12.

Ryan

" H ow was your day?"

Margaret, my in-home assistant, has always been thoughtful and kind. She functions as more than a housekeeper or personal manager, though. She makes sure that my not-at-work side is well taken care of. She keeps my house stocked with everything I need to be comfortable and happy. She keeps me safe and sane.

"It was good." More than good. Great. It was so much better than it should have been. Since when am I the kind of person to make out with girls at work? I can already tell that Alex is going to absolutely ruin me.

We didn't even sleep together. Perhaps that's the wildest part of this entire experience to me. We didn't even undress. We just made out like a couple of teenagers, and then we parted ways.

Nothing gets past Margaret.

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

She puts her hands on her hips.

"In all of the time I've known you, you've never had a good day at work," she points out.

"I've had good days."

"Name one."

"Today."

"It's that new girl you hired, isn't it?"

I act appalled. "New girl? What do you mean?"

Margaret laughs. "You've always had a thing for pretty girls, Mr. Shadowvale. This one is different, though. Isn't she?"

She is, but I don't know why.

Margaret and I shoot the shit for a few minutes before she leaves for the day, and then I retire to my study. Alone in the beautiful room, I stare at my computer screen. I've already run a background check on Alex, of course. Well, the HR department did that. It came back clean: no record, no crimes. Still, I want to know more about who she really is, and so, I Google her.

It feels invasive, creepy, and weird, but I do it, anyway. Strangely though, there's not a lot of information on this mysterious woman who now works for me. I grab my phone and call my brother. He answers on the first ring.

"I need something." I speak before he can say a word.

"Of course, you do. It's nine on a Tuesday. Why wouldn't you?"

Only, there's no hint of anger there. He's willing to help me because he's my brother. It's what we do. We help each other.

"I have a new employee."

"That Alex girl? Damien's replacement?"

"Yes."

"How's she handling everything?"

I don't say anything at first, and there's the hint of a chuckle in my Oscar's voice when he speaks again.

"Or are you handling her?"

"It's not like that." It totally is.

"What do you need?"

Oscar Shadowvale, hacker. He's not supposed to be, and if our dad ever knew what Oscar did in his free time, he'd roll over in his grave. Hell, he'd come back to life if it meant monetizing Oscar's secret talent.

"I need to find out where she came from, who she is." I need to know what the twist is because I don't trust her. Not yet. I can't trust anyone except for my brothers, and I hate this reality.

I lay in bed for a long time, and when I finally fall asleep, I have dreams of her.

THE NEXT MORNING, I get up early and drive to work, park, and then skip heading inside. Instead, I strut a few blocks over to Mocha Madness: a coffee shop my mother and stepmom are obsessed with. Juniper and Helena are already seated at a back corner booth when I arrive. There are three cups of coffee in front of them.

"You shouldn't have," I say, smiling.

Juniper, my mom, shakes her head.

"Oh, these are actually all for me and Helena." She winks, and I chuckle as I lean down and kiss her forehead.

"Mom." I reach for Helena and do the same "Stepmom."

"You can call me Helena," she says. "It's been three years, Ryan."

Three years of my mom being the happiest she's ever been. Helena came along and saved my mother's life. My brothers and I all know this, and we all appreciate what she's done.

"I know," I tell her. "And trust me when II say that I mentally think of you as my bonus mom." I just haven't managed to come up with a cool enough nickname to recognize the fact that Helena means so much to our family now.

She's everything to my mother.

"Ryan, how was your week? Oscar tells me you have a new assistant."

"Ah." Of course, Oscar would have told her that. "Yes, Damien is out unexpectedly."

"Interesting." Helena reaches for her coffee and brings it to her lips. "And how is she doing?"

"She's qualified." She's good at what I'm asking her to do, but I bet she's good at other things, too. I bet she's good at sinking to her knees and sliding my dick between her mouth. I bet she'll be great at that.

"And what else?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's something more," Mom says. Her eyes twinkle.

"It's not like that."

"It always is."

"Mom..." I roll my eyes. Mom is obsessed with getting me to confide in her about my would-be relationships. The thing is that I don't have any relationships. Not really. At least, not in the way she wants me to.

"Now, Juniper," Helena pats my mom's hand. "Leave him alone."

"Oh, I will."

"What about you?" I ask Mom and Helena. "How are you two doing?" Mom and Helena run a little flower shop in town. Mom made out like a bandit during the divorce. It was mutual, but Dad still paid her a ton of money when they split. I don't even know all of the details. I just know that as a partner in his company, she was entitled to a lot. Mom took her money, bought a little cottage in the foothills of the mountains, and bought a flower shop. Helena quit her marketing job to market for Mom full-time. The two of them lead a very wonderful life, as far as I know.

"The business is going well," Mom says. "Holly is coming by later this week to help out." Helena and Mom are both late-bloomer-bisexuals who were previously married to men. Helena and her ex-husband share a daughter, Holly, who is about my age. I've met her a few times, and she seems nice enough. She's busy, though, and she travels a lot. She doesn't generally make it back to town for family events.

We chat for a few more minutes, order some croissants, and drink our coffees. It's a lovely breakfast, but before I leave, I want to pick my mom's brain a little bit more.

"What do you know about something called Project Sunshine?"

She cocks her head, and I realize she doesn't know. Her curiosity is piqued, though.

"Tell me everything you know," she says. "I haven't heard the name, but it's possible that it was housed under a different name previously. Your father had a lot of pet projects that he didn't always tell me about."

"I don't know much. It's just something I can't seem to find a lot of details on."

"Welcome to your father's world," Mom says. She holds up her coffee cup like it's a glass of wine and not a mocha. I wonder if she managed to make the coffee Irish this morning.

Helena looks at me, cocking her head.

"Your father had a lot of secrets, Ryan."

"I'm aware."

"Your mother managed to uncover many of them during the end of their marriage, but there were a lot of cards he held close to his chest."

"He still should have told me." He knew he was dying. He was aware. He had so much damn time to tell me and my brothers about his secrets, yet he didn't.

"Maybe he should have," Mom agrees. "All you can do is try to move forward from here." She pulls out her phone and sends me a text. It's a string of numbers and symbols.

"What's this?"

"My password for your father's servers. He may have died, but he didn't deactivate my account."

"Why are you giving me this?"

"Go through my old files," Mom says. "Who knows? You might find something I missed."

"Are you sure?" Somehow, the idea of going through my mother's things feels like it's some sort of violation.

"Positive," she smiles. "And have fun."