Chapter Three

Nina's apartment looked like a crime scene, but at least it was hers again.

Well, not hers exactly, she'd checked into a hotel last night rather than deal with collecting her things from the apartment she'd paid for. But this morning, fueled by spite and coffee, she'd hired movers to grab everything while she avoided a second encounter with the happy couple. Now she sat cross-legged on her hotel bed at 2 AM, surrounded by financial documents that made her accountant brain light up.

.

"Holy shit," she whispered.

The numbers didn't add up. Actually, they added up perfectly, which was the problem.

Hale Corporation' quarterly reports showed consistent growth, healthy profit margins, everything looking squeaky clean on the surface. But Nina had spent six years finding inconsistencies in corporate finances. She knew what cooked books looked like.

And these were cooked to perfection.

She cross-referenced the operational expenses against the reported revenue. Then she pulled up the bank statements Lucas had included in the folder, Thomas must have wanted her to see these. The money flowing out didn't match the money flowing in. Not even close.

Someone was bleeding the company dry.

Her hands shook as she calculated the numbers. About eight million over the past eighteen months. Potentially more if she dug deeper.

"Jesus Christ, Thomas," she muttered, understanding hitting her like a moving train. "Is this why you gave me the shares?"

Her phone showed 2:50 AM. She should sleep. The board meeting was in six hours. But her brain was firing on all cylinders now, that familiar rush of solving a puzzle flooding her system.

She opened her laptop, pulling up shell company registrations, cross-checking names against Hale's vendor list. Three companies that didn't exist. Two offshore accounts. A pattern of transfers right before audits.

This was professional. Someone who knew exactly how to hide their tracks. Someone on the inside.

Nina took screenshots of everything, uploading them to three different cloud drives because she wasn't stupid. Then she started drafting a report, her fingers flying across the keyboard.

This was what she was good at. Finding the faults, following the money trail, exposing the fraud. This, she could control. This made sense when nothing else in her life did.

By 4 AM, she had a thirty-page document with evidence, timelines, and calculations. Airtight. Career-ending for whoever was behind it.

She leaned back against the wall, staring at her work with satisfaction. Tomorrow she'd present this to Lucas. Someone had to know. Someone had to...

Her phone buzzed, it was an unknown number.

Stop Looking.

Nina's blood went cold. She stared at the message, heart suddenly pounding.

Another buzz.

You don't know what you're dealing with. Walk away while you still can.

Her hands started shaking. How did they..who was...

A third message.

We're watching you.

Nina dropped the phone like it burned her. She scrambled to her window, peering through the blinds at the street below. It was empty. Just parked cars and streetlights.

Her laptop pinged. An email notification.

The sender: [e-mail]

The subject line: FINAL WARNING

She opened it with shaking fingers.

Inside was a single photo.

Her. Sitting exactly where she was right now. Taken from outside her window. Taken minutes ago.

Nina's scream caught in her throat.

She slammed the laptop shut, heart hammering so hard she thought it might burst. Someone was out there. Someone was watching. Someone knew exactly what she'd found.

She tried to steady her breathing. Think rationally. But rational thought was impossible when someone had just proven they could see into her apartment in the middle of the night.

Her phone kept buzzing. Message after message from the same unknown number.

Delete the files.

Forget what you saw.

This is your only warning.

Thomas made the same mistake.

That last one made her stomach drop. Thomas made the same mistake. His "accident" suddenly felt a lot less accidental.

Nina grabbed her laptop, frantically trying to back up her files one more time, send them somewhere safe. But her hands were shaking too badly. Her password kept coming out wrong.

When she finally logged in, everything was gone.

Every screenshot. Every document. Every piece of evidence she'd compiled over the past two hours. All deleted.

"No, no, no..." She frantically searched her drives, her downloads, her trash folder.

Nothing. Even her cloud backups showed empty folders. Wiped clean like they'd never existed.

Someone had remote access to her computer. Someone had been inside her system the whole time, watching her work, letting her compile everything, then erasing it all.

Her laptop screen went black. Then white text appeared, typing itself letter by letter:

YOU SHOULD'VE LISTENED.

Nina slammed the laptop shut and threw it across the room.

She grabbed the printed documents, at least she still had those, and shoved them into her bag. Grabbed her phone, her wallet, her keys. She needed to leave. Needed to get out. Needed to...

Her phone rang. Unknown number.

She didn't answer.

It rang again. And again. And again.

Nina turned it off completely, hands shaking so badly she almost dropped it.

She couldn't stay here. Couldn't sleep. Couldn't breathe.

She left the apartment at 5:30 AM, walking aimlessly through empty streets, jumping at every shadow, every sound. By the time the sun came up, she'd walked miles, her feet aching, her mind racing.

The board meeting was at 9 AM. She should go. Should tell them what she found. Should...

But what if one of them was behind it? What if showing up with accusations got her killed?

Trust no one, Thomas had written.

She found herself in a 24-hour diner, ordering coffee she didn't drink, staring at nothing. Her phone stayed off. She couldn't risk turning it on, couldn't risk them tracking her.

By noon, she'd missed the meeting entirely. Maybe that would buy her time to figure out what to do.

By evening, exhaustion finally drove her back to her apartment. Maybe she'd overreacted. Maybe she should just sell the shares, take the money, disappear like they'd suggested.

She unlocked her door.

And froze. The apartment was destroyed.

Furniture overturned. Cushions slashed. Papers shredded everywhere. Her laptop, the one she'd thrown, was smashed into pieces. The walls were spray-painted with a single word repeated over and over in dripping red letters:

STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP

Nina stood in the doorway, unable to move, unable to process what she was seeing.

They'd been inside. While she was gone. They'd destroyed everything.

Her legs gave out. She sank to the floor just inside the doorway, surrounded by the wreckage of her already-ruined life.

Her bag,with the printed documents, was still on her shoulder. At least they hadn't gotten those.

She sat there for what felt like hours, too shocked to cry, too terrified to move.

What was she supposed to do now? Call the police? And tell them what? That she'd found financial irregularities and now someone was threatening her? They'd think she was paranoid. Crazy even.

Maybe she was crazy. Maybe she should just walk away. Sell the shares. Disappear. Forget any of this ever happened.

You're stronger than you believe, Thomas had written.

But was she? Strong enough for this? Strong enough to fight people who could destroy her apartment, hack her computer, watch her through her window?

Nina pulled herself up, legs shaking. She needed to think. Needed to figure out her next move. Needed to...

A knock at the door. Nina's heart stopped. Another knock.

She stared at the door, frozen in place, the destroyed apartment behind her, nowhere to run.

The knock came again.