Undeniable

Ch. 2

The next morning had been quite uneventful. Thomas came in late and locked himself up in the office. From the haze in the air I could tell he was chain smoking from the moment he had arrived. My papers were finished before noon so I decided to clean up a bit and organize some old paperwork. The filing cabinet looked as if it hadn't been touched in years and I knew it hadn't in at least the last two.

The first day I arrived Thomas handed me a folder full of papers labeled "New buisness". He insisted that everything I'd need would be included in the folder and I would not need any of the old paperwork.

"Were starting over, clean slate. Almost as if the business never existed in the first place." He winked as to give me a 'if you understand what I'm saying' look.

So since that day I had never seen numbers from before my arrival. I had never touched any of the other cabinets or folders inside them because I really didn't need too. Curiosity seemed to had got the better of me today, or the 8 layers of dust that was visible from the  next room over. The wooden drawer squeaked as I slowly pulled it open and looked at the mountain of receipts and papers before me.

"No wonder he never wanted it organized." I whispered to myself . The receipts dated back years and years ago. The ones I found the most interesting were the ones dated while Thomas was gone, meaning Polly had actually kept track and filed her spending.

After several hours of scrubbing , filing, and fixing screws I had officially finished one cabinet. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and smiled.

"I thought I was paying you to do numbers, not become a maid" Thomas's voice rang out from behind me.

I spun to meet his gaze, "you pay me to do paperwork , Mr Shelby. The cabinet contains paper work does it not?"

He scoffed obviously taken aback by my response. I watched as he walked across the room and took a seat in my desk chair sitting silently for a few moments. After awhile he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and stuck it between his lips to light it.

"So what have you learned today, Miss Weathers?" He inhaled deeply on the cigarette before blowing the smoke into my direction.

I leaned against the desk choosing to ignore his attempt at being rude.

"I learned that you were in the war for four years and Polly ran the company. I learned that Arthur has a cocaine addiction. And I learned you really love to spend money."

"Is that so?"

"I also learned that Polly is a lot better at recording money then you and your brothers. Which doesn't surprise me considering none of you really pay attention to how much you spend" I crossed my arms feeling his attitude change.

"I keep a very close eye on my coin, Miss Weathers. What makes you think I had a spending problem?" He leaned forward getting closer to me.

"You go to a horse auction every week. You hire someone to train your horses. You also like to gamble with your money" I peered over at him, "the company money. And you think no one notices"

He chuckled softly, flicking his ashes into a nearby ash tray "that's because they don't. No one ever has, Not even Polly. But somehow , you did."

"Because I rerun your numbers and most of the time your math isn't good enough to fool me twice"

"So what do you plan to do with this information , eh? Tell Polly. Tell my brothers . Expose my little addiction so you can 'save us money' ?"

"No. I've already told you. I save you money, Mr Shelby."

A smirk crept across his face as his eyes began to scan me up and down. It's as if he had never registered before who I was and what I was capable of.

"Aunt Polly hired me , I work under the company name. But I work for you Mr. Shelby." I said

"Tommy" He stood fixing his cuff links , "you call me Tommy."