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‘Hey Grace.’ Tina, Eric’s receptionist said.

‘Hey Tina, How are you?’

‘Pretty good. Eric is back there. Go ahead, he’s expecting you.’

‘Thanks.’ Randy and Grace walked back towards Eric’s office, knocking on the door before walking in.

‘Hey Grace.’ Eric smiled as he stood up to hug Grace and shake Randy’s hand.

‘Hey. How are you?’

‘Doing well, doing well, what about yourself? How is Brendon? How are the boys?’

‘They are doing pretty well. Pretty dramatic at home right now but other than that they are all doing well.’

‘All right let’s get down to business. What is going on?’

‘I left the company today. There is four thousand dollars missing out of the company’s bank account and I have nothing to account for it. I can’t be a part of a company.’

‘Okay so we need to go back through the contract and see what the guidelines for this is and then follow the procedures.’

‘Great. Let’s get started.’ Eric pulled the 300-page contract and began flipping through.

‘Do you know what Holly and the company are planning on doing?’

‘I don’t think she can actually do much about it until we get my stuff situated. She hasn’t left the company, I have. Besides, I don’t care about her part of the company.’

‘Are you sure that you want to do this Grace?’

‘Eric, I’ve thought about this before. Holly does not know the first thing about running a business. She is careless, she is lazy, and she is mean.’

‘Alright well if you’re sure about it then we’ll get started.’

‘Good.’ Grace smiled.

‘I feel like our entire lives are being turned upside down.’ Brendon said as he sat out at the table on the back patio with Spencer and their friend Shane.

‘I know.’

‘Grace and Holly aren’t friends anymore. Grace is leaving the company she practically raised. We’re not in the bad anymore. I just don’t know how to deal with it all.’

‘It’ll all work itself out Bren.’

‘I know I’m not too worried about it but what are we going to do?’

‘The same thing we’ve been doing. We’re still us. We’re still Panic at the disco and nothing is going to change that.’

‘You still want to do this?’

‘Are you kidding? This is the only thing I know how to do. With out this band, we’ve got nothing.’

‘I know it’s not like we can go out and get regular jobs.’

‘So we’re just going to keep writing and making music.’

‘Yup. I guess so.’

‘Alright so Grace it says here that you put up $950,000 for start up costs.’ Eric said as he. Randy, Grace, and his paralegal all sat in the conference room with receipts, contracts, and files and files of past expenses on the table.

‘Yes. That was the total start up costs for the company.’

‘That is just the start up costs though that doesn’t count the materials, building contracts, and travel expenses.’ Randy said.

‘Where did that money come from?’

‘It came out of the trust fund I had for college. I completely emptied it out after graduate school in order to start this company.’

‘So now what we have to do is go through and find out how much you gave the total time you were there for all other expenses and add it all up.’

‘This is going to take forever.’ Grace said dropping her head to the table.

‘It is going to take a while.’

‘I don’t even have all of it here. Half of the receipts and tickets are at home.’

‘How about we end here today and get a good nights sleep and start fresh in the morning. I’ll have a couple more paralegals come in and we can try to knock out as much as we can tomorrow.’

‘That works. It’s 4:30 anyway.’

‘Alright well I’ll get this put away and see you two in the morning.’ Eric smiled.

‘Thanks Eric.’ Grace and Randy shook his hands before the both walked out of the office towards Grace’s car.

‘This is insane. I had no idea you had so much invested.’

‘I didn’t either. I knew we had that in start up costs but I guess it just adds up quickly.’

‘So what is going to happen now?’

‘Once we get all of this sorted out then Eric will file a case that will claim all of the expenses that I put up for the company. Holly will probably file a counterclaim but since this is on the contract she will have to take all of the expenses I put up out of the company account and reimburse me for the costs.’

‘What if there isn’t enough money?’

‘She’ll have to sell the company.’

‘Is this normal?’

‘No, most people who start companies with partners like this don’t put this clause in the contract. When I signed over the funds my dad made sure that clause was in there. At that point in time I was just out of graduate school and had no job. That $950,000 was all that I had. And Brendon and I weren’t married or even engaged at that point. It was basically a precautionary measure that actually turned out to be useful.’

‘So Holly is just going to be out of luck?’

‘Pretty much. When we opened the company we decided that we would not do something like this. We’d been friends for a long time and we were never going to do this. So I do not feel bad about this at all.’

‘Well you shouldn’t.’ Randy smiled as Grace started the drive home.

‘I know I shouldn’t but I do. I guess this is the downside of starting a business with a friend. Ryan is my best friend. Our kids love each other. Ryan and Brendon are in a band together. Or were. This is a lot to take in. This has potential to ruin everything that Brendon has worked for as well.’

‘Brendon is your husband first and foremost.’

‘I know that’s what he keeps saying.’

‘Well then see…don’t worry about this anymore. Leave it at the door. The boys need their mommy, Brendon needs his beautiful wife, and I need dinner.’ Grace laughed as she pulled into the driveway.

‘Boys, look, mommy is home.’ Brendon said as he and Spencer played on the floor with their two boys and three dogs.

‘MOMMY!’ Caleb yelled. He was attached to Grace’s leg before she could even get into the door.

‘Hi baby.’ She smiled as she picked Caleb up. ‘How was school today?’

‘Boreding. How was work.’

‘Boreding.’ She set Caleb back down and picked up Chace.

‘Hi sweetie how was school?’

‘Addy was mean to me today.’ Chace said with an overdramatic sad face.

‘Awe. Sweet boy. I’m sorry. What happened?’

‘She does not want to be fwiends anymower.’

‘Baby.’ Grace looked over at Brendon who just looked back at her. This was not how she wanted this to turn out.

‘Its otay mommy, she is a siwwy girl.’

‘She is just a silly girl honey; there will be plenty of other silly girls. How about this let mommy make you two and daddy some dinner and then we’ll take Randy and go get some ice cream?’

‘Otay!’ Chace smiled before Grace hugged both boys and stood up.

‘Hey baby.’ Grace smiled as Brendon walked over. Grace put her arms around his neck before he brought her into a soft, passionate kiss.

‘How did it go today?’ He asked. Spencer sat on the couch ignoring what was going on.

‘It was all right. We’re getting everything together so we can start fresh tomorrow. There is a lot more money involved then I thought there was.’

‘It will be okay baby, we’ll get it all taken care of.’

‘Hey Spencer.’ Grace said as Brendon hugged her.

‘Hey Gracie.’

‘Do you want to stay for dinner?’

‘Sure.’ Spencer nodded.

‘Okay sounds good.’ Brendon gave Grace a kiss before she started into the kitchen. Chace and Caleb followed her to help with dinner. Randy sat down on the couch with Brendon and Spencer.

Despite everything that was going on with her at the moment, this is what really mattered. As long as everything was fine at home, Grace could make it through anything.