Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Archive
Elena spent the ambulance ride trying not to imagine what Rebecca was taking.
She failed.
The contractions had slowed after the paramedics started fluids, but her heart remained too fast.
Adrian sat beside her.
He had ignored three phone calls.
That was unusual enough to frighten her.
“Who’s Rebecca?” Elena asked.
Adrian looked toward the monitor instead of her.
“Someone who used to work for me.”
“Doing what?”
“Internal compliance.”
“Used to?”
“She was terminated eight months ago.”
“For what?”
His pause was small.
Elena noticed it anyway.
“Adrian.”
“For unauthorized access to confidential records.”
Elena stared at him.
“And she just walked into your archive using my credentials?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve never been in your archive.”
“I know.”
“Then how does she have my credentials?”
“That’s what Daniel is finding out.”
Elena pulled her hand away from his.
“You knew something was wrong before tonight.”
“No.”
“You reacted when Marcus mentioned the signature.”
Adrian rubbed a hand over his jaw.
“Elena—”
“Don’t protect me by lying to me.”
“I’m not lying.”
“You’re delaying.”
He met her eyes.
She knew that look too.
Boardroom Adrian.
The man who could answer a hostile question without technically withholding anything while revealing almost nothing.
She hated Boardroom Adrian when he appeared in their marriage.
“The payroll authorization Marcus mentioned,” Adrian said slowly, “may involve one of my companies.”
Elena stopped breathing for a second.
“What?”
“Cross Meridian has a payroll-processing subsidiary.”
“You own the company Bellmont uses?”
“Possibly. We own several.”
“Possibly?”
“I don’t personally review every client.”
Elena laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“For three months I’ve been collecting evidence that employees were being cheated, and the company processing the payroll might belong to my husband?”
“Processing payroll does not mean authorizing wage theft.”
“I know that.”
“Then don’t connect things we haven’t verified.”
“Marcus already connected them.”
The ambulance slowed.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“Marcus wanted to destabilize you.”
“He succeeded.”
“That doesn’t make him truthful.”
The doors opened.
Doctors and nurses moved quickly.
Elena was taken into obstetric triage.
For the next forty minutes, everything became medical.
Blood pressure.
Fetal monitoring.
Questions about pain.
Questions about bleeding.
An ultrasound.
A physician named Dr. Patel explained that Elena was having preterm contractions, but there was no immediate indication she was in active labor.
“You need rest,” Dr. Patel said. “And stress reduction.”
Elena almost laughed.
Adrian did not.
“How long does she stay?”
“At least several hours for monitoring.”
“Keep her overnight.”
Dr. Patel glanced at Elena.
“That’s my decision.”
Elena squeezed Adrian’s hand.
He exhaled.
“Sorry.”
“You’re scared,” Elena said.
“No.”
Dr. Patel smiled faintly.
“Of course.”
When the doctor left, Elena leaned back against the pillow.
Adrian stood at the window.
Twenty-eight floors below them, Manhattan moved as though nothing had happened.
His phone vibrated again.
This time he answered.
“Daniel.”
Elena watched his face.
“Yes.”
Pause.
“When?”
Another pause.
“What did she access?”
His expression became still.
“No. Don’t touch anything. Have outside counsel preserve the footage.”
Elena sat straighter.
“What happened?”
Adrian ended the call.
“Rebecca left the building before security reached the archive.”
“With what?”
“We don’t know.”
“You said she had a red folder.”
“That folder belongs to the executive compliance department.”
“What was inside?”
“We’re auditing the archive now.”
Elena looked away.
“This keeps getting worse.”
Adrian sat beside the bed.
“I should have told you something.”
Her eyes returned to him.
“Now?”
“Months ago.”
The fetal monitor beeped steadily.
Adrian looked at the screen, then back at Elena.
“Last December, Cross Meridian acquired Hartwell Processing.”
“The payroll company.”
“Yes.”
“Bellmont’s payroll company?”
“Yes.”
“So you knew.”
“I learned Bellmont was a client only tonight.”
She studied him.
She believed that part.
But not all of it.
“What else?”
Adrian clasped his hands.
“During acquisition review, our compliance team identified inconsistencies in several client accounts.”
“What kind?”
“Manual adjustments. Unusual retroactive changes. Deleted overtime.”
Elena’s pulse jumped.
“You knew employees were losing wages?”
“We knew records had irregularities. Not why. An internal investigation started.”
“And Rebecca?”
“She ran it.”
Elena understood before he said more.
“She found something.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“We never learned. Three days before she was supposed to submit her report, she copied restricted files and disappeared from work. When security confronted her, she claimed someone inside Cross Meridian was manipulating the investigation.”
