Chapter 5 - THE SECRET INSIDE HER FATHER'S OFFICE
I called my father immediately.
He answered after the first ring.
“Elizabeth?”
“Dad, where are you?”
“I'm at home. Why?”
“Someone was inside your office tonight. Oliver was there.”
Silence.
Then my father asked a question I wasn't expecting.
“Did he take the blue folder?”
“What blue folder?”
“Elizabeth, listen carefully. Don't go back to the house. Don't confront Oliver alone.”
“Dad, what is happening?”
He exhaled.
“There's something I've been investigating for several weeks. I didn't tell you because I wasn't certain who was involved.”
My heart began pounding.
“Is this about the acquisition?”
“Partly.”
“Then tell me.”
“I believe someone has been moving money through a subsidiary company. The amounts are significant. We traced several transactions to accounts associated with the Thompson Group.”
I closed my eyes.
“How much?”
“Approximately forty-two million dollars.”
For a moment, I couldn't speak.
My father continued.
“Those transactions were approved using credentials belonging to a senior executive. But the person who provided the final authorization appears to have been someone inside the Thompson family.”
“Camila?”
“We're not certain.”
I looked through the ballroom doors.
Camila was still standing near the stage, speaking urgently to two men.
“Oliver told me he saw you meeting his mother.”
“Yes. She approached me three weeks ago.”
“What did she want?”
“She said she had information about the Thompson Group's financial difficulties. She wanted Hartford Technologies to consider purchasing some of their assets.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because she asked me to keep the conversation confidential. I didn't want to interfere in your marriage without evidence.”
I almost laughed.
My father had tried to protect my marriage.
Meanwhile, my husband had apparently been helping his mother dismantle my father's company.
“Dad, I need the blue folder.”
“It's not in my office anymore.”
“Where is it?”
“I moved it.”
“Where?”
He hesitated.
“Somewhere safe.”
Before I could ask another question, the call disconnected.
I stared at my phone.
Daniel looked concerned.
“Everything okay?”
“No.”
I told him what my father had said.
He immediately called the company's security director.
Within minutes, we discovered that Oliver had entered the executive floor using a temporary access card.
The access record showed he had spent eleven minutes inside my father's office.
He had not stolen the blue folder.
But he had copied files from a secure computer.
And one of those files contained the names of the executives investigating the missing money.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Elizabeth, if those names get out, the investigation could be compromised.”
“Can we recover the copies?”
“Possibly. But we need Oliver to cooperate.”
I looked toward the ballroom.
“I don't think he'll cooperate voluntarily.”
Then my phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
A message appeared.
YOU THINK YOUR HUSBAND IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO BETRAYED YOU? ASK YOUR FATHER WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MOTHER.
I read it twice.
My mother had died when I was sixteen.
She had been driving home from a charity event when another vehicle crossed the center line. The police called it an accident. My father never discussed it.
I showed Daniel the message.
His expression changed.
“Don't respond.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever sent this knows more than they should.”
A second message arrived.
This time, it included a photograph.
My mother was standing outside the Hartford Technologies headquarters, smiling beside a younger Camila Thompson.
I had never seen them together.
May you like
On the back of the photograph, someone had written a date.
It was three days before my mother's death.
