Chapter 7
The morning sun struggled to break through a thick blanket of gray clouds, casting a sterile, fluorescent light across the ninth-floor boardroom of Vance & Delgado Consulting. The glass walls of the conference room offered a panoramic view of the financial district, but inside, the atmosphere was suffocatingly claustrophobic.
Maya sat near the far end of the long mahogany table, wearing a charcoal gray pantsuit that felt suffocatingly formal compared to her usual vibrant streetwear. Her pink platform boots were tucked neatly beneath her chair, a solitary touch of rebellion in an otherwise conservative corporate setting. Across from her sat three senior board members, their faces grim and lined with age.
Elena sat at the head of the table, her bruised jaw artfully concealed beneath a layer of professional makeup, though a slight swelling remained visible if the light caught her at the right angle. She was calm, composed, and utterly ruthless as she laid out the printed financial statements before the board.
“As you can see from Exhibit C,” Elena said, her voice even and professional, “the unauthorized transfers began six months ago. The digital footprint points directly to Clara Hayes’s workstation, utilizing credentials that had been improperly shared.”
The eldest board member, a man named Arthur Pendelton, adjusted his reading glasses and peered over the documents. “And you only discovered this discrepancy yesterday, Ms. Vance?”
“I discovered the irregularities three weeks ago, Mr. Pendelton,” Elena corrected smoothly. “I spent the intervening time verifying the data trail to ensure there were no false positives before bringing the matter to your attention.”
Maya swallowed hard, feeling a knot twist painfully in her stomach. She knew Elena was lying about the timeline. Elena had known about the embezzlement almost from the beginning, using the information as leverage to force Clara into signing over her equity stake in the firm. The spilled wine at The Velvet Anchor hadn't been a sudden outburst of rage; it had been a calculated execution of psychological destruction.
“With all due respect to Ms. Vance,” Maya interjected, her voice cutting clearly across the boardroom, “we need to consider the broader implications of an internal investigation. Going public with this could trigger a loss of investor confidence that would cost us far more than the missing funds.”
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Elena turned her head slowly, her cold brown eyes locking onto Maya’s with a silent warning. “Protecting the firm means cutting out the cancer, Maya. Or are you suggesting we sweep corporate theft under the rug just because we used to share a dorm room?”
Arthur Pendelton raised a wrinkled hand, silencing them both. “The board will review the audit independently. Ms. Hayes has been summoned for a formal hearing this afternoon. Until then, both of you are restricted from accessing the main servers.”
