Mr. Mitchell Billionaires' Club Book 2 - Raylin Marks Page 0,159

to meet mine, “I don’t want to do this either. I want to help, but I have no idea where my place is in any of this anymore.”

“I don’t need you trying to step in and control this. This is how it’s been for a long time. Larry loves Addy as much as you, Jim. She’s the light in the darkness that Derek puts him and Annette through. You have to know he won’t let anything happen to her. I know this because I know them.”

I couldn’t pretend to understand why Avery was so sure about Derek’s parents. It all seemed so dysfunctional.

I sighed and pulled her in and held her tightly. “I hate this,” I said. “It brings up shitty memories of my mom’s addiction, and Jake and me being left with that woman. Maybe I feel that is what’s happening to Addison when we drop her off anywhere around that prick.”

Avery’s tense muscles loosened, and she returned my hug. “I’m sorry you have to deal with any of this.”

“Stop fucking apologizing,” I said. “You have to stop apologizing for something you can fix.”

“I know,” she conceded.

The rest of our night was not what I’d imagined it would be. It seemed that we’d been heading this direction since the beach incident. I couldn’t fix anything or help anyone. I had no say in this, and every time I opened my mouth, all I did was push Avery away. For the first time in my life, I was fucking stumped.

The weekend ironed itself out in its own way. Avery seemed always to wake up happier and healthier than the day before. I opted to shut my fucking mouth about the whole thing so we could enjoy each other before heading back to work and having to squeeze in time together during the workweek. We enjoyed a full day on Sunday, Clay coming over and putting the final touches on the transformed room that I couldn’t wait for Addy to see. Now, it was Monday again, and time for another hectic week.

“Hey,” Alex said, nodding back at Summer dismissively.

“Everything okay?” I asked, eyeing the papers Alex held.

Alex pinched his lips and looked past me and out my windows as he sat across from my desk.

“Alex,” I said, “did you and Summer finally call it quits?”

What the hell is his problem?

Alex rubbed his forehead, then cleared his throat. “This was my responsibility, and I was going to handle it.”

“Am I firing you today?” I smirked.

“Funny,” he said. “Jim—”

“Save the drama and suspense, dude. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Here are the reports from the investigation that’s been ongoing since that lady in the preschool gave Avery and Addy shit,” he said, holding a stack of papers.

“I’ve been getting reports for the last month when they started in on investigations in all departments. What are those papers?”

“The ones we have to terminate immediately. They never passed background checks, but they were hired anyway. The investigators were looking into it, and they pointed out that we need to tighten up the system we’re using or use a new process. We have to fire around eighteen people today because of this fucking mistake,” he said.

“Being that it was our mistake—in one way or another, we misled these employees—we’ll send them with a severance package,” I said. “I don’t want the reputation for throwing people out on the street.”

“That’s not the issue.”

“Okay, so what, then?”

Fuck, he didn’t look well.

“Avery—your Avery—was one of them.”

“What? Why? Because of something stupid? Maybe we ought to look into these cases, then. I don’t want people fired over nonsense.”

Alex leaned forward and slid the papers that he’d been holding across my desk. I felt the blood leave my face when I read Avery’s report. All this time, I’d been made to feel like the bad guy. Maybe I was willfully blind. All I knew was that the reality of the situation was something I wasn’t prepared to see.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Avery

I had just finished my lunch and sat at my desk when Stefanie walked up with her usual, solemn Avery fucked up look. I swiveled in my chair to face her, just about to hit send on a text to Jim, saying that I’d missed him at lunch today. I’d actually thought for a second that he was going to show up since this was the first time he hadn’t sent out a buffet of food for me to enjoy in his absence. The poor man was probably hung up with something,