Chapter 2 - The Man Who Noticed
The security guard stopped before reaching the table.
Every face turned toward him.
Dominic stood.
“Give me the phone.”
The guard obeyed.
Dominic read the transaction.
$900,000.
Whitmore Freight & Marine.
Transferred three weeks earlier.
Recipient account registered under Claire Whitmore.
Charles immediately stood.
“This is absurd.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Is it?”
“My daughter would never steal from me.”
Claire's expression did not change.
Dominic looked at her.
“Did you?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
Charles turned toward her.
“Then explain the account.”
Claire's jaw tightened.
“I can't.”
Dominic watched her carefully.
“Why?”
“Because it's not my account.”
The security guard swallowed.
“It is registered under her legal name.”
Claire looked at the screen.
Then she understood.
Someone had created an account using her identity.
Her face went pale.
Charles pointed at her.
“You see?”
Dominic raised one hand.
Charles stopped.
“Let her speak.”
Claire looked at Dominic.
“Thank you.”
She took the phone.
Her eyes moved over the transaction.
Then she whispered, “This isn't the account.”
“What?”
Claire looked toward her father.
“The account I use for company restructuring ends in 7412.”
She pointed at the screen.
“This ends in 9412.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“One digit.”
“Yes.”
Claire looked at the guard.
“Who authorized the transfer?”
“Your electronic signature.”
Claire shook her head.
“I haven't used that signature in months.”
Charles stepped closer.
“You expect us to believe someone forged your signature?”
Claire looked at him.
“No.”
The room became silent.
“I expect you to believe someone copied the authorization system.”
Dominic's gaze sharpened.
“What authorization system?”
Claire hesitated.
Then she looked at Charles.
He was staring at her with something dangerously close to fear.
Dominic noticed.
“What aren't you telling me?”
Claire didn't answer.
Charles did.
“She knows nothing.”
Dominic turned toward him.
“You seem very certain.”
“She is an administrative employee.”
Claire flinched.
Employee.
Not daughter.
Not executive.
Employee.
Dominic walked toward her.
“You work for your father's company?”
“Yes.”
“What position?”
Charles answered.
“Assistant.”
Claire's eyes closed briefly.
Dominic said, “I didn't ask you.”
Charles fell silent.
Claire looked at Dominic.
“No official position.”
Dominic frowned.
“You've worked there for how long?”
“Nine years.”
“Nine years without a title?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Claire gave a faint smile.
“My father never thought I needed one.”
Dominic looked at Charles.
Then back at Claire.
He understood something.
The problem wasn't that Charles underestimated his daughter.
He needed everyone else to underestimate her too.
Dominic handed the phone back.
“Send me the full transaction history.”
The guard nodded.
Charles objected.
“This is a family matter.”
“No.”
Dominic's voice was quiet.
“You invited me because you wanted my company to invest in yours.”
Charles froze.
Dominic continued.
“If nine hundred thousand dollars disappeared from a company I'm being asked to partner with, it became my problem.”
Claire looked at him.
For the first time, something changed in her expression.
Not trust.
Not yet.
But relief.
Only slightly.
Later that night, Claire left through the rear entrance.
She walked alone toward her car.
The mansion was silent behind her.
She unlocked the door.
Then stopped.
A black SUV sat across the street.
Its windows were tinted.
Claire stared at it.
She knew that vehicle.
Not because she had seen it before.
Because someone had been following her for three weeks.
She entered her car.
The SUV remained still.
Claire started the engine.
She drove.
The SUV followed.
Two miles later, her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A man's voice whispered.
“You should have stayed quiet.”
Claire's blood ran cold.
“Who is this?”
“You know exactly who.”
The call ended.
Claire pulled over.
Her hands shook.
Then another message arrived.
A photograph.
It showed her entering Whitmore Freight that morning.
Below it were four words:
WE KNOW WHAT YOU FOUND.
Claire stared at the screen.
Then she remembered the file she had hidden that afternoon.
The file containing the original ownership records of Whitmore Freight.
She drove home.
But when she opened her apartment door, the hallway light was already on.
May you like
Someone had been inside.
And on her kitchen table sat the missing file...
