Maya sat next to me while Neal sat on the other side of Charles. He clapped a hand on his competitor’s back like they were old friends.
“Close your mouth,” he said. “It’s unbecoming to gape.”
Charles’s eyes flared with anger. He tossed the folder on the table and rose halfway as if to leave, but he seemed to remember that everyone was watching. He sank back down, his mouth tight.
“Perfect timing,” I told the Singhs. “Charles here was just asking me about the meaning of this.” I tapped a finger againstthe folder.
“I expected a better question from you, Charles. You knowexactlywhat that is.” Neal tsked. “It’s your comeuppance.”
The folder was our smoking gun, so to speak. It’d been sealed and delivered by none other than Christian Harper himself, which meant the information was rock solid.
As promised, the billionaire CEO of Harper Security and infamous hacker had come through for us in record time. He’d tracked down every person who’d so much as stepped foot in the kitchen during or prior to the event, and he’d quickly identified the culprit—Gus, the venue-supplied junior cook whom I’d yelled at for almost botching the lasagna. It turned out he’dactuallybotched the lasagna, and he’d signed a confession admitting Whitaker Farms had paid off his gambling debts in exchange for him slipping laxatives into the food. The kitchen had been so chaotic that no one noticed his act of sabotage. Luckily for us, the young cook had been so flustered and inexperienced that he hadn’t properly covered his tracks, which was how Maya’s first investigator found the strip of foil under the fridge.
Christian took things a step further and turned up pages of evidence linking Whitaker Farms to a string of corporate sabotage over the years, including but not limited to Singh Foods’s listeria contamination scandal last summer. Maya had been right about the Pittsburgh factory but wrong about the person responsible. It hadn’t been the employee they’d fired; it’d been a security guard that Whitaker had bribed to sneak in and tamper with the food. They’d targeted Pittsburgh because that was where Singh Foods’ most lucrative products were manufactured.
I still didn’t trust Christian—his willingness to employ questionable methods was a disaster waiting to happen, and I was sure I didn’t want to know how he’d gotten Gus to confess so quickly—but I had to give credit where credit was due. If itweren’t for him, we’d be empty-handed, and Charles would’ve gotten away with his crimes.
“I actually pity you,” Neal told Charles. “Instead of engaging in fair play or simply creating a better product than us, you resorted to sabotage to gain a competitive edge. It’s pathetic.”
“I’ve no idea what you mean.” The other man made a valiant attempt at a bluff, but the beads of sweat forming on his upper lip gave him away. “That folder contains nothing but lies and fabrications. Technology these days—”
“Allows people to accomplish some extraordinary feats,” Maya said. Her smile was pure sugar. “It’s funny you should mention it. I heard that while you were enjoying your steak, someoneallegedlyhacked into your home computer. I wonder what they found.”
The color drained from Charles’s face. “That’s breaking and entering,” he hissed. “No court—”
“It’s not breaking and entering if your front door was unlocked—allegedly,” she said. “That’s the downside of having electronic locks. When the tech glitches, all sorts of bad stuff can happen.”
I hid a smile. Screw it. I was sending Harper a big, fat gift basket after this.
“Here’s our proposal.” Neal leaned back and steepled his fingers. “You will hold a press conference andpersonallyadmit to sabotaging both our launch and our lasagna line last summer. You will tell the media that you did this willingly and of your own free will, for no reason other than to bolster your own company. You will also resign as CEO of Whitaker Farms, effective immediately, and state that you will not accept any role in the food and restaurant industry for the duration of your lifetime. If you don’t, we’ll leak everything online and let the authorities and public tear you apart.”
Charles barked out a laugh. It was high and brittle, as if it were starved for oxygen. “Why would I do that? Whether I admit it or you leak it, the result will be the same.”
“No, it won’t,” Maya said. “Notice my father saideverything. The documents in the folder are only the tip of the iceberg.”
“This is preposterous.” Charles trembled with outrage. “People lie. Documents can be forged. You—”
“Can they be forged if they were found on your personal computer?” I asked coolly. “Tax evasion. Money laundering. Consumer fraud. If those files are leaked, the consequences will make those for corporate sabotage look like child’s play. We’re letting you off easy with our proposal. Reject it, and you’ll find yourself facing jail time—or worse.”
I spotted the very moment Charles realized he’d been beaten. His shoulders sagged, and the defiance vanished from his eyes. “I suppose you have a deadline for this press conference in mind,” he clipped out.
“As soon as possible would be nice, but we’re not monsters,” my father said. “You have until the end of day on Monday to carry out our terms. That way, you can still enjoy the weekend. The weather’s supposed to be lovely.”
“Fine,” Charles spat. He shoved his chair back and stood. Apparently, he no longer cared about making a scene, but he paused to address Neal before he left. “You have no idea what it’s like,” he said, his voice bitter. “You haveno ideahow hard it is to always be second best. To try and try and still fall short. We became CEOs around the same time, and I had to watch you soar effortlessly while I played catch-up. It was humiliating.”
Neal’s face clouded. “You don’t know me or what I’ve gone through to get to where I am,” he said evenly. “Everyone faces obstacles. Everyone experiences failure. That isn’t an excuse to cheat because your ego can’t handle losing fairly.”
“Spare me your self-righteousness. At least I knew when to pivot. The regular methods weren’t working, so I employed more… creative tactics. And theyworked. In another year or two, we would’ve beaten you as market leader.”
“You would’ve done so via fraud and sabotage.” Neal’s eyes flashed, but his voice was low and controlled. “That’s not real victory.”
“Winning is winning, no matter the means,” Charles said coldly. “That’s what you don’t get.”
“And yet, you haven’t won, have you?” I drawled. I’d had enough of Whitaker’s attempts at justification. He could shovel his bullshit until he was blue in the face, but when it came down to it, he was nothing more than a cheater and a sore loser. People like him didn’t deserve our respect or energy. “By the way, we forgot to mention that you’ll cover all costs and expenses for our second launch event since you sabotaged our first one. Thank you in advance for your contribution. I hear it’s a big one.”
Charles glared down at me, his eyes blazing with resentment. My bored interjection seemed to have taken the wind out of his sails. “Fine,” he spat again. He stormed off, leaving a buzz of excited speculation in his wake.
“That,” Neal said, “was incredibly satisfying.”
