Page 199 of Matteo

I chuckle. I’ve got him. “Anyway,” I say, brightly, my bravado getting the better of me. “It’s not your job to audit my department. That’s something I could have taken care of myself.”

He laughs. “You know I hired her to audit you.”

Fucking, what? “Me?” Something inside me snaps. “What do you mean you hired her to audit me?” I growl.

Was that why he hired Elizabeth without telling me? It would explain why he was surprised to hear that it was Alex, and not me. This is how Elizabeth must have felt when I told her I suspected her.

“I thought it might be you. What better way to find out than to audit your department?”

I take a step back, letting his words sink in. Trying to make them make sense. Why would he think I was behind this? I take a few calming breaths in the thick silence that hangs heavy. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. This man has always believed the worst about people, but thinking that someone like me, his son, might want to stab him in the back, that's ... that's another level of paranoia altogether.

“Why the hell would you suspect me?”

He lets out a heavy sigh, something rare from him because he is always the picture of composure. Even if the world was burning down around him, he’d be calm and collected.

“I’m getting older, and I’m not sure how things are going to work out for me during the surgery, after the surgery.” He pauses for the longest time, his mind drifting elsewhere. I suddenly know what he's afraid of; what fueled his paranoia—he’s afraid he might die. He’s weaker than I’ve ever seen him.

I can’t wait to tell the others.

He rests his hands, palms down on the armrest, looking casual and relaxed, when I’m certain he is anything but that.

“I'm leaving a legacy behind. Consider yourselves extremely fortunate that you'll all be taken care of forever, but the way you people—”

“You people?” I cut in. “Who are you referring to?”

“You boys,” he says, dryly, picking what looks like a hair off his sleeve. “You’re all becoming closer. Spending too much time together. Nobody wants to come to the dinners here. None of you have checked in on me much.”

I sit down, to absorb the meaning of his words. Is he lonely and sad? Or mad at us? What does he expect from us?

“Maybe if it was a family dinner, instead of a business meeting dressed up as dinner, we might think of it differently,” I counter. “Maybe if you’d shown us some love and affection and raised us with the same love and affection Mama has ...”

“You think I could have built up the Knight name like that?” he yells, his carefully controlled anger erupting.

I feel sorry for him. He’s been busy creating wealth, and we get to enjoy the fruits of that labor, but there are other, more important things in life. Things the old man has let pass by.

“You haven’t explained,” I say, my tone accusatory. “I still don’t understand why you thought I would have done this.” I wonder if his medication might be affecting him. But Zach doesn’t think he’s taking his medication properly, which would explain why his kidneys are failing so fast.

“I considered the possibility that maybe… maybe it could be you, or one of the others. Or all of you together. You've all resented me for years, and lately you've been standing shoulder to shoulder in a way that concerns me.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I growl, running my hands through my hair and looking up at the ceiling. “Your paranoia will kill you, if your rotting kidney doesn't.”

I wince inside. Elizabeth wouldn't like me saying that.

His eyes narrow to slits of black and silver. “I’m not young, and I don’t know how long I've got. Years, or decades, who knows?”

“Or weeks or months,” I offer. Elizabeth would really not like me saying this, but I can't help myself.

The old man pretends not to hear and continues talking. “I’ve seen many things in my life. I know how ruthless people can be.” He stops when I chortle at that. Does he have any self-awareness? Surely he recognizes in himself how ruthless he's been?

“It wasn’t ridiculous to assume that you or your brothers had something to do with this.”

“But to what end?” I cry. “Why would we have willingly done that to our own systems?” I stand up abruptly, so much pent-up anger fizzing inside me.

“You haven’t seen the things I have,” the old man states, sitting regally in his chair. “The breaches threatened more than our systems. They threatened confidence. Confidence in the company. Confidence in me. I couldn't ignore the possibility that someone was trying to prove I was no longer fit to lead.”

He picks at something on his sleeve again.

I can’t believe my ears. “You don’t know the truth about family. You might be a rich man, but when it comes to things that really matter, you’re broke as fuck.”