Chapter 4 - The Sterling Drive
The flash drive was encrypted.
Naomi expected that.
Vanessa pretended not to care.
That was less convincing.
Adrian called the family attorney, Rachel Kim, and an outside forensic specialist.
No one touched the drive without documentation.
Vanessa mocked the precautions.
“You’re treating me like a criminal.”
Rachel answered calmly.
“We’re treating the device like evidence.”
“Evidence of what?”
“That’s what we’re determining.”
Vanessa turned to Adrian.
“You’re going to let your staff humiliate me after what she did?”
“What she did?”
Hours later, the specialist accessed the drive.
LAKEBRIDGE.
DONORS.
BOARD.
SECURITY.
Adrian’s face went pale.
The security folder contained staff rotations.
Private event schedules.
The donor folder contained contact details that had never been public.
The board folder held draft minutes.
The Lakebridge folder contained negotiation ranges for an acquisition worth ninety-two million dollars.
Adrian whispered:
“How did you get these?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I didn’t.”
The drive also contained spreadsheets from the Cole Foundation.
Payments to vendors Adrian did not recognize.
Sterling Event Logistics.
North Vale Hospitality.
“Three companies. Same mailing address.”
A virtual office in Delaware.
The payments totaled $640,000 over fourteen months.
“Foundation expenses are not my job.”
“Sterling Event Logistics?”
“My last name is common.”
Rachel’s eyebrows rose.
“In this room?”
Then a staff member knocked.
Mrs. Elena Alvarez, the head housekeeper, entered.
“Mr. Cole, I need to tell you something.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
Elena held an envelope.
“I found this in my locker.”
Inside were printed invoices.
Each carried Elena’s digital approval.
“I never approved these.”
Rachel compared them to the files.
Someone had been building a trail toward Elena.
A woman who had worked for the Cole family for twenty-three years.
“Well, maybe you should ask your trusted employee where six hundred thousand dollars went.”
Then Caleb appeared in the doorway.
“I saw her put the envelope there.”
Everyone turned.
Vanessa’s face emptied.
Caleb pointed.
May you like
“Vanessa.”
And then the lights went out.
