In out and back in love with you.

4. Ongoing investigation.

Long flights were never something Alexander enjoyed and this flight felt longer than ever. He wanted to get home to his children, he missed the little demons more than he was willing to admit, he also wanted to see his wife, he knew distance between them had grown and he needed to find a way to get closer to her. It was not going to be easy, Narcy had changed her tastes, her priorities and she had gone from being a loving wife and dedicated mother to a compulsive buyer who enjoyed spending her days in the country club. At the beginning Narcy wanted to be involved in Alexander's business and was in charge of many administrative and accounting matters but as time passed she began to reduce her work load in the company arguing she needed time for herself, currently she was only in charge of some supplier expenses and visited the office a day a week a few hours at most.

Truth to be told, for a few months now it was impossible to get a smile from her or even to start a conversation, her interests had been reduced to having a bigger house and designer clothes and when he talked about his children Narcy limited herself on planning children's events so the little ones had the opportunity to play with the elite of society and those events usually ended badly; Alec was playful and sometimes mischievous and some of his pranks were not well received by the high society and Kyle preferred to play in mud rather than learn tennis. In the end, Narcy classified the two little boys as savages and preferred to leave them at home with the nanny while she went out mingle. It was a difficult situation, talk to someone you no longer know seems almost impossible, but Alexander had to try, for his children if for nothing else. If there was any way to bring his wife back from her social haze he would, she was the mother of his children for God's sake! Maybe he should try harder, even cancel a couple of trips and spend time together.

- I’m home!!!- Alexander scream into the empty house- It was a huge house, they bought it the previous year, was bigger than Alexander would want, but it was closer to the neighborhood of Narcy's new friends, where she felt more comfortable and happy among that "superior quality people."

- Alec! Kyle! Is anybody home??- He tried again, with no response, he pick up the phone and call the children's nanny who answered at the first ring.

-Mr. McIntyre! Good afternoon.

- Hello Rebeca, how are you? How are the kids? -He asked

- They're fine! You’re, mother came to visit and since Mrs. Linda loves them so much, she asked me to come to the mall and tempt the kids with some popcorn and a movie. We just bought tickets. - He remembered, his mother did say she would visit, and even stay for a month or two.

- Yeah, you're right, I forgot, okay, let me when you’re done and I'll pick you all up, okay?, Is Narcy there with you guys?- He already knew the answer but He had to ask anyway.

-Ammm, no Sir, Mrs. McIntyre had a waterpolo event today, she’ll be home late.

- Ok, text when you are done, Bye.

It was no surprise that Narcy was not home, or with the kids for that matter, with a few hours available in his hands Alexander decided to go to the office and work on a few pending matters.

When he arrived at his company "MTC & associates" he went straight to his office and began to solve some details of the company's daily operation when his accounting manager entered his office after knocking on the door.

- Mr. McIntyre welcome, I hope you had a good trip- the manager, a middle age man has worked in the company for about eight years now, he is an honest and reliable man and impeccable tracking accounting errors.

- Henry, good afternoon it was a productive trip as always. Did you need something? - said the businessman with a raised eyebrow.

- I'm sorry to bother you and it's probably nothing, but while making the balance of accounting I noticed that some paid accounts are duplicated sir

- What do you mean duplicated? - Alexander asked surprised

- I mean I detect some payments for the same amounts and referring to the same concept and contract only there would have to be only one payment and there are two. Maybe it's just a balance error since the payments are made from your personal user account but I wanted to clarify before stocking.- the poor man was more than nervous, questioning his boss's movements was not a walk in the park but he had to know in order to do his job.

-How many of these payments are duplicated? And how much are we talking about?- Alexander was totally disoriented, if the movements were made from his account it means he made the payments himself, but he is always extremely careful with remittance of expenses, so that a payment be made double was unlikely but if there were several of them, it became almost impossible, that only left one unpleasant option and it was someone was diverting funds from his company.

- There are about eighty payments on the last six months marked as duplicates sir, some small and some others more significant in total the duplicates exceed the Million dollars, I would have to see the details of your bank statement to corroborate it since my area only reviews the payments against contract, however we do not handle detailed accounts. - Henry’s voice became more and more quiet and finished almost in a whisper, as he progressed in his speech his boss's face became more and more paler and the murderous expression on his eyes hardened.

