Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN IN THE HEADLINE
By noon, Grace Miller's face was everywhere.
A photographer had captured her through the apartment window.
The image showed Grace standing beside James while he held the forged payroll document.
Without context, it looked intimate.
Secretive.
Suspicious.
The article called Grace a "low-level contractor believed to have private access to Whitmore."
Another website called her his "mystery Christmas companion."
A third suggested James had paid her to remain silent.
Grace read exactly three paragraphs before throwing James's tablet onto the couch.
"I'm going to kill somebody."
James looked up from his phone.
"Take a number."
Chloe sat at the breakfast table inside James's private hotel suite eating pancakes.
Daniel sat across from her.
Security remained outside.
Grace paced.
"They used my photograph."
"We'll have legal request removal."
"They listed my neighborhood."
"We're handling that."
"They said I was your mistress."
James paused.
"That one is particularly imaginative."
Grace stared at him.
"You're joking?"
"A little."
"This isn't funny."
"No."
His face softened.
"It isn't."
Grace sat.
"What happens to Chloe if someone from school sees this?"
James had no answer.
Daniel did.
"I'll take responsibility publicly."
Grace turned.
"You will do nothing publicly without asking me."
"I'm the reason you're in this."
"That doesn't make you my spokesperson."
Daniel nodded.
"Okay."
Grace looked surprised by his lack of argument.
He had changed.
Or fear had changed him.
Evelyn entered holding two phones.
"Board emergency meeting in forty minutes."
James stood.
"Charles?"
"Already there."
James's expression hardened.
"Of course."
Grace looked at him.
"You're going?"
"I have to."
"Alone?"
"No."
Evelyn lifted a hand.
"Unfortunately, he has me."
James picked up his jacket.
Grace stood.
"I'm coming."
"No."
Her eyes narrowed.
James corrected immediately.
"I mean, you shouldn't have to."
"That's different."
"The board meeting will be brutal."
"Perfect."
"Grace."
"My name is in the story."
"That doesn't mean—"
"Someone used my signature. Stole my wages. Threatened my home. Fired me. Put my daughter's address online."
Grace stepped closer.
"I am done sitting in rooms where the truth happens somewhere else."
James stared at her.
Evelyn smiled.
"I like her."
Grace borrowed a navy suit from the hotel's concierge service.
It was slightly too long in the sleeves.
She rolled them once.
At one thirty, she walked into Whitmore Capital's boardroom beside James.
Every conversation stopped.
Charles Whitmore sat near the far end.
He was sixty-three, silver-haired, elegant, and warm-faced.
The kind of man strangers trusted automatically.
He stood when Grace entered.
"Ms. Miller."
Grace said nothing.
Charles looked at James.
"This is inappropriate."
James pulled out a chair.
"She's part of the investigation."
"She's an employee."
"Contractor," Grace corrected.
Charles looked at her.
"Excuse me?"
"You people seem very specific about that word when you don't want to give someone benefits."
Silence.
Evelyn coughed to hide a laugh.
James sat.
"Let's begin."
For ninety minutes, lawyers argued.
Northstar's contracts were legitimate, Charles insisted.
Any payroll fraud occurred below executive level.
Leonard Price had acted independently.
Daniel Miller was a confessed thief.
Grace listened.
Then Charles made his mistake.
"We certainly regret if Ms. Miller experienced a payroll discrepancy."
Grace leaned forward.
"A discrepancy?"
Charles looked at her politely.
"Yes."
"My paycheck was short every week for months."
"We'll investigate."
"You forged my signature."
"I personally did no such thing."
"Your company did."
"Again, Ms. Miller—"
"Grace."
The boardroom went quiet.
Charles blinked.
"My name is Grace."
He smiled thinly.
"Grace."
She opened her red notebook.
"This is every shift I worked since August."
Charles glanced at James.
James did not move.
Grace continued.
"I cleaned Midtown Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Downtown Tuesday. Restaurant Thursday and Saturday."
She slid copies across the table.
"These are the hours Northstar says I worked."
Charles looked.
Grace produced another page.
"These are the hours they billed Whitmore."
One director leaned closer.
Grace pointed.
