Chapter 14 - The Final Transfer and the Hidden Beneficiary
The digital alarm on my phone buzzed softly in my pocket as we stepped off the elevator into the foundation’s executive penthouse suite.
While the media circus downstairs celebrated the public downfall of Arthur Sterling, my fingers flew across the secure terminal on my desk, tracking the automated ping of the pending transaction.
"What is it, Maya? You look pale," my mother asked, walking over with two cups of hot coffee and setting one down beside my keyboard.
"The offshore account Arthur used—it didn't freeze when the server rebooted," I said, pointing at the scrolling lines of hexadecimal code on the screen.
"Someone with a master override key just authorized a final transfer of five million dollars out of the foundation's reserve fund."
My father walked over, his brow furrowing as he leaned down to read the destination routing number.
"That routing number doesn't belong to a shell company or an offshore bank," Julian said, his voice dropping to a tense whisper.
"That belongs to the primary trust fund set up for Maya's college education twenty years ago."
Elizabeth stared at the screen, her amber eyes widening in sudden, chilling comprehension.
"It wasn't Arthur acting alone at the end," Elizabeth realized, her breath catching in her throat.
"There was a third partner—someone inside the family who helped set up the trust before we even returned."
Before either of us could check the metadata of the transaction, the penthouse doors unlocked automatically with a soft chime, and a familiar figure walked out of the private elevator.
May you like
Marcus Vance, our head of security, smiled warmly at us, holding a sleek black laptop in his hand as he locked the elevator doors behind him.
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