“He’s calling to see if you’re free tomorrow,” Malaya said, giggling.
I waved a middle finger at her as I picked up the phone. She only hollered.
“Saffron Channing speaking.”
“Did you do this?” Tyler barked on the other end. He sounded harsh.
“I could answer if I knew what you were talking about,” I said as casually as I could, so as not to raise Malaya’s heckles. She was staring at me, not making any pretense of listening to my call.
“Don’t play games with me. I told you I would grant you your divorce. Why are you leaking this shit to the press?”
“Tyler, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Do you know what you’ve done? Our deal with Massimo is on life support! Because of this! Because of you!”
“What are you talking about!”
“Is that why you weren’t answering your phone? You were hiding from me?”
I picked up my phone with shaking hands and saw four missed calls. All from him. I had turned my phone to silent so I could work without distractions. He had also sent a text.
TylertheAsshole: Did you do this?
Attached was a news article from the paper of record. I clicked on it with shaking hands.
Hawthorne & Hawthorne accused of code violations on first New York building. Bribed officials to gain permits.
“Tyler, I had nothing to do with this.”
“Yeah right. The same thing you happened to blackmail with is the same thing that leaked. You can call our business dealings over. I am suing you. Consider me your enemy.”
The line went dead.
Chapter 18
Saffron
Iwaited outside Tyler’s office, shaking. He left me hanging dry in the lobby as I crawled up the wall, dying to know his next move. I tried to call him soon after he ended the call, but he did not pick up my calls. Then I tried his brother’s phone, but he was out of reach. Whatever family business he was dealing with, it was still occurring. Then I did what I had to do: go to his office. His assistant refused to let me in, even though I had seen Tyler alone for a long period of time. People filtered in and out of his office plenty of times during the two hours I was in that lobby. But when the door finally opened and his CFO and his General Counsel came out after a long meeting—Richie smiled at me on the way out so maybe he didn’t think I was to blame—I dashed past them, rushing into Tyler’s office before Matt could stop me.
“You have to let me explain! I didn’t have anything to do with that article.”
“Did Matt let you in? He’s so fired,” Tyler said, anger etched across his features. His body was taut as he stood by his desk, framed by a glittering New York skyline behind the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Is that Saffron?” someone said. I glanced around to find the source of the voice. It was coming from a phone. Sebastian. He wasn’t alone. He was on a call with his brother. I almostretreated, but this was my chance to plead to someone who might listen to me.
“I didn’t do it, Sebastian! You have to believe me!”
“Then who did?” Tyler said, “because the only person who might know about this is dead!”
“Uh… hi Saff,” Sebastian said.
“You call her Saff?” Tyler frowned.
“Why?” Sebastian said. “Is there anything wrong with that?”
“I had no idea that this was the blackmail. I thought it had something to do with emails or whatever.”
“Or whatever.” Tyler raked his hands through his hair. He slammed the desk with both hands. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done? My trip will come to nothing.”