"They billed fifty-one hours for me during a week I worked forty-seven."
Charles nodded.
"Billing discrepancies occur."
Grace flipped the page.
"Except my paycheck shows twenty-nine."
Nobody spoke.
She continued.
"That means somebody stole eighteen hours from me and billed four hours I never worked."
Another director frowned.
"So they were stealing from both sides."
"Exactly."
Grace looked at Charles.
"For seven months."
Charles closed the file.
"We already know Northstar may have accounting issues."
Grace smiled.
"Then here's another."
She placed twelve cleaner statements on the table.
James looked at her.
"When did you get these?"
"This morning."
Grace had spent three hours making calls.
Teresa.
Miguel.
Ruth.
People who had worked beside her.
People who thought nobody would ever listen.
Charles's face remained calm.
Grace read.
"Seventeen missing hours. Twelve. Twenty-three. Nine."
She placed each statement down.
"Same pattern."
A director whispered, "My God."
Charles's smile disappeared.
He looked at James.
"You've turned a cleaning woman into an investigator?"
Grace answered.
"No."
She leaned forward.
"You turned workers into evidence."
The room went silent.
James watched his uncle.
For the first time, Charles looked angry.
Then he smiled.
That frightened James more.
"May I speak privately with my nephew?"
Grace stood.
"I'm finished."
She left with Evelyn.
James remained.
Charles waited until the door shut.
Then he turned.
"You have no idea what you're doing."
James looked at him.
"Explain it."
"Northstar is one company."
"Owned by your trust."
Charles paused.
"Benefited by."
"You knew."
"I knew some divisions used aggressive accounting."
"That's an impressive phrase for stealing wages."
Charles leaned back.
"Do you know what your father left this company?"
"Debt."
"Exactly."
James's expression changed.
Charles continued.
"Forty-eight million dollars. Hidden obligations. Lawsuits. Bad loans."
James had known the company struggled after his father's death.
Not this.
"I fixed it."
"By stealing from cleaners?"
"By creating liquidity."
James stared.
Charles's voice remained calm.
"Temporary structures. Vendor overbilling. Payroll optimization."
"People went hungry."
"Do not become theatrical."
James stood.
"My mother cleaned offices."
Charles's face hardened.
"Your mother married into this family."
"Before that."
"Ancient history."
"Not to me."
Charles stood too.
"Be careful."
"Is that a threat?"
"It is advice."
James walked toward the door.
Charles spoke again.
"Ask Daniel what happened eleven months ago."
James stopped.
"What?"
"Ask him why he really disappeared."
James turned.
Charles smiled.
"He didn't run because I threatened Grace."
James stared.
"He ran because Grace discovered the money."
"No."
"She just doesn't remember."
James's face changed.
Charles continued.
"Daniel didn't protect her from us."
"He protected himself from her."
James left without answering.
He found Grace downstairs.
Daniel was with Chloe at the hotel.
Grace looked at James.
"What happened?"
James hesitated.
"Charles says Daniel lied."
Grace laughed.
"Of course he does."
"He says you discovered Daniel's theft before he disappeared."
Grace's smile vanished.
"What?"
"Do you remember finding anything? Documents? Money?"
Grace thought.
"No."
Then her expression changed.
James noticed.
"What?"
Grace stared at the floor.
"Eleven months ago, Daniel and I had a fight."
"About what?"
"I don't remember exactly."
"Grace."
"I remember finding an envelope."
"What envelope?"
"Cash."
"How much?"
"I don't know."
Grace pressed her fingers against her temple.
"He told me it was a bonus."
"What happened after?"
"We fought."
"Then?"
Grace looked confused.
"I went to work."
"And Daniel?"
"Was gone when I came home."
James's phone rang.
Daniel.
He answered.
"Where are you?"
Daniel sounded panicked.
"James, Chloe is gone."
Grace heard him.
Her face turned white.
"What?"
Daniel's voice cracked through the speaker.
"I turned around for thirty seconds."
Grace grabbed the phone.
"WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?"
"We're searching the floor."
Grace ran toward the elevator.
James followed.
May you like
Before the doors closed, Daniel said the words that turned Grace's fear into terror.
"Someone left her doll in the hallway."
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