The Hacker

"In order to move forward, I need to know why," (4)

—and it also helped that most of the information was accessible on Google.

For someone who was retired, they sure did live in a very nice-looking apartment building. Brynne had always thought it would have been a house in the suburbs but based on what she had heard about him, that didn't fit his character.

She had found his number first and called to speak with him. However, she didn't get him directly but his assistant answered and they arranged a meeting. He may have been retired on paper but Brynne knew that with his controlling nature, he'd still have a hand in his businesses.

Walking inside, she was greeted by a well-dressed young man of caramel complexion with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his handsome face.

"You must be Brynne. I'm Jordan, we spoke on the phone." He extended his hand to her for a shake.

"Nice to meet you, Jordan. Thanks for setting this up," she shook his hand.

Returning his hand back into his pocket, Brynne noticed he flexed just a little bit more as that smile spread across his face. He was very good looking and tall —she was sure he was popular amongst the ladies.

"Of course, Jared was excited to hear that you had called. He's been trying to reach out for years now," he said to her as they stepped on to the elevator.

"How long have you been working for him?"

"About six years now. I handle all his affairs; with his consent of course. Nothing gets done without his approval. I assure you,"

He kept smiling at her... but it wasn't creepy at all. It was friendly and comforting, she thought.

"That's quite a lot of responsibility,"

"Yes it is... although I'm sure you can relate. You have a lot on your shoulders as well,"

The elevator dinged as the doors opened and he lead her down the hall towards one of the two penthouse suites on the top floor. Jordan punched in the security code on the keypad by the door. Once it opened up, Brynne saw that the first room was the living area. It was very open and airy with white walls, dark stained furniture and tall windows.

But sitting in one of the couches waiting for her was Jared Daniels... Micah's father.

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Laying in bed that night, Amira wracked her brain for anything that could possibly help propel them forward in this investigation. Even if they had the shareholders names, it still wouldn't help.

—because she already knew all the names. None of them stood out to her. If the FBI didn't establish a connection with any of them then clearly Tom's uncle was smart enough to make sure he couldn't be traced back to the company.

Slowly, she sat up as a new thought formed in her head. If she were an FBI agent on the case, what would she do?

After they had shut down the shipping company, what would have been her next move in the investigation?

—and that's when it hit her. What was the main goal Tom had?

Tom had those shares transferred into the non-profit organization, Broken Wings.

"Kai, wake up," she shook his shoulders. "Wake up,"

"What is it?" he groaned and rubbed his eyes. Looking up, he saw Amira in her robe standing over him. "Go back to bed,"

"I can't sleep... but I had an idea. Why didn't we look into Broken Wings?"

Kai exhaled and shifted until he was on his back, creating some space for Amira to sit. "Because the FBI didn't find anything. It's just an organization that donated to multiple charities across the country— none of which had any affiliation with Tom or Paul."

"Then why would he transfer the shares into the organization? Why donate money to people you don't care about?"

Kai thought about what she said and furrowed his eyebrows. "Well, originally we thought it was to legitimize the money from the shipping company. If donated back to charity then he could write them off in taxes..."

"But he must have a reason why he chose those charities. Was any of them London based?"

Kai sat up in his pull out bed and stretched for his laptop just on the coffee table. He opened it up and searched through his files. "Three of them, actually... two are dedicated to homeless shelters and one is for an orphanage, owned by Mary Callahan."

Amira slumped her shoulders. She had heard that name before. Mary Callahan, she repeated over and over in her mind.

"We have to see her. Where does she live?"

"Why her?"

"There's something about that name... we have to see her,"

Kai nodded as he typed away on his laptop and in a few minutes he had her address pulled up on the screen. "Should we tell the hacker this?"

Amira strongly shook her head. "I don't trust him. This we need to do alone,"

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The first thing that registered to Brynne was how much Micah looked like his father. The resemblance was uncanny and it gave her a chill. If that was what Micah would look like later on in life then she wasn't mad at all about it.

"Thank you for reaching out, Ms. Maddison. As you can imagine, my son hates my guts."

"Yes, he does... and I wanted to know why. In order to move forward, I need to know why,"

Jared shifted in his seat and crossed his legs; sending a quick glance over to Jordan as he did so. Brynne, however, didn't miss the exchange.

"Did you know that I've never met Shirley? My only daughter-in-law and I've never seen her face. If they had kids, I would have never seen their beautiful faces either," He rested his chin in his hand, "and now, I got the chance to meet you. Jordan tells me you mean quite a lot to my son,"

Brynne looked over to Jordan to see him slightly smirking at her. Were they keeping tabs on them?

"It seems you've been doing your homework," she commented.

"I only report what I hear from the media and you've been spotted out with him quite often," Jordan shrugged.

Brynne leaned back in the couch and examined them both. "You didn't accept my meeting soley to my benefit, did you?" she shook her head; realising that they had something else up their sleeve.

"Not enitrely... I've been trying to get to my son for years now but recently it's been more urgent and I have to give thanks that you reached out. I need to see him," Jared stressed.

"Why should I? You've caused him nothing but pain. Why should you see him?"

"Because I'm dying, Brynne. I have stage four prostate cancer,"

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Holyyy crap! How do you think Micah will take the news??

Thank you so much for reading!

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