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Of Corporate Scandals

Chapter 34. Mis(take/understanding)

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The door shut with a gentle click as Calypso prowled into Percy's office, clutching the manila folder full of incriminating invoices tightly in her hands.

"Hmm, where will Percy find these?" She muttered to herself as she stalked behind the desk. She smirked as she saw the hastily put away work of Annabeth's filing still sprawled across the desk. Calypso lifted up the corner of a binder and shoved the manila folder under it so more than half was peeking out - not obvious, but easily seen. "Oh Annabeth, you really should be more careful with the type of important files you just leave around," Calypso sighed happily to herself.

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"Morning, Mr. Jackson," the doorman greeted, tipping his hat.

"Good morning," Percy greeted, distractedly hurrying into the building off of the Manhattan streets, "Is-um, has Annabeth arrived yet?" Percy cleared his throat, trying to appear nonchalant.

The doorman looked at Percy with a puzzled expression. For the past several weeks, Percy and Annabeth arrived at work together, considering how they lived together, "Uh, no, sir, not yet. Though, I could've just not noticed her. You could ask reception."

Percy nodded, muttering a quick thanks before going up to the front desk, "Hey Lacey."

"Good morning, Mr. Jackson! What can I do for you?"

"Is Annabeth here yet?"

He received the same look from the receptionist that the doorman gave him.

"Um, I haven't seen her this morning, but I can check if she swiped her key card to get elevator access."

"If you would. Please."

It was a moment of silence as Lacey typed and clicked away on the computer behind her. "Um, nope, she hasn't swiped in this morning. The last time she swiped was about ten o'clock last night."

Percy grimaced, so she was here last night.

"Alright, thanks, Lacey." Percy stalked to the elevator as he pulled out his phone. He hit the first number on his speed dial. Straight to voicemail. Percy lowered his voice since he wasn't alone in the elevator, "Annabeth, where are you? I'm starting to get worried. You didn't come until really late last night, and you left before I woke up. Just...just call me back as soon as you can."

Percy hung up just as the elevator doors opened to the twelfth floor.

As soon as he stepped into the office, he was rushed by a nervous looking intern, "Oh, Mr. Jackson, I'm so, so sorry!" A young girl in her late-teens or early twenties with thick-framed glasses exclaimed. Percy recognized her as the girl who had taken over coffee duty. "I don't have those notes for the meeting morning type up yet, I was suppose to get them from Annabeth, but I haven't seen her yet so-"

"Um, you know what, that's fine actually. Just-uh, just-I'll take care of it. Don't worry about it," Percy said as soon as he heard Annabeth's name.

"Really? Are you sure? I know I was suppo-"

"Yes, positive, don't worry about it, really."

"Oh! Um, alright, I guess I can-"

Percy didn't stick around to hear the end of her sentence. Instead, he beelined straight to his office before anyone else could stop him. He pushed opened the frosted glass doors, and immediately sighed in disappointment.

It had been a stretch of a hope, but, alas, Annabeth wasn't in there. Percy trudged over to his chair, and collapsed in it lazily. He buried his head in his hands. Annabeth had been acting so weird lately, and it made him anxious. He glanced up at the piles of paper still strewn across his desk.

Huh, guess she didn't finish her excessive filing after a late night. That added to list of anomalies in Annabeth's habits: not finishing a task. He leafed through the papers - just his regular schedules, meeting notes, project files. A manila folder stuck out from a pile of building permits. It seemed out of place amongst the blue, plastic folders Annabeth usually used to file his papers.

Percy picked it up and browsed through the papers. They seemed to be...invoices? But what for? Percy's eyes scanned the page quicker and quicker as he realized he did not recognize whatever project or purchase these invoices were for.

Percy's eyes widened as he read the records of mass amounts of money being transacted and transferred. Everything on the paper was unfamiliar, and had obscure names on it. Whatever these files were for, Percy could tell from the data that none of these were on any tax records. After scanning a few more pages, he realized they weren't even under his name. They were billed to Poseidon. If these were what he thought they were, years of records showing some criminal embezzling under his dad's name...Oh gods.

Percy flipped through page after page, his growing concern being why Annabeth had these. He scrambled around his desk, rummaging for his phone. He grabbed it, struggling to dial her number.

Knock, knock. Percy's door flung open, "Mr. Jackson?"

"Oh, um, Calypso, hi. I thought you were stationed at the uptown office?"

"Well, I'm back! My Uncle Atlas sent me to work for you again. I started yesterday afternoon when you left for your meeting."

"Oh, um, alright. Do you need anything?" Percy said, still clutching his phone and the manila folder.

"Nope, just dropping in to say hi. Oh, did you need help with these papers? I could file them for you. Annabeth had me print those invoices in the folder out for her. I don't know what they are, but I could figure it out, you know, if you needed me to," Calypso said, flashing a grin and smiling.

Percy's gaze snapped to her. He clutched the papers, "Wait, these?" He held up the folder.

Calypso sauntered over to Percy's desk, and leaned against it with her hip, "Uh huh. She gave me a flashdrive and told me to just print it all." Calypso fabricated her story with ease and precision.

"Calypso, actually, could you just give me a minute to myself. I'll take care of this."

"Alright, are you sure you don't need me?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Calypso turned on her heel and exited with a smirk.

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Annabeth placed her sunglasses on top of her head as she entered the Open Seas Inc. building. She hoped to the gods that no one in the lobby stopped her as she walked straight to elevator.

