Chapter 9
That night, Elena returned to the numbers.
Pain exhausted her.
Numbers didn’t.
The thirty-eight-thousand-dollar transfer had occurred the same morning Elena had changed all Valemont security passwords following an internal audit.
She called Daniel. “Someone accessed my credentials after I’d already changed everything.”
“They’d need administrative override.”
“Who has that?”
They both knew.
Leonard.
Daniel dug deeper into historical records.
An hour later, he found something that changed everything.
When Patrick Valemont died, the company carried a thirty-million-dollar key-person insurance policy.
Beneficiary: The Shaw Family Trust.
Trustee: Leonard Shaw.
Within months, most of that money became seed capital for North Bridge Holdings.
“Did Leonard kill Patrick?” Elena asked quietly.
“No evidence suggests that. Patrick died of a documented heart attack.”
“So Leonard didn’t cause his death.”
“No.”
“He just profited from it.”
“Yes.”
Elena closed her eyes.
They had motive.
They had access.
They had documentation.
But they needed a witness.
Someone who’d heard Leonard give orders.
Sienna.
“She’ll never help me,” Elena said.
Daniel checked his computer. “She might now.”
Leonard had frozen Sienna’s accounts. Her brokerage had suspended her license. Documents were being prepared to make her the sole scapegoat for the entire conspiracy.
Sienna was learning what it felt like to be disposable.
She called Elena seventeen times.
Elena answered the seventeenth.
“What do you want?”
“He’s destroying me.” Sienna’s voice cracked.
“You helped him destroy me.”
“I know.”
“Did you take his money?”
“Yes.”
“Did you steal information?”
“Yes.”
“Then hire a lawyer.”
May you like
“Elena, please—I have recordings.”
The air left the room.
