Chapter 13 - Naomi’s House
Naomi did not own a townhouse.
She rented a one-bedroom apartment.
The deed was fake.
The filing was real.
Someone had used a copy of her driver’s license.
A signature.
A tax identification form.
All fabricated.
But enough to create noise.
Vanessa’s attorney immediately leaked it.
FORMER SECURITY PROFESSIONAL LINKED TO FOUNDATION FUNDS.
Naomi became the story.
Exactly as planned.
Adrian wanted to issue a defense.
Naomi stopped him.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if you defend me emotionally, it looks like loyalty.”
“So?”
“Defend the evidence.”
Rachel agreed.
They released the property filing date.
Two days after the ballroom incident.
Then the IP records.
The deed submission came from a business center Vanessa’s attorney used.
Not conclusive.
But ugly.
Then the money trail showed no actual $640,000 purchase.
The figure had been inserted in a falsified exhibit.
The real funds sat in Crown Harbor.
The frame collapsed in forty-eight hours.
Still, Naomi hated the feeling.
Not fear.
Contamination.
Her name attached to theft.
Her sister seeing headlines.
Her former colleagues calling.
Adrian came to her apartment.
Not with flowers.
With takeout.
She almost shut the door.
“Why are you here?”
“To eat bad noodles.”
“You have chefs.”
“Not tonight.”
She let him in.
They sat at a tiny table.
He said:
“I’m sorry.”
“For?”
“For not believing the first person who warned me.”
“You didn’t know me.”
“I knew Vanessa.”
“No.”
Naomi looked at him.
“You knew who she was with you.”
That was different.
He nodded.
Then asked:
“What made you leave protection work?”
She smiled without humor.
“Burnout.”
Not tragedy.
Not a dead partner.
Nothing cinematic.
She got tired of always predicting the worst thing in a room.
Domestic work felt quiet.
Then Vanessa arrived.
Adrian laughed once.
Naomi did too.
A human moment.
Nothing more.
Then Rachel called.
Graham Pike had been located.
He wanted immunity.
And he claimed Vanessa was not the architect of the scheme.
“Who was?” Adrian asked.
Rachel answered:
“Daniel Reece.”
May you like
The rival CEO.
And he had been paying Vanessa for much more than foundation fraud.
