Page 72 of Babies for the Christmas Grump

The door swings shut behind me, and I’m out of there before I can hear Elaine’s next jibe. I don’t want to listen to it. I don’t need to.

I pull out my phone again as I make my way through the hotel’s quiet hallways, trying to keep my pulse steady.

Ryder: Nolan, I’ll be there in five. Tell Sunny to meet me in my office.

I walk into my office, and there she is. Sunny.

Pacing.

Her movements are frantic as she glances at the clock every few seconds, as if the minutes are slipping away faster than she can keep up with.

She stops when she sees me, a breath of relief escaping her lips. And then she shifts, almost as if she wants to move again but is waiting for me to say something.

“Sorry, I kept you waiting,” I say.

There’s an energy about her. She’s been coiling tighter with each passing moment.

She doesn’t answer, gives me a quick nod before turning back toward the pile of papers on the desk.

“You’ve been busy,” I note, my gaze flicking to the disarray of financial reports and spreadsheets scattered on the desk. “Are you alright?”

There’s a method to the madness. Sunny’s got it all laid out in some order that only she would understand.

I can see she’s been digging deep, her hands almost compulsively flipping through the pages, searching for something, anything that could make sense of the mess we’ve found ourselves in.

“No, I’m not okay,” she says, shaking her head quickly. “I… I don’t know, Ryder. I think I’ve found something, and it isn’t good. Really bad.”

I don’t even need to ask. I can hear it in her voice. Fear and frustration make my stomach tighten.

She gestures toward the cluttered desk where reports are strewn haphazardly. “I’ve been going through everything. Every damn file. It doesn’t add up. The numbers are all wrong, Ryder. And I think I know why.”

I step fully into the room, shutting the door behind me, and walk toward her. Her frantic energy is contagious, and I try to slow my pulse.

I can already see it: the documents, the spreadsheets, and the financial statements, all neatly laid out.

The problem is, they don’t tell the same story. There are holes, things hidden in plain sight, patterns that just shouldn’t be there.

“What did you find?” I ask, leaning over the desk to get a closer look.

She exhales sharply and looks up at me, her eyes wide. “I started with some of the vendors, just looking for small discrepancies. At first, I thought I was overthinking it, but then I found a connection. One payment, and then another. And they were all linked back to Lang Capital Holdings.”

I feel my pulse quicken. “Lang?”

She nods, her gaze sharp. “At first, I thought it was a coincidence, but the more I dug, the more things started to line up. Payments from the hotel going to Lang’s accounts. And not just small amounts. Big ones. Enough to make me think… maybe my aunt got herself caught in something she couldn’t get out of.”

I sit down, the revelation pressing on me. “You think she was mixed up in this?”

Sunny rubs her temples. “I don’t know. But she was trying to cover something. The way these payments were structured, it’s like she was hiding more, maybe even from me. It doesn’t feel right, Ryder.”

I swallow hard, my mind running through the same troubling thoughts. If my gut is correct, this isn’t just a string of financial oversights. This is deliberate.

Someone’s been playing a much bigger game, and we’ve just started uncovering it.

“Do youreallythink your aunt would do that?”

I knew Evie. She wasn’t the type. But you can’t always really know people…

Sunny offers me a one-shouldered shrug. “Either that, or she was tricked. Could that be possible? This is all so confusing. I don’t even know if it means anything.”