“And you fired her?”
“She refused to provide the files she took.”
“Did you believe her?”
Adrian looked down.
“Not then.”
“And now?”
He did not answer.
Elena thought about Marcus’s confidence.
Ask your husband whose signature is on the original payroll authorization.
“What signature?”
Adrian stood again.
“There are digital authorization codes attached to bulk account changes.”
“Whose?”
“Senior executives.”
“Yours?”
“No.”
She let out a breath.
“But someone close to you.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Before Adrian could answer, someone knocked.
Daniel entered.
His usually controlled expression looked strained.
He handed Adrian a tablet.
“You need to see this.”
Adrian read.
“What is it?” Elena asked.
Neither man answered.
“Stop doing that.”
Daniel looked at Adrian.
Adrian gave a small nod.
Daniel turned the tablet toward her.
It displayed a security image from the archive.
Rebecca stood beside a cabinet.
But she was not alone.
A man faced away from the camera.
Broad shoulders.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Elena could not identify him.
Adrian could.
His face went white.
“Who is that?”
Adrian stared at the image.
“My father.”
Elena knew Charles Cross.
Everyone did.
Founder of Cross Meridian.
Self-made billionaire.
Philanthropist.
Financial television regular.
The man magazines called an American business legend.
Adrian and Charles had a complicated relationship, but Elena had never seen Adrian look afraid of him.
Until now.
“He was in the archive with Rebecca?”
“The footage was taken four months ago,” Daniel said.
“While Rebecca still worked there?”
“Yes.”
Adrian enlarged the timestamp.
3:14 a.m.
Elena frowned.
“Why would your father meet an employee in your archive at three in the morning?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel hesitated.
“There’s more.”
He swiped.
Another image appeared.
Charles was standing at the same cabinet.
This time his face was visible.
And in his hand was a document.
At the bottom of the document sat a signature.
Adrian’s signature.
Elena looked at her husband.
“You signed it.”
“No.”
“It’s your name.”
“I did not sign that.”
Daniel nodded.
“We’ve already pulled the digital certificate. The authorization was executed using Adrian’s executive credentials.”
“Could someone steal those?”
“In theory.”
“Who had access?”
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“Three people.”
“Elena asked, “Who?”
“Adrian. His father. And Rebecca.”
Elena stared at the image.
The fetal monitor suddenly sounded faster.
Adrian noticed.
“Enough.”
“No.”
“You need rest.”
“I need the truth.”
“I’m trying to find it.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
He checked the message.
Then looked toward the hospital-room door.
“Someone’s downstairs.”
“Who?” Adrian asked.
Daniel did not answer immediately.
“Elena’s mother.”
Elena frowned.
“My mother?”
Her mother, Sofia Martinez, lived in Queens and refused to travel into Manhattan after nine at night unless someone was dying.
“I didn’t call her.”
“I did,” Adrian said.
“Why?”
“Because I thought you’d want her here.”
Elena softened despite herself.
Then Daniel said, “She isn’t alone.”
Adrian’s attention sharpened.
“Who’s with her?”
“Rebecca Shaw.”
Elena sat up.
“What?”
“She approached Mrs. Martinez outside the hospital and asked to come upstairs.”
Adrian stood.
“No.”
“She says she has evidence.”
“She can give it to counsel.”
Daniel looked at Elena.
“She specifically said she will only give it to Elena.”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“No chance.”
Elena pulled off one of the monitoring straps.
Adrian turned.
“What are you doing?”
“Putting it back on as soon as Rebecca walks in.”
“Elena.”
“She broke into your archive using my identity. I’m hearing what she has to say.”
“We don’t know whether she’s dangerous.”
“My mother is standing beside her.”
“That doesn’t make her safe.”
Daniel interrupted.
“There’s another issue.”
Adrian stared at him.
“What now?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Rebecca says Marcus Bell isn’t the person running the payroll scheme.”
Elena stopped moving.
“She says Marcus is afraid of him.”
“Of whom?”
Daniel looked directly at Adrian.
“She won’t tell me.”
A nurse opened the door before anyone could say more.
Behind her stood Sofia Martinez.
And beside Sofia was a thin woman in her early forties with rain-darkened hair and a red folder pressed against her chest.
Rebecca Shaw looked at Adrian once.
Then she looked at Elena.
“You have twenty-four hours,” she said.
“After that, everyone who can prove what happened starts disappearing.”
She placed the red folder on Elena’s bed.
May you like
Inside was a photograph of Marcus Bell shaking hands with a man Elena knew very well.
Her own father.
