The Frame Up Begins

Kael

"Hostile takeover?" Banjo shouted out, his voice cracking slightly under the shock. "That's impossible. The Vance family holds fifty one percent of the master voting shares. Nobody can execute a takeover without my personal security key."

"They don't need your key, Master Banjo," Jarrah said, his voice shaking as he held up the satellite phone. "The master vault code wasn't cracked from the outside. It was authorized using an internal administrative clearance from this very building fifteen minutes ago."

I looked at Jarrah, the man who only hours ago, I had overheard conspiring with Tahlia to steal my father's Syndicate keys. He was acting terrified but beneath his frantic act, I saw the not obvious, cold calculation in his eyes.

Banjo didn't notice. He went towards his deck, grabbed his tablet in fury tapping at the glass screen. Rows of red error messages flashed across his face. "It's blocked," Banjo muttered. "My master access was revoked. How is this happening?!"

Before Jarrah could answer, the heavy double doors of the office clicked open once more.

Tahlia stepped into the room.

She wasn't wearing her usual soft, fragile look today. In her small hands, she held a flash drive.

"Banjo!" she cried out softly, her voice trembling as she rushed past me straight to his side. "Oh God, Banjo, it's terrible the media in London just broke the story!"

Banjo grabbed her shoulders tight, his knuckles turned white. "What story, Tahlia? What are you talking about?"

"Our core corporate documents!" Tahlia sobbed, tears instantly welling up in her eyes. "The confidential expansion files for the European banking merger the private client ledgers everything! Lawson Global just released the entire blueprint to the financial press! They're claiming Vance Enterprises is bankrupt and fraudulent!"

Lawson Global. The Vance family’s fiercest rival in European finance a ruthless corporate giant that had been trying to dismantle Banjo’s empire for a decade.

Banjo’s face went pale white. "Lawson Global? How could they possibly get their hands on those files? Those documents were stored on an isolated server in the west wing of the chalet!"

"I didn't want to believe it, Banjo," Tahlia whimpered. She looked over her shoulder at me, her eyes filling with a dark, poisonous bad intention that was completely hidden from Banjo. "When the server alert went off twenty minutes ago, I asked the IT security team to trace the internal IP address. I prayed it was a technical glitch. I prayed it wasn't true". "What are you setting up, Tahlia?" I asked, Tahlia didn't answer me. She turned back to Banjo, placing the flash drive into his shaking palm.

"The trace is complete, Banjo," Tahlia whispered softly, her voice full of tragic, heartbreaking pity. "The person who accessed the isolated server, the person who downloaded the merger files and transferred them directly to Lawson Global's private server used a local wireless signal."

Banjo’s eyes snapped up, fixing on her face with a desperate, terrifying intensity. "Whose signal, Tahlia? Speak!"

"The digital footprint came directly from the personal laptop in the west wing servant quarters," Tahlia said, her voice dropping into a tearful, heartbroken whisper. "It was sent from Merinda's private device."

The air was instantly sucked out of my throat.

"That's a lie," I said, stepping forward, my voice flat and cold. "I haven't touched my laptop since yesterday morning. I was brought directly to this office by your security team at eight AM."

"The timestamp on the file transfer says eight fifteen AM, Merinda!" Tahlia cried out, burying her face in Banjo's chest as she sobbed. "She timed it! She knew she would be here with you so she could have an alibi while an automated script ran on her computer!"

Banjo looked down at the flash drive in his hand, then lifted his head.

The confusion in his eyes vanished, completely replaced by an absolute, murderous rage.

He didn't ask for my explanation. He didn't ask to check the logs himself. Just like every single time before, he took Tahlia's word as absolute, untouchable gospel.

"You miserable, ungrateful parasite," Banjo spat out. "You sold my family to Lawson Global?"

"I didn't touch those files, Banjo!" I shouted back, my calm tone finally shattered as three years of quiet endurance burned into raw fury. "Look at her! Look at Jarrah! They are framing me right in front of your blind, foolish eyes!"

"Enough!" Banjo roared, stepping around his desk, his hand reaching out and grabbing my throat in a firm, suffocating grip. He didn't choke me, but his fingers pressed firmly against my jaw, trapping me in place. "I gave you my name! I kept you safe! And you sold my life's work to my greatest enemy out of pure, bitter jealousy!"

I looked straight into his eyes, refusing to let a single tear fall. "You are a fool, Banjo Vance. A blind, arrogant fool."

Banjo’s grip tightened for a fraction of a second before he shoved me backward. I stumbled, catching myself against the edge of the conference table.

"Jarrah!" Banjo commanded, his voice cold enough to freeze the room solid. "Call the Zurich Federal Police. Tell them we have a corporate spy in custody."

Jarrah reached into his jacket, pulling out his phone. "Right away, Master Banjo."

"Wait," Tahlia suddenly piped up from behind Banjo, her voice carrying a strange, eerie softness as she wiped away her tears. She looked at Banjo with a subtle, dark glint in her eyes. "Banjo before the police take her away you need to check her private email account. The IT team found something else sent from her IP address ten minutes ago."

Banjo frowned, picking up his tablet again. "What else?"

Tahlia looked straight into my eyes, a slow, terrifying smile plastered onto her lips as she whispered:

"She didn't just sell the company to Lawson Global, Banjo. She just sent a signed confession to the European Banking Commission claiming you ordered the leak.”