A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 19: Suspicious Activities

The moment Jack looked up and met Ana's eyes, Ana felt panic rush over her whole body, and she had the sudden urge to run, hoping against hope that she could escape. However, Jack had clearly seen her standing in the doorway and eavesdropping on his conversation.

There was nowhere she could hide.

"Ana," Jack said, a tone of surprise in his voice. "You're here early."

Ana swallowed, giving him a forced smile as she stepped further into the office, knowing there was nothing else she could do. "Um, yeah. I took over all of Christian's clients, so I wanted to get in early today to make sure everything was in order."

"Ah okay," Jack nodded in understanding. Ana watched him shove his earbuds into his pocket before quickly moving to log out of Mr. Kavanaugh's computer. "That makes sense… if you're feeling too overwhelmed with all the work and you need help with anything, let me know."

Ana nodded, and she realized it would sound more suspicious if she didn't address what she had just caught him clearly doing. "Why were you taking a Zoom call on Mr. Kavanaugh's computer?"

Ana saw a brief flicker of panic cross over Jack's features before he smiled at her and let out an easy laugh. "Oh. That probably looked a bit weird to you, didn't it? I promise you it's all good. Mr. Kavanaugh knows what I was doing."

Ana blinked, having a hard time believing that, but played along anyway. "Oh. Okay."

"It was an assignment for one of my marketing classes," Jack stated, moving around the desk and walking toward Ana. "My classmate, Jason, and I have to give 'hard-sell' marketing pitches to each other, and so that's what I was doing. He had to grade me on my tactics, and I'm gonna do the same for him when he pitches to me. And we agreed to do it over Zoom because I'm working here in New York City and he's up at Cornell, so we couldn't make it work in person…"

His explanation didn't really track with what Ana had overheard, and the weird, rambling tone to his voice made her seriously doubt the veracity of his story. As her suspicious feelings grew inside of her, however, she was careful to keep her mouth shut.

"Wow, that's really interesting," Ana said. "I remember having to do marketing pitches in my college classes, although it always had to be done in person. I feel like a pitch over Zoom would be a lot less intimidating."

"I know right?" Jack laughed, and the two of them stepped out of Mr. Kavanaugh's office before walking together down the hallway. "Zoom has definitely made my life a lot easier. But that's actually why I was taking the call in Mr. Kavanaugh's office – my office computer doesn't have Zoom installed in it for whatever reason, and when I mentioned it to Mr. Kavanaugh, he offered to let me use his computer for the call instead. So I decided to do it early before he came in for the day so I wouldn't disrupt his work."

Ana simply nodded, having a strong gut feeling that that explanation was complete bullshit. Every single office computer here had Zoom installed in it, but even if his computer didn't, why didn't he do it on his personal laptop? Why would the CEO himself suggest an intern use his own office for a school assignment? There were a lot of holes in Jack's story, but Ana was careful not to point them out to him. She had a sudden strong urge to figure out what was really going on, but didn't want to let on her suspicions.

"Well, I'm sure Mr. Kavanaugh appreciates you not disrupting his day," Ana said, giving him a fake smile. "I hope everything works out with you and your marketing assignment."

"Thanks Ana," Jack said, and they arrived at Ana's office. "And let me know if you need any help with your workload today."

"Will do," Ana nodded, and Jack walked off.

Ana watched him leave, feeling more convinced than ever that he had something to do with overbilling those clients and getting Christian suspended. And she was determined to find out what his plan was.

~/~

Workers began coming in over the next couple hours, and Ana hadn't seen Jack again, thankfully. She spent most of the morning ruminating and trying to figure out what was really going on with him: she would have never pegged him as being the one behind sabotaging the company until she saw him in Mr. Kavanaugh's office this morning. What the hell was that all about? Was him taking a call in Mr. Kavanaugh's office a 'power trip' thing, or was there a more sinister reason behind it?

At around noon, Ana stepped out of her office and walked toward the break room, where she noticed Jack chatting with some of their coworkers. They were all laughing and joking around, and Jack seemed pretty caught up in the conversation, so much so that he didn't even notice Ana standing nearby.

Now's my chance.

With one last glance at Jack to make sure he didn't see her, Ana snuck away down the side corridor toward where she knew his office was.

The intern offices were smaller than all the other marketing agents' offices – they were all pretty much just cubicles with walls, and since there weren't many windows, most of the light came from the fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling. Ana arrived at Jack's office, and sure enough, it was just a desk with a computer, chair, filing cabinet, and a tiny window.

