All Chapters of Betrayed by design: Chapter 41 - Chapter 47

Elena Voss didn't waste time which Sloane noticed right away, she moved from one task to the next without hesitation. She seemed ready to move on after years of keeping quiet and keeping to herself. She called Sloane two days after they met."I have been thinking," Elena said without greeting her first. "The dossier you received, whoever put it together dug into more than just my life."Sloane was at her desk, where she had been working since five in the morning with documents in front of her. It was still dark outside. She straightened in her chair."What do you mean?" she said. "There’s too much information in that document for it to have come from one source. The financial, timeline and everything.” Elena paused. “And if they went that far, they weren’t only looking into me.”Sloane looked at the photograph of Elena still pinned to the corner of her document board. "Elena Voss," Sloane said. "Yes," Elena confirmed. "If someone thought the pattern was important enough to put toge

Sloane saw the story on her phone first on a Wednesday morning. A notification from a financial news app she had set up years ago alerted her to any mention of Vance Industries or her name. She was standing barefoot in the penthouse kitchen, still wearing the clothes she had slept in. The coffee was brewing while the morning light slowly filled the city outside.She tapped the notification and read the headline. Then she placed her phone face-down on the counter, poured herself a cup of coffee, and read it again. This time, she leaned against the counter and stood quietly.People close to Vance Industries have expressed concerns about the COO’s recent behavior. They cited poor decision-making, frequent absences, and actions that several people connected to the board described as disruptive.She took a few more sips of coffee, turned her phone face down, and headed to her room to get dressed.Claire was already at her desk when Sloane walked out forty minutes later, she’d seen it too.

Sloane sat at her desk with the documents neatly arranged in front of her and her third cup of coffee growing cold beside her. She was working on the timeline Harriet needed by morning which required her full attention and making it easy to lose track of time and forget about everything else, it was one of the few things in her life that still felt uncomplicated.A call came on a Sunday evening and Sloane recognized the number immediately, but she hesitated for a second before answering.“Mr. Grey,” she said.“Sloane.” Harrison Grey’s voice came through the line. He was the longest-serving member of the Vance Industries board, seventy-four years old and the one person in the entire composition of the company’s governance structure whose name she had not marked with a question or a worry when she’d gone through the list because she did not know where he stood.You could never tell what Harrison Grey was thinking. His respect had to be earned, his support wasn’t guaranteed, and he rarel

She called Elena first who arrived twelve minutes later, in a cream blouse and wide-leg trousers and her blonde hair pinned at the nape of her neck, she took one look at Damon standing on the far side of Sloane’s office and didn’t say a word.Coming from Elena, that said a lot.“He stays,” Before Elena could respond, Sloane said, … “For now.”Elena put her portfolio on the side table and sat down across from Sloane, crossed her legs and looked at Damon. Her face was calm, but she didn’t look impressed.“Elena,” Damon said.“Damon,” Elena said, giving him a look that said she wasn’t convinced.Sloane spread the contents of the folder across her desk. “Here’s the situation,” she said in a steady, businesslike tone. “Damon has proof linking Marcus to Nathaniel’s holding company. We also have a witness who understands how the company operates, we need to contact that witness without Nathaniel finding out and we have to move before the board meeting at the end of the month.”Elena leaned