UNCOVER

19. THE AFTERMATH

Chapter 19

Louis: "Wait, that's your dad?"

Zayn nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on the photograph as if trying to unravel a mystery. He whipped out his phone to show Louis a picture he'd taken of the only crumpled photograph he had of his dad from when he was younger. "Yeah, but I don't get it. Ira always said he didn't know my dad personally. He told me the only reason the family took me in was because of some favor he owed to a friend of my dad's."

Louis's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, mirroring the perplexity in Zayn's expression. "Well that clearly doesn't add up. They practically look like lovers in this picture."

Zayn paced back and forth, his mind racing with questions. The room seemed to close in around him, filled with the weight of secrets long buried. "This is so messed up. Why would Ira lie to me about this? If he knew my dad, if he knew anything about him, and clearly he knew a lot, why wouldn't he tell me?" Zayn paused to look at Louis.

Louis walked around the desk and put a reassuring hand on Zayn's shoulder, "We'll figure this out Z. Look on the bright side, maybe you'll finally get some answers. This is a good thing okay. There's clearly something going on here, we just have to figure it out."

"It's like I've been living a lie my entire life," Zayn mumbled, his eye's slightly welling up tears.

"Why don't we see what else we can find. I'm sure there's gotta be answers in this room itself," Louis calmly replied as he rubbed his hand on Zayn's back. He hoped that by offering to look for clues he could take Zayn's mind off his dad for a while and shift his attention elsewhere.

Zayn cleared his throat. It took him a few seconds but he pulled his expression back to normal. "Yeah you're right, lets see what we can find."

The two began looking around the room. Zayn heading for the stack of papers again while Louis reached for the desk.

Several minutes passed before Zayn broke the silence with a perplexed expression. "This doesn't make sense, most of these papers look like they're from the money ledger." The ledger was as a detailed book that recorded any and all payouts the family received from their not so legal activities. These records included details of the amount they were paid, the reason they were paid, the individuals involved, and the dates of these transactions. Little people had access to this ledger, with Zayn primarily responsible for maintaining its accuracy and confidentiality.

"Why would there be stuff from the ledger here?" Louis questioned without looking up from the papers he was sifting through on the desk.

Zayn took a minute to compare a few of the papers. "Yo, check this out. It looks like there's an original copy and a revised version."

"How can you tell?" Louis asked, finally looking up.

"Look at this," Zayn said, handing him a paper. "These clearly show the payouts we get from the stores we control. Yet, one copy—I'm guessing the one that matches what's in the actual ledger—is the amount we usually charge all establishments. But the other copy, the one in your right hand, shows they only paid us one-third of the amount. And there's like a dozen more pages like this, all from different stores. It looks like this has been going on for years."

Louis leaned back in his chair, eyes wide with realization. "Hold on, so there are places out there paying us less, and someone's been covering it up?"

"Not just someone — Ira," Zayn replied, his tone edged with conviction.

Louis leaned forward, intrigued by this discovery. "Why do you think it's Ira?" he began, but then waved off his own question. "Never mind, you're right. It's totally Ira. Who else would have the balls to pull something like this off?"