Always One Of Those Two Reasons

"You're home." I smiled as Damon entered. "Are you ready to go or do you need to change or anything?"

He was in thought for a moment. I could tell it seemed like something had irritated him. "I'm ready to go at any time." He finally responded.

I closed the gap in between us and looked into his eyes. "What's wrong? You seem frustrated or upset."

"Frustrated." He confessed.

"Why?" I looked at him with concern. What had happened at the office to make him feel this way right now? Or was it Zach that had caused his bad mood?

"I spoke with Justin. They're still working on confirmation." Damon let out a sigh of frustration.

"I'm sorry." I wish I could do more to help. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything about the situation.

"It's not your fault. I just want to make sure we get this resolved and soon." Damon responded.

"You still haven't told me this history you have with this man you suspect is Zach." I raised a brow. He seemed to be more determined after getting some idea of who this man was. I couldn't blame him but it felt like there was definitely more to the situation.

"It's a long story." I could tell by the change in his demeanor he didn't really want to go into it. But I wanted to know, I wasn't going to let him off easy.

"I got time." If I were to feel included on this matter I wanted details.

"The last time I saw him was when I returned to the company when we had a falling out. I had met him in Los Angeles when I fled Nashville, back when I thought Melissa and Sterling had died in the car accident." Damon explained. "We developed a decent friendship, then I returned back here and our friendship remained for a moment until I found out there was a detail that had been left out."

"What was that?" I questioned.

"He was sent by his boss to befriend me, that way it would be easier to get what they wanted." Damon answered.

I felt slightly uneasy. "That is?"

"Kaydence, there are only two things people want out of Tipton Enterprises." Damon continued on. "Either they want to work and partner with us so they can be a success, or they want to take us down because we're the biggest competition. It doesn't matter who it is, they all usually have the same goal in mind and it's always one of those two reasons."

I nodded. "I see."

"Tipton Enterprises is the leading company in the United States, hell even the world at this point." Damon's face was just as serious as it was when he walked in the door. "It's more common than you think for people to try this. You'd be surprised by how often I deal with these types of people. It's mainly the ones begging to work with us and only a few who actually want to ruin us."

I nodded again. "I understand."

"Let's get the children and go." He changed the topic. "I don't want to keep your mother waiting any longer."

I got up from the couch and we got the children loaded up and ready to go. Damon didn't speak the entire time of the car ride. I could tell he was thinking. I wanted to ask but we couldn't talk with the children in the car. They were to be totally oblivious about the situation at hand with Zach.

The car pulled up in front of the house and we all got out of it. Damon carried Scarlett as Sterling held my hand tightly. We approached the steps and Sterling begged to ring the doorbell. We humored him of course, it was amazing how something so simple could make him so excited.

My mother opened the door with a smile. "It's so good to see you guys." I could hear the happiness in her tone.

"We're ready to eat grandma!" Sterling spoke as he looked up at her.

"Then you better come inside." She opened the door all the way and stepped aside so we could enter.

"Hey!" Simon greeted us as we all came into the living room.

The kids had met him around Thanksgiving two months ago. We had taken all the precautions we felt were necessary before we allowed it. Damon even had one of his men follow Simon around for a little bit to report what he did. Once we knew his intentions were good we decided it couldn't hurt. He seemed like he would be sticking around for a while anyway.

Sterling seemed to be quite taken with him. Of course Sterling seemed to like everyone unless he had the feeling they weren't a good person. Scarlett couldn't really give us her opinion as she only spoke in her baby blabber still. She smiled though when she saw him and he made her giggle when they played. If that wasn't her giving her approval then I didn't know what was.

My mother had invited us over to have her meatloaf. It was one of my favorite things she made. She was a phenomenal cook in the kitchen. I don't think there was ever a meal that I didn't enjoy when I lived at home.

As we waited for dinner to finish up we sat and conversed in the living room. As always Sterling made sure to involve himself and chime in when he could. He was always so social and smart. I enjoyed hearing his take on topics here and there.

Damon's phone began to go off. He reached into his pocket to see who it was. He then looked over to me. "I need to take this. I'll be just a moment." He stood up and walked outside.

"Everything okay?" My mom asked.

"Yes." I nodded. "It's probably just work."

She didn't ask anything further. Instead her and Simon scooped the kids up and took them into the kitchen. Dinner had just finished up and it was time to get ready to eat. I wanted to let Damon know so he could eat before anything had gone cold. I opened the front door and stepped out on the porch as he hung up the call.

"Who was it?" I asked.

He turned around to face me. "It was Justin." I could see he was annoyed by whatever they had talked about.

"What did he want?" I questioned further.

"The system being used crashed." Damon answered. "The progress he had got lost and so now he has to start over to confirm the identity."