‘What?’ Cynthia said, looking to Andrew.
‘As is your relationship with my mother,’ Oliver continued. He was gritting his teeth now, trying to maintain his cool but wanting to reach across the table and grab this excuse for a man by the scruff of his neck.
‘I have no clue what you’re talking about,’ Andrew said, throwing his napkin down onto the table. Andrew looked rattlednow. His cheeks a little redder, his forehead beading with perspiration. The man was finally starting to realise what was about to go down. Soon, when all his deception was laid bare, he was going to be on his knees begging for mercy.
Oliver found the relevant page in the file on the table. ‘Mom, the whole merger was simply a distraction. It was all just a diversion tactic so we were both off our game. You’d be caught up in your love affair and I’d be caught up looking at clauses that didn’t matter, while Andrew here used one of my employees to pass him classified information.’
He watched Cynthia’s reaction, saw her shift her hand away from Andrew’s. ‘What is he talking about, Andrew?’
‘I have no idea, but I’m not going to sit here and be accused of something so absurd.’ Andrew got to his feet. ‘I wasn’t sure about coming tonight but your mother insisted. And,’ he drew a breath, ‘it’s that time of year – reconciliation, peace and goodwill to all men and all that jazz. I thought I owed you the chance to apologise?—’
‘I have nothing to apologise for,’ Oliver exclaimed. ‘You on the other hand…’ He narrowed his eyes at Andrew. ‘I’ve been through Peter Lamont’s emails. He may have deleted, emptied and cleared history and all the usual kind of stuff, but I found all the evidence I need.’
‘Show me,’ Cynthia said. ‘Sit down, Andrew.’ Her tone was fierce.
‘This is preposterous,’ Andrew stated, sinking down into his seat.
Oliver looked to his mother. ‘Mom, I don’t think you should be reading the emails.’
‘Why not? If he’s been deceiving me, I want to see it with my own eyes.’
Oliver pulled the file back towards him. ‘All you need to knowis Peter Lamont has been passing him details of the Globe in order for him to launch his own tablet before we do. Similar specifications, slightly modified, but basically a carbon copy of something my technicians have been working on for the past year.’
Now Andrew was the colour of someone who might explode at any moment. Cynthia dragged the file towards her, her eyes roving over the text.
‘I’ve nothing to say,’ Andrew started. ‘This is all a big misunderstanding. We were about to become one company, Peter Lamont was simply pre-empting what was going to happen in a few weeks – the merger, the two companies joining forces and aligning their plans.’
‘That wasn’t for you or Peter Lamont to decide and it’s too late. I knoweverything.’ He emphasised the word ‘everything’ to leave no doubt.
His mother was still looking at the emails, if she turned over too many pages, she would get to the photographs. He didn’t want her to see them. Oliver put the flat of his hand over the file and pulled it back towards him.
‘Mom, you’ve seen enough,’ Oliver said, swallowing.
Oliver shifted his eyes sideways, looking to Andrew, who was at least having the decency to appear awkward and uncomfortable now.
‘Just believe me that whatever you think you had with this man, it wasn’t real,’ Oliver stated.
Cynthia turned in her seat, her eyes boring into Andrew, him looking straight ahead into the mid-distance.
‘I want to know, Oliver,’ Cynthia said, her voice determined yet mixed with fear.
Oliver picked up his glass of red wine and swallowed it in one gulp, then he took a deep breath and reached across the linencloth for his mother’s hand. He gently pressed their skin together in, what he hoped, was a show of solidarity.
‘He wasn’t just having business dealings with Peter Lamont.’ Oliver swallowed. ‘He’s been sleeping with him.’
Andrew leapt up then, his wine glass falling to the floor, the table rocking so much, the plates all shifted. Cynthia took back her hand, plastering it to her mouth as shock set in.
‘I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in my life and you need to keep your voice down because accusations like that are very dangerous things to make,’ Andrew said, pointing a finger at Oliver.
Cynthia was starting to cry, hiding her face away in a napkin, her body directed towards the wall. He wanted to ease her pain but he wasn’t sure what he could do now apart from get rid of Andrew as quickly as possible with the minimum amount of fuss.
‘Unfortunately for you, and for me, because I had to listen to it… I have full audio detailing far more than I ever wanted to know.’
A sob came from Cynthia then and Oliver got to his feet.
‘I will make this very public by tomorrow unless you put a halt to your copycat production plans. You will go on record retracting that article shaming me and my company and you will cite stress as the cause of your mental breakdown that led to the merger folding. Other than that, I don’t care how you spin your way out of this, but you do not slander me, my mother, or Drummond Global or I swear to God, I will be handing a memory stick over to my PR girl and she will finish you with it!’
Oliver was shaking violently, his whole body tremoring as fury shot from every pore. This man disgusted him. If his father could see him now, his best friend, lying and cheating, betraying Cynthia, dragging the Drummond name through the dirt, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself physically attacking him.