- I, I, I can review again and have a more detailed report for tomorrow boss.- He couldn’t help but stutter.

- I want a detailed review first thing tomorrow. Oh an Henry… keep it quiet for now. You report directly to me, are we clear?- The harsh way he said it send shivers through the poor man’s spine.

- Yes, yes Sir.

- On your way out, send Monica to my office, that’s all.- Alexander dismissed Henry and got deep in thought.

- Knock knock, may I come in?- Monica's cheerful voice came from the door.

- Hey, what’s with the face?, is this the way to receive you’re favorite cousin after her leave?- she was a short, cheerful and quite pretty, also Alexander's cousin, a few years ago she had started working in the finance department, but she had a baby a short time ago and had been on maternity leave for a few months, now it seemed in the absence of the beautiful girl someone had taken the opportunity to steal money from under Alexander's nose.

- Hey Mon!!! you know I missed you, it’s just I think we’re in deep s**t, someone might be stealing from me.

Monica’s ears stood at attention . Who would dare steal from his cousin? To do something like that it had to be someone with balls of steel, that or a complete i***t.

- What?? Could you say that again? - Alexander told her everything he talked about with Henry and Monica's face was a poem, after a few minutes thoughtfully she commented.

- My dear cousin we are definitely in trouble, almost no one has access to your office and even less to your passwords or bank accounts, if this happened, the thief is someone too close to you, I have a bad feeling about this. But don’t panic, Let's think about it for a second, first we have to corroborate money leaks or, I don’t know, weird transactions or something, and then we have to think about who has access to your office, your computer and your passwords, because someone with that much access is not common, I think only a handful of people, right? Also, if everything was done by bank transfers there will be a trail, we can follow the money and find the culprit, right?- Monica wove the plan in her head while looking at her cousin with a hint of guilt, she shouldn't been absent for so long, but her cousin told her not to worry and he had everything under control, but still.

-You're right, I want you to take care of this along with Henry, he's excellent but I need to know someone who has my back has eyes on this. If I find out this is what I think it is, the person who has been robbing me blind will regret it.- Alexander wasn’t joking, loyalty was one of the things he valued the most and if someone had betrayed his trust he would find a way to return the favor.

-Since we know there might be unusual movements let's do a complete review, get an external consultant, someone able to carry out a comprehensive audit, I want someone capable of finding irregularities and proposing practical and cost-enhancing solutions, find the best.- With that the businessman left his office to pick up his children from the mall, they should have finished by now and since his mother was with them it would be a good opportunity to spend time together.

As soon as Alec and Kyle saw his father they ran out to hug him and spent the next hour telling everything that happened in his absence, it had only been a few days but for ten and seven years old boys, a few days seemed like ages, Alexander noticed his mother somewhat thoughtful, she had greeted him with an affectionate hug as always but he noticed she wanted to ask him something. The nanny was a little uncomfortable too, Rebeca was a cheerful girl but now there was a grimace on her face. Everyone got in the car and went to their house, when they arrived, Linda, offered to put the children to bed and it was then he was able to interrogate his children's nanny.

- Rebeca, is there something bothering you? did something happen with my mother?

- Amm, no sir is not that, It's just Mrs. Linda asked me a lot of questions about Mrs. McIntyre, she thinks the Mrs. doesn't spend enough time with the children and maybe she's right, but still, it was somewhat uncomfortable. I don’t trash talk people, but is hard to make excuses. -See, loyalty, that’s why she takes care of his children for so many years now.

- It's okay Rebeca, I'll talk to my mother about it, by the way, I wanted to ask you about my wife's personal trainer, do you know him?- Alexander knew the reason for his question but he didn't want to ask so directly, maybe Rebeca would take the hint.

- Oh he's a good person sir, he and his boyfriend are excellent coaches and quite nice too. Is something wrong?

-No, no, not at all, you know I don't like strangers and I’m always careful about new people, that's why I was asked, good to know they are good people- And he said it with relief, so the coach was gay, his wife was not unfaithful, everything was in his head, the company would take his attention at least a few days and he didn't need to have anything else to worry about, now he also understood the expression on his mother's face, she was worried about his marriage and her grandchildren, Alexander couldn't blame his mother, he was also worried, but he would find a way to solve things with both his wife and his company, He always did, resilience was not new to him. And what Alexander the great wants, he gets.