Oh gods. She was a mess: showing up to work hours late, unshowered, hair a greasy mess, clothes unkempt. The encounter with her mother had her on edge. She left before Percy had awaken in fear that he would see right through her with one look.

She entered the elevator, and immediately hit the "door close" button, but a hand shot in between the closing doors before she could.

"Oh, hey, Annabeth!"

Annabeth feigned a weak smile, "Hi, Lacey."

"Mr. Jackson was looking for you this morning."

"Oh, really?" Annabeth grimaced, that's what she was worried about. She cleared her throat, "He must've forgotten that I, um, had a site visit this morning."

"Ooh, a site visit? Nice, for what project?"

"Um, you know, all of them."

"All of them? What-"

"Well, this is my floor, nice talking to you!"

"Annabeth, this is floor nine-"

Annabeth exited as soon as the doors opened. She'd never been on floor nine before. The elevator opened up to a nondescript, gray-carpeted hallway with doors on both sides. Annabeth peered into each door until she found the one she was looking for: the stairwell.

Okay, so now she had to walk up three flights of stairs, but at least now she wouldn't have to talk to anyone. With the height and expanse of the Open Seas Inc. building, no one ever took the stairs; it was the perfect place to avoid people.

Annabeth looked up at the swirling pattern of flights of stairs leading up to the twelfth floor. Might as well start walking. The click clack echo of her heels against the concrete was joined by another pair of footsteps on their way down.

"Annabeth?"

"Percy?"

"What are you doing in the staircase?"

"What are you doing in the staircase?"

"Avoiding people."

"Same."

Annabeth opened her mouth to speak, but words failed her as she looked up her boyfriend. Percy stood a flight above, and he looked equally at a loss for words.

"Percy-" "Annabeth-"

Silence fell on them again. Percy took a step down, "Where have you been? It's like you're sneaking around. Avoiding me or something."

As he descended the steps towards her, Annabeth's voice left her throat.

There was something wrong.

Percy's hair unkempt, not in his boyish messy norm, but because he hadn't bothered to put himself together. His clothes were disheveled. Prominent dark bags let Annabeth know Percy hadn't slept well. He hadn't shaved this morning either.

"I-I" Annabeth stuttered, she let her foot fall back onto the step below her as Percy took another step.

The worst thing about Percy's appearance was the look in his eyes. Hurt. He was hurting, and Annabeth knew right away she was the one hurting him. She finally noticed Percy was clutching a manila folder; he knew.

"What is this, Annabeth?" Percy's voice cracked, holding out the folder. His voice hardened, "What the fuck is this?"

"Percy, I-" Annabeth, began to explain. Percy cut her off.

"Because it looks like invoices, that I had no idea how you even got, that could destroy this company. My company." Percy's eye flashed, he was furious.

"Percy, would you just-"

"No! Annabeth, I found these with your stuff, they're yours! I can't think of any other reason someone would have planted fraudulent accounts except to sabotage. This flimsy, stupid folder could make me and my father lose everything. Everything, I've worked for. How could you, Annabeth? I've given you everything, this would bring down your department down too! And the question I keep asking myself, and I can't seem to figure out the answer to is why?"

"Percy-" Annabeth pleaded.

"I'm not done, Annabeth." Never had he ever spoken her name with such distaste, such resentment. "I took this-this shit to the legal department this morning. Nakamura looked over already had these on record. All these invoices are in public record for Open Seas employees because a few decades ago these were fabricated by a competitor to bring us down. They're fake. So if you try to reason with me and convince me that you were trying to bring my father to justice or some crap, they're fake. The sole reason these exist is for destruction, this is what you were doing so late last night-

"Goddamnit, listen to me, Percy!"Annabeth grabbed the folder from his hands, "How could I? Why do I have these? If you would just listen to me for five seconds you could let me explain myself. Oh, my gods. I cannot believe you just-The legal team, Percy?" Annabeth was crying now. She saw bits of spit fly out of her mouth as she sobbed out an explanation, but she didn't care. "For your information, I saw my mother last night. She heard about my goddamn promotion, and brought me those and asked my to plant them on you. And honestly right now I think you'd be surprised to know I refused. I told her to go fuck herself because I wouldn't betray you like that. I know what those invoices are for, but shame on me if you don't believed me because apparently you don't trust me." Her voice broke on the last work.

"Annabeth-"

"No! It's my turn," her voice echoed in the stairwell. It magnified the space, both physical and metaphorical, in between her and Percy. "It's like you're waiting, wanting me to fail. To hurt you, to make a mistake. Everyone, my mother, the press, every goddamn employee in this entire building is just holding their breath waiting for me to fuck up and prove I'm not cut out to be head architect, that I'm not qualified."

"Annabeth, I-"

"You jumped at the chance to go at my throat. For your information," she spat, "I'm the one who went to the legal team and told them to look for fabricated invoices in their records.

Percy's face fell. He grasped for words, but none came to him.

Annabeth turned on her heel, ready to stomp back down to level nine and take the elevator to the lobby. She needed out of this goddamn place..

"Annabeth, wait."

"Don't, Percy. Just don't."

She turned and left.

He didn't follow.

A/N: Hey, guys! Busy, busy trying to pack my life away before I move to college, but here's a chapter for you. Fun fact: I've been slowly working on this chapter since January lmao.