No one was around as Ana snuck into Jack's office, and she glanced over her shoulder before searching around his desk. He didn't have a lot of knick-knacks – only a pencil cup, some file folders, and a framed picture of him and a woman he remembered was his fiance, Leila. She searched through a few drawers (which were mostly empty) before she clicked onto his computer. He was already logged in, thankfully, so she didn't have to guess his password: she clicked onto his Outlook, and Ana, not quite sure what she was looking for, began scrolling through his inbox.

It was mostly emails from Max and some of the other marketing managers, and she also noticed several accepted invitations for Zoom calls, meaning he was definitely lying about not having it installed on his computer. Ana glanced out the door again, making sure the coast was clear, before clicking into his Sent folder.

What she saw immediately made her raise her eyebrows. Nearly all of his recently sent emails were to Kate Kavanaugh – there wasn't a single email from her in his inbox, but pretty much his entire outbox was to her.

That's odd.

Ana clicked into the most recently sent email, noticing that both Kate and Jack had had a pretty long correspondence, the most recent one being from only a day ago. That meant whatever emails he got from her, he likely deleted from his inbox.

Ana began scrolling down Kate and Jack's email correspondence. Just looking over some of the emails they sent to each other, it was clear that their relationship went beyond just simple work colleagues. Ana read over their conversation from the other day:

J,

You and L wanna hang out again tonight? My building's rooftop pool recently opened a wet bar. We'll all celebrate by getting drunk on Cuervo by the pool ;)

K,

Sounds like fun ;) I texted L, she's down. We can't take any pics though, remember.

Yeah yeah, i know the drill. So Christian is really gone now?

Looks like it. Your dad kicked him out himself like an hour ago.

Told you he would :)

I should never have doubted you :) I need to go, but we'll talk more tonight.

Ana was a bit stunned reading over this conversation. What the hell was going on between Jack and Kate? Were the two of them actually in cahoots, framing Christian for overbilling clients? If so, why would the CEO's own daughter be involved in this? The pieces were starting to come together a bit more, but there were still a lot of questions that Ana couldn't get the answers to quite yet.

She heard some people chatting with each other down the hallway, and she quickly clicked out of Jack's email, leaving the screen how she found it before. With a quick glance out the door and down the hallway, she slipped out undetected before hurrying back to her office.

~/~

The rest of the day, Ana pondered what she had seen on Jack's computer, as well as Jack being in Mr. Kavanaugh's office this morning. The more she thought about it, the more it became clear to her that Jack was actually the one overbilling clients, and he had enlisted Kate's help to ensure he wasn't going to get caught. It definitely made sense to Ana that Kate would be involved in framing Christian: she was obviously still pissed about that disastrous date the two of them had gone on over a week ago, and she certainly seemed crazy enough to pull a stunt like this.

Ana had texted Christian to let him know she may have come across some new information that could help clear his name. She didn't go into specifics, knowing that it was too risky to communicate names over text, but she hoped that he would at least call her to ask what she knew, or perhaps invite her to come over again tonight so they could talk. He never responded to her text, however, which sort of concerned her. She tried not to let it bother her too much, though: she was sure he was just busy meeting with his lawyer again or something.

The rest of the day passed by with little incident – and, thankfully, no other odd interactions with Jack – and Ana left around 5 o'clock to go home. Once alone in the elevator, she checked her phone again. Still, no new texts from Christian.

She frowned to herself. This sort of radio silence was really unlike him, and she wondered if something bad had happened. She tried calling him, but her call was sent directly to voicemail.

That's it. Ana wasn't going to spend her night worrying about Christian – once she was outside the Kavanaugh Media building, she hailed a cab and asked to be taken to The Avalon, where Christian lived. She was going to see him for herself and make sure that he was really okay.

God, I hope nothing bad has happened to him.

It took the cab about twenty minutes to make its way through New York City traffic before finally arriving at Christian's building in the West Village. Once they arrived, she quickly paid the cab driver before hopping out and hurrying toward the front doors.

Ana searched through the list of unit numbers on the side of the building before finding Christian's name and buzzing his apartment. "Christian? It's me," she spoke into the intercom system. "Can you hear me? Please answer – I'm worried about you."

Ana waited a few seconds for Christian's response, and when she didn't hear it, she pulled out her phone to try calling him. She had just pulled up his contact when she heard Christian speak through the intercom: "Ana?"

Ana felt relief fill her whole body as she quickly pressed the intercom button again. "Christian? Are you there? I've been trying to get in touch with you all day."

"I've been here," Christian responded, and Ana thought he sounded rather despondent. "I met with Mr. Whalen again. You really shouldn't be here, Ana."

"I found something today that I think is really important. It could help clear your name," Ana insisted. "Please, can you let me up?"

