PART 4
At 6:17 that morning, I made a decision that would eventually cost my former company far more than the $800 million contract they had lost.
I decided I was going to find out exactly how deep the corruption went.
Not because I wanted revenge.
Because I wanted the truth.
And because somewhere inside those documents was an answer to the question that had been bothering me since the first page.
Why had they needed me gone that morning?
I had been working on Project Titan for nearly a year.
If Marcus and Brenda wanted me out, they could have fired me months ago.
They hadn’t.
They waited until the final presentation.
That meant something had changed.
Something had become dangerous.
I opened the financial appendix Daniel had sent me and started comparing it with the presentation I had built.
At first, everything looked normal.
The numbers matched.
The forecasts matched.
The projected savings matched.
Then I noticed a tiny discrepancy.
A $4.8 million implementation expense had been moved from one category to another.
I frowned.
I opened my original spreadsheet.
The number wasn’t there.
I checked the version history.
Someone had altered the file three days earlier.
My original number had been:
$12.4 million.
The revised number was:
$17.2 million.
Five million dollars didn’t simply appear in a financial model.
Someone had put it there.
I followed the formula.
Then I found the vendor.
Horizon Strategic Solutions.
I searched the internal documents Daniel had sent me.
Horizon appeared 19 times.
I opened the ownership disclosure.
The company was registered in Delaware.
The listed managing director was a man named Elliot Vance.
I didn’t recognize the name.
Then I opened the next document.
The beneficial ownership section contained another name.
Marcus Hale.
I sat back.
“Of course.”
The phone on my desk rang.
Daniel.
I answered.
“Good morning.”
“Did you find something?”
“How long have you known?”
“About Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“I suspected something was wrong. I didn’t know the full structure until last night.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I wanted you to see it yourself.”
I frowned.
“That sounds manipulative.”
“It probably is.”
At least he was honest.
“What happens now?”
“I want to meet.”
“Where?”
“Your old office building.”
I laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
“Why?”
“Because I was fired there less than twenty-four hours ago.”
“Exactly.”
I looked at the clock.
“Give me an hour.”
Daniel paused.
“Why?”
“Because if we’re going to expose them, I’m going to need something.”
“What?”
“The original documents.”
“Your former company has them.”
“Some of them.”
I stood.
“The rest are still in my apartment.”
He went silent.
Then asked,
“Are you saying you kept copies?”
“No.”
I smiled.
“I kept memories.”
At 8:03 a.m., I drove downtown.
Not to my old office.
To the headquarters of Sterling Global.
Daniel was waiting for me in a private conference room overlooking the city.
He was older than I expected.
Late fifties, maybe early sixties.
Gray hair.
Navy suit.
No flashy watch.
No entourage.
The kind of man who didn’t need to announce his power because everyone already knew.
He stood when I entered.
“Chloe.”
“Daniel.”
He shook my hand.
Then he pointed toward the table.
“Coffee?”
“Black.”
He nodded toward the assistant.
“Two.”
I sat.
He slid a folder across the table.
“I had our legal team review everything overnight.”
I opened it.
“What did they find?”
“That the vendor relationship isn’t the only problem.”
I looked up.
“What else?”
“Three shell companies.”
He pushed another document toward me.
“Two offshore accounts.”
Another.
“An undisclosed consulting agreement.”
Another.
“And a series of payments made to someone inside our procurement process.”
I stared at the last page.
“How much?”
“$6.2 million.”
“Who received it?”
Daniel looked at me.
“We don’t know yet.”
I studied his face.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then how did you know it came from Marcus’s side?”
“We traced the originating accounts.”
He leaned back.
“That’s why I called you.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“What?”
“You called me because you think I can identify the missing piece.”
His expression changed.
“You’re right.”
I closed the folder.
“Then let’s find it.”
For the next four hours, we worked through the entire Titan file.
I mapped every vendor.
Every consultant.
Every invoice.
Every executive approval.
Every amendment.
And slowly, a pattern emerged.
Marcus wasn’t acting alone.
Horizon Strategic Solutions was only one piece.
Another company had received almost $18 million.
A consulting firm.
Northbridge Advisory.
I recognized the name.
My stomach dropped.
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“Who owns Northbridge?”
He checked the file.
“An executive named Richard Bennett.”
I stopped.
“Richard Bennett?”
“Yes.”
I stared at the page.
“That’s my brother.”
Daniel’s expression changed immediately.
“Are you sure?”
“I haven’t spoken to him in eleven years.”
“Why?”
I closed the folder.
“Because he stole money from our parents.”
Daniel waited.
I didn’t elaborate.
I didn’t need to.
Family history had suddenly walked into the middle of my professional nightmare.
My brother had disappeared from my life years ago.
I had assumed he had moved to New York.
Then London.
Then somewhere overseas.
I had stopped asking.
Now his name was sitting inside an $800 million procurement scandal.
And suddenly something my mother had said eleven years earlier came back to me.
“Richard always finds a way to make people trust him.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Where is he now?”
“We’re trying to find out.”
“No.”
I closed the folder.
“I know where he is.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
“How?”
“Because he sent me a Christmas card last year.”
“You haven’t spoken to him?”
“No.”
“Then why send you a card?”
