Chapter 3 - The Pink Envelope
Alba’s hand froze inside the backpack.
Clara noticed.
“What is in there?”
“Homework.”
“You already took out a note.”
Alba zipped the bag shut.
Álvaro stepped between them. “She is a child, Clara.”
“She is carrying evidence into a restricted negotiation.”
“Then we handle it properly.”
Javier called outside counsel and ordered Mateo to remain outside the room. Nobody left.
Alba sat beside Álvaro while he compared document histories.
The Spanish version had fourteen revisions.
The Mandarin version had nineteen.
Five revisions were invisible in Altamar’s normal audit log.
“How?” Javier asked.
“Elena’s server,” Clara said.
Alba looked up. “My mother told me that server was never really retired.”
Every face turned toward her.
“She said somebody kept a copy because it could make old documents look new.”
Álvaro whispered, “Version laundering.”
“No,” Alba said. “That’s why Mom gave me this.”
She pulled out the pink envelope.
Clara moved before anyone else.
Her chair slammed backward and she reached across the table.
Álvaro caught her wrist.
“Don’t.”
For one second, Clara’s face showed pure panic.
Then she recovered.
“I was trying to protect confidential material.”
Javier took the envelope himself.
Inside was a single flash drive and a photograph.
The photograph showed Elena standing beside three Altamar employees in a basement server room.
Clara was one of them.
The second was Mateo Rivas.
The third man had been Altamar’s chief financial officer.
He had died eight months earlier.
On the back, Elena had written:
THE FIRST CONTRACT WASN’T WITH LIANHUA.
Álvaro turned the photo over twice.
“What first contract?”
May you like
Alba looked at her mother’s handwriting.
Then the conference-room lights went out.
