Chương 10 - The File With My Name
Hannah refused to let me walk into that meeting alone.
I hadn’t planned to.
For the first time all night, I had something Adrian wanted.
He didn’t know how much.
We agreed Vanessa would send no further messages without preserving them.
Luca called the independent company directors and told them the transfer had to stop.
One answered.
Two didn’t.
The fourth said Adrian had already circulated an emergency approval.
“On what grounds?” Hannah asked.
“Luca’s supposed inability to fulfill the settlement,” the director said.
Vanessa looked at her hands.
“That was the meeting,” she whispered.
We turned toward her.
“Adrian said Luca would admit he was backing out.
He needed the recording so Dad could claim a breach.”
“Your microphone was supposed to trigger a takeover?” I asked.
She nodded.
“And you helped.”
“I thought it was leverage.”
“You put a listening device under the chair.”
“I know what I did.”
“Do you?”
Her eyes filled.
I didn’t comfort her.
Ben examined the event tablet’s access records.
Adrian had opened more than seating plans.
He had downloaded staff information.
Payroll.
Emergency contacts.
Background checks.
My file contained an additional folder.
The label was simply PARKER.
Inside were my mother’s shop lease, my father’s old insurance statement, and photographs of me entering the mansion on my first day.
Eight months earlier.
“He knew before I started,” I said.
Hannah read the attached email.
Adrian had written it to Victor.
Daughter has accepted position.
No indication mother disclosed anything.
Keep her close until the archive is cleared.
I sat down.
The room felt too bright.
“They hired me to watch me.”
Luca’s face tightened.
“Adrian reviewed staff applications.
I didn’t know.”
I looked at him.
“How many things did you let him do because you didn’t want to know?”
He didn’t defend himself.
That made me angrier.
I wanted an answer I could push against.
Instead, he said, “Too many.”
There was another document.
A storage inventory from Luca’s father’s estate.
The old suit had been scheduled for disposal.
Luca had moved it to the sitting room because it reminded him of his father.
Adrian had tried to get access to the cabinet twice.
Vanessa’s chair request had placed me in the room while he was elsewhere.
“She wasn’t just planting a microphone,” I said.
“She was giving you a reason to send me away.”
Vanessa nodded once.
“Adrian said the house would be busy.
He could search without anyone noticing.”
I stared at the inventory.
My job.
My mother’s rent.
That chair.
They had been pieces of the same plan.
Then Ben opened one last email.
May you like
The subject line read:
PARKER EXIT — PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT REMOVAL.
