Chapter 17

ISABELLA

The morning light was already coming through the curtains when Chloe knocked.

"Good morning, Miss Isabella." Chloe stepped inside and held out the schedule pad with both hands.

I was sitting on the edge of my bed. I had not fully dressed yet. I took the pad from her and looked at it.

"Your nine o'clock meeting has been moved to ten," Chloe said, standing straight near the door.

"Fine," I said, still looking at the pad.

"Also," Chloe said carefully, "Wednesday is coming fast."

I looked up at her.

"What about Wednesday?" I asked.

"It is Lily's birthday," Chloe said. She held my gaze. "She turns six."

I set the pad down on my lap.

Six.

I had known the date. I had known it for months. But hearing it spoken out loud in my own bedroom, on a Monday morning with the light still soft and the day not yet started, it hit differently.

"You need to be there," Chloe said. She did not make it sound like a suggestion.

"I know that," I said.

"I mean really there," Chloe said. "Not just present. There."

I looked at her for a moment. Chloe rarely pushed. When she did, she was usually right.

"I will need to speak with Rane first," I said. "About how he plans to celebrate it. I will not just show up and cause confusion for her."

"Of course," Chloe said. "Shall I prepare a gift?"

"Yes," I said. "Something she would actually want. Not something formal. She is six, Chloe. Not forty."

The corner of Chloe's mouth moved slightly. Not quite a smile.

"Understood," she said.

I stood and went to get dressed.

* * *

Rane was already at the company when I arrived.

I noticed his car in the underground lot. The same black car. The same spot, second from the left near the elevator, as if nothing had changed in six years.

I went up.

He was standing near the front desk, speaking quietly with one of the reception staff. He had a coffee in his hand. His jacket was dark gray. He looked good. That was the simple and irritating truth of it.

He saw me when I stepped off the elevator.

"Good morning, Isabella," Rane said. He turned slightly toward me. His voice was calm. Even.

"Good morning, Rane," I said. I kept walking. Then I stopped. I turned back. "Before I forget. Lily's birthday is Wednesday. How are you planning to celebrate?"

He was quiet for a second. He looked at me with an expression I could not fully read.

"Lily does not like big parties," he said. "She gets overwhelmed. I was planning to keep it at home. Simple. Quiet."

"At your house?" I asked.

"Our house," he said. Then he stopped. Corrected himself. "The house."

Neither of us said anything for a second.

"You are welcome to come," he said. His voice was steady. "She would want you there."

"I will be there," I said. Not as a question. Not asking for permission.

"Good," Rane said.

"Good," I said.

I walked toward my office. Chloe followed me, step by step, silent as always.

* * *

The reports were already on my desk when I sat down.

Agnes's original filings. The financial records from the last two quarters. The staff contracts. I had asked for all of it. I had meant all of it.

"Close the door," I told Chloe.

She did.

"Sit," I said.

She sat across from me.

"Tell me what you know about the finance team," I said. "Not what is in the reports. What you know."

Chloe folded her hands in her lap.

"Three of them were brought in during the last eighteen months," she said. "All three hired directly through Mara's recommendations. None of them went through the standard screening process."

"Names," I said.

"Derek Obi, in accounts payable," Chloe said. "Sandra Yee, budget analysis. And the new one, Marcus Cole. He was brought in four months ago as a junior auditor."

I wrote the names down.

"Have you seen anything strange in the numbers?" I asked.

"Yes," Chloe said simply.

I looked at her.

"The vendor payments in Q3," she said. "Three of them were routed through a processing company that does not appear in any of the original contracts. The amounts are small enough to go unnoticed at a glance. But when you add them up across twelve separate transactions..."

"How much?" I said.

"Close to four hundred thousand," Chloe said. "Over nine months."

I set my pen down.

"Four hundred thousand," I said slowly.

"That we can see," Chloe said. "There may be more we cannot see yet."

I picked up the Q3 report and turned to page eleven. I had read it the night before but I read it again now. Carefully. Line by line.

"Who approved these payments?" I asked without looking up.

"Derek Obi approved the routing," Chloe said. "Sandra Yee signed off on the line items. But the original authorization code at the top of each transaction matches a clearance level above both of them."

"Mara," I said.

"I cannot confirm that yet," Chloe said carefully. "The code is not linked to a name in the current system. Someone removed the name-to-code mapping."

"When was the mapping removed?" I asked.

"Seven months ago," she said.

Seven months ago. Around the time the transactions started.

"Get me the IT logs," I said. "The access records for the authorization system. Every person who logged in during the window when that mapping was removed."

"I will have them by this afternoon," Chloe said.

"Good," I said. "Now get out. I need to work."

She stood and left without a sound.

* * *

I worked through the morning without stopping.

I pulled every department budget from the last three quarters. I compared actual spending against projections. I cross-referenced vendor names against the company's registered supplier list.

Most of it was clean.

But three departments were not.

Operations. Logistics. Internal Services.

All three had small gaps. Not large enough to trigger a standard alert. But consistent. Recurring. Like a slow leak from a pipe that someone had been careful to keep just below the alarm level.

I was still staring at the operations numbers when my office door opened.

"Miss Isabella," said a voice. "Do you have a minute?"

I looked up. It was a man I did not recognize at first. Then I placed him. Marcus Cole. The junior auditor. Mara's hire, four months old.

"I have thirty seconds," I said. "Make it count."

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He was young. Nervous. He kept his hands at his sides but his fingers were not still.

"I think there is something wrong with the Q2 logistics invoices," he said.

I put my pen down.

"Go on," I said.

"I was reviewing the archive files for a routine check," he said. "And I found duplicates. The same invoice number appearing twice under two different vendor names. Same amount. Same date. Both marked as paid."

"Both paid?" I said.

"Both paid," he said. "Which means someone received money for work that was only done once. Or possibly never done at all."

I sat back in my chair and looked at him for a long moment.

"How many duplicates?" I said.

"In Q2 alone? Eleven," he said.

"Why are you telling me?" I asked. "Why not take this to your direct supervisor?"

He was quiet for a second too long.

"Because my direct supervisor is Sandra Yee," he said. "And her name is on six of the eleven duplicates."

I held his gaze.

"Sit down," I said.

He sat.

"You said nothing to anyone else about this?" I asked.

"No one," he said. "I came straight here."

"Good," I said. "You will continue your normal work. You will say nothing to Sandra. You will say nothing to Derek. You will say nothing to anyone at all until I tell you to. Do you understand?"

"Yes," he said.

"And you will send me all the files. Every duplicate. Everything you found. By end of day."

"I will send them now," he said.

"Good," I said. I picked my pen up again. "You can go."

He stood. He moved toward the door. Then he stopped.

"Miss Isabella," he said. "Is it safe? For me to keep working here while this is going on?"

I looked at him.

"Keep your head down and your mouth shut," I said. "That is how you stay safe. Now go."

He left.