been keeping from me?
My body practically vibrates as I log out of Callum’s computer and leave the office, making sure to leave no signs I was ever here.
When I’m back behind the wheel of my car, I pull out myphone and scroll through my contacts until I come to Max’s number—because if there’s one person who can help uncover what the hell is going on with this account, it’s Mila’s brother.
Thankfully, he answers my call immediately. “Ciara? Is everything okay?”