Christian didn't respond for a moment or two before he let out a sigh. "Let me come down. We'll talk down there."

Ana wasn't sure why she couldn't come up, but decided to just go with it. "Thank you."

Ana stood and waited beside the front doors, idly watching the people and cars passing by on the street below. A couple minutes later, Christian opened the front doors, looking like his usual handsome self in a black t-shirt and jeans.

"Hey," Ana smiled at him, genuinely happy to see him. "How are you?"

Christian simply grimaced, gesturing inside the building. "Come in. We'll talk in here."

Ana felt curious, and a little worried, but followed him inside the building. The receptionist thankfully wasn't here today, so the two of them were alone as Ana turned to look at Christian.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, frowning at him. "Did something happen? You said you met with your lawyer today."

Christian let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah," he said after a moment, looking up at Ana. "He… made it very clear to me that I can't have any contact with you anymore. At least while this whole investigation is happening."

Ana's stomach dropped to her feet. "Seriously?"

Christian nodded, still looking rather miserable. "I had to tell him about our… involvement… and he was very insistent that any communication between the two of us could implicate us both if this ever went to court. And the last thing I want is for you to get in any sort of trouble because of me."

"Christian, I know it's risky for me to be in communication with you right now, but I want to help," Ana said firmly. "I've been trying to get in touch with you all day, but I think I found out who's doing this to you."

Christian raised his eyebrows, looking almost hopeful. "You did?"

Ana nodded, and she immediately recounted everything she found out today about Jack and Kate, what she saw Jack doing in Mr. Kavanaugh's office this morning, and what she saw on Jack's email when she snuck into his office. Christian looked completely shocked at these revelations.

"Could it really be Jack the intern?" he asked skeptically. "Honestly, he's the last person I'd suspect to be behind all of this. Kate's involvement I believe more, but I seriously doubt she has the brains to pull something like this off."

"That's why I'm thinking Jack is the brains behind it, and Kate is the one convincing her father that you're at fault," Ana insisted. "Kate obviously doesn't like you, so of course she's going to place the blame on you. And Jack is definitely charming and manipulative enough to scam our clients out of their money. It's worth looking into, don't you think?"

Christian nodded. "I think so. I'll speak with Mr. Whalen tomorrow and see what he can find out. Thanks for telling me what's going on."

Ana looked at Christian, who was now avoiding her gaze. "Do you still plan on avoiding me after today?"

Christian closed his eyes, a tormented look crossing over his features. "I don't want to, Ana, but it's for the best. I don't know how all of this is going to play out, or if Jack and Kate are actually behind it all, but the less you're involved, the better. It would kill me to see you blamed for any of this, and I don't want to put that kind of unnecessary stress on you during this whole ordeal."

Ana felt her heart catch in her throat and a panicked feeling overtake her body as she realized what he was saying. "Do you... want to end things between us?"

"No! God no, Ana," Christian immediately moved toward her and took her hands in his own, clutching them tightly in reassurance. "I'm not saying that – please believe me. It's because I want to be with you that I can't involve you in any of this. I care about you so much Ana, I can't even begin to tell you…" He shook his head, letting out a humorless laugh. "Honestly, it's because of you that I'm able to pull myself out of bed each morning. You're the reason I'm not throwing in the towel and just giving up on everything. I'm fighting tooth and nail to clear my name, not just to save my career, but so that you and I can be together out in the open. I dream about having that life with you – it's what's driving me right now."

Ana felt tears fill her eyes at his romantic words, and a few tears even slipped down her cheeks before she could stop them. Christian reached up to cup her cheek and wipe her tears away, and without thinking, Ana moved forward and pressed her lips to Christian's in a sudden kiss. Christian didn't hesitate to kiss her back, holding her like he never wanted to let her go.

After several long moments, Ana finally pulled away, blinking a few more tears out of her eyes as she gazed up at him. "I dream about that life with you too Christian," she said quietly. "I understand why you want to distance yourself from me for now, but even if I can't be with you, I'm going to do everything in my power to help clear your name. I know that Jack and Kate are framing you, and you deserve justice." she took a deep, shaky breath, her emotions becoming almost too much to bear. "I love you, Christian, and I promise I'm going to fight for you. I'll always fight for you."

A look of shock and strong feeling crossed over Christian's face, but before he could respond to her words, Ana stepped out of his arms, turned, and hurried out the front doors toward the street outside.

She tried her hardest not to think that that may have been the last time she'd get to see or speak to Christian for a long time.

A/N: Oh, my heart when it comes to these two :'( Don't worry, they won't be able to stay apart for too long lol.

Please review! Next chapter, Ana does some more digging and learns more about Jack and Kate.