CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ADRIAN’s POV

My eyes stayed fixed on the monitor. The silver bracelet shifted slightly against the stranger’s wrist as the person pushed open the archive door and disappeared inside.

Damien stepped closer to the screen. “Pause it.” The footage froze immediately.

It was a small silver chain with a moon charm hanging from the side. Ava gave it to her years ago during one birthday dinner she forced me to attend after complaining I was “too emotionally unavailable to plan surprises.”

I remembered Serena laughing that night, I remembered the bracelet sliding down her wrist while she cut the cake.

“Is this footage from the early morning?” I asked.

“Yes, sir.”

I walked closer slowly. The image quality was terrible, but the bracelet was visible enough. My mind immediately started rejecting what I was looking at, because it makes no sense.

“Zoom in.” I ordered.

The security director enlarged the footage, the screen blurred slightly but the moon charm remained visible.

Damien looked toward me cautiously. “You recognize it?”

I didn’t answer because I don’t know what answer made sense anymore.

Finally, I looked toward the director. “Who else has seen this footage?”

“Only the security team.”

“Delete every external copy.” I ordered.

The man blinked. “Sir?”

I shot him a clarifying look. “You heard me.”

He nodded quickly.

I stared at the screen one last time before turning away, my thoughts felt messy.

A masked intruder walking through Laurent Group archives with my executive clearance, stealing a file and disappearing before security noticed doesn’t look careless.

Damien stood across the archive room watching me without saying a word.

I handed the tablet back to the security director. “I want a full access report from midnight until four a.m. Every door opened, every system override. And if this leaks outside Laurent Group before I say so, you’re fired.”

The man nodded quickly. “Understood sir.”

*********************************************************

The executive floor was quieter when I returned upstairs. Assistants lowered their voices when I passed while a few executives stopped conversations.

Damien followed me into my office. “You think the intruder works alone?”

I pulled open a file on my desk, flipped through it, pretending to read it when I’m not. “Nobody breaks into Laurent archives alone.”

“Does that mean the security is really that incompetent.”

I smirked. “We don’t pay them enough for incompetence.”

“What bothers me most is that the person used your credentials,” Damien said again.

I looked toward him. “That means whoever did this understands Laurent Group internally.”

Damien folded his arms. “This is in two ways, it’s either someone close to you helped them… or someone’s been inside your systems longer than we realized.”

I still pretended to be focused on the file, I honestly want to have my moment.

Damien read the room, “I’ll be in my office,” he said as he walked out of the office.

My assistant hurried in as soon as Damien walked out.

“Sir, the media found out about the archive breach.”

I looked up instantly. “How?”

“We don’t know yet,” she replied.

Of course we don’t, everything lately felt like someone is moving pieces around before we noticed the game had started.

I walked towards my chair while she continued speaking behind me. “Three business reporters already contacted us asking whether confidential Laurent records were compromised.”

“Tell legal to shut it down.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And find out who leaked it,” she nodded quickly.

“There’s another issue sir,” she sounded nervously.

My patience was already thinned out. “What again?.”

“Sir… the Valencia negotiation team just postponed.”

I looked towards her sharply. “What was the reason?”

“They said Arden Corporation approached them privately this morning.”

A cynical laugh escaped me, this is becoming ridiculous.

“Fine,” I replied calmly. “Move tomorrow’s investor lunch forward.”

“Yes, sir.” She nodded once and hurried out of the office.

The second the door closed, I leaned back in my chair exhausted. A lot of pressure had been coming from too many directions at once lately.

A soft knock interrupted the silence again.

“Come in.” I said lazily.

Celeste walked into the office. She looked polished as always in her tan-colored dress, dark hair resting neatly over her shoulder. But the moment she closed the door behind her, her expression changed.

“My father’s furious,” she said quietly.

I sighed. “About Riverton?”

“And Valencia,” she corrected.

I looked up slowly. “That spread already?”

Celeste walked closer toward the desk. “Adrian, the entire financial district is talking. If this continues another month, Laurent Group will bleed more internationally.”

She leaned forward, her hands resting on the desk with her gaze fixed on me, “Or do you think Arden Corporation is trying to force a merger?”

“No, I doubt that is the case,” I answered flatly.

“Then what does Selene Arden want?”

Honestly, that was the exact question I’ve been asking myself all day. It’s obvious Selene Arden is directly targeting Laurent Group, this is beyond financial clause. But the deep question is WHY?

“I don’t know yet,” I admitted.

Celeste straightened up and walked toward the sofa in the seating area. “Then figure it out quickly.”

Before I could respond, my office phone rang, my assistant’s voice came through immediately I answered.

“Sir… there’s another problem.”

I closed my eyes briefly. “Say it.”

“Your archive breach leaked online.”

My eyes opened instantly. “What?”

“A business blog posted security screenshots ten minutes ago,” she continued.

I stood immediately. “How the hell did they get internal footage?”

“We’re trying to trace it now sir.” The line disconnected.

Celeste already looked alarmed. “What archive breach?”

I grabbed the tablet from the desk and opened the article quickly. My eyes widened as I read the headline:

LAURENT GROUP SECURITY COMPROMISED DURING INTERNAL INVESTIGATION

Below it sat a blurred screenshot from the archive footage, clear enough to expose the breach publicly. Someone was pushing this intentionally and they were moving fast.

Celeste walked around the desk beside me. “Who leaked this?”

“I don’t know.”

“This obviously means you have a traitor inside your company,” she replied.

My grip tightened around the tablet slightly as I continued reading, anger surged violently in me. Suddenly, the timestamp caught my attention.

The footage had been uploaded less than twenty minutes after I left the archive room. Meaning whoever leaked it either: still had internal access or was already inside Laurent systems while we investigated.

Then my office door opened again. Damien stepped inside holding a tablet. “We found a lead.”

I took it from him immediately, it was the security access logs.

My executive credentials had been used twice last night. Once during the archive breach and once thirty minutes later. The locations were different too. Parking garage level three.

I frowned slightly. “There are no archive systems in the garage.”

“That’s not the strange part,” Damien replied as he tapped the screen again.

A second video opened. Black-and-white footage from the underground parking level. A dark SUV pulled slowly out of the garage at 2:13 a.m, there was no visible plate and the vehicle had executive access clearance.

Meaning the barrier opened automatically for it and whoever broke into Laurent Group didn’t sneak out, they left comfortably.

Celeste folded her arms tightly beside me. “Seems like someone inside your company helped them.”

Damien looked toward me. “What now?”

I stared at the paused footage for another second, then a thought hit me suddenly.

“Who were the investors Selene had lunch with in the last forty-eight hours?”

Damien opened another file quickly. Names filled the screen, executives, foreign investors, political figures. Then one name caught my attention—Victor Hale.

This is becoming more interesting. Victor Hale financed two of Laurent Group’s overseas structures and almost never attended public business events personally. Yet now he was suddenly appearing around Arden Corporation.

Now, I understand this wasn’t random pressure anymore. This was strategic positioning. Someone had been busy building loopholes around Laurent Group and somehow I’d walked into the middle of it without noticing early enough.

Then another detail landed in my head. The flowers. The orchids that were said to have been sent to Selene through Laurent executive services.

Now, it made more sense, someone was intentionally trying to create connections between Laurent Group and Selene Arden behind the scenes for confusion.

Damien must have reasoned from my point of view because his expression changed too.

“Someone’s playing both sides,” he muttered.