Chapter 5
I didn’t believe it.
That was my first reaction.
Not denial.
Not anger.
Just refusal.
“Run it again.”
My attorney sighed.
“Simone.”
“Run it again.”
“We did.”
“Then do it a third time.”
“Daniel’s credentials accessed the secured transaction room on fourteen separate occasions outside normal hours.”
“That doesn’t prove he leaked anything.”
“No.”
I grabbed onto that.
“Exactly.”
“But his private cloud account received copies of the files.”
My throat tightened.
“That could be planted.”
“It could.”
“Was it?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Richard said nothing.
Smart.
This was my company now.
My betrayal.
I walked to the window.
Daniel Mercer had been beside me before Carter Retail existed.
We met when we were both twenty-six.
I had ambition.
He had numbers.
I understood customers.
He understood capital.
When Naomi died, Daniel sat outside my apartment every night for a week because he knew I wouldn’t answer the door but didn’t want me alone.
He was family.
Closer than family.
“Where is he?” I asked.
My attorney answered.
“Home, according to security.”
“Does he know?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I ended the call.
Richard watched me.
“What will you do?”
I looked at him.
“Ask him.”
“At one in the morning?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going there yourself?”
“Yes.”
He stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“You helped my daughter tonight.”
“That doesn’t make you my bodyguard.”
“No.”
He put on his coat.
“But it makes me unwilling to let you confront a possible corporate criminal alone.”
I almost argued.
Then I remembered Naomi.
Then Victoria upstairs.
“Fine.”
Daniel lived in a townhouse twenty minutes away.
I called from the sidewalk.
He answered on the second ring.
“Simone?”
“Open the door.”
Pause.
“What?”
“I’m outside.”
Another pause.
Then the lock clicked.
Daniel appeared wearing sweatpants and a gray sweater.
His hair was messy.
His face looked confused.
Then he saw Richard behind me.
His expression changed.
“What happened?”
I stepped inside.
“Tell me.”
He frowned.
“Tell you what?”
I looked directly at him.
“How did Bellamy files end up in your private cloud?”
Everything stopped.
Daniel didn’t blink.
Didn’t breathe.
That was answer enough.
I felt something tear inside me.
“Daniel.”
He closed the door.
Richard stayed near it.
Daniel looked older suddenly.
“Simone.”
“Don’t.”
He rubbed his face.
“I can explain.”
“Then explain.”
He walked toward the living room.
I followed.
On his dining table sat three folders.
One had North Coast’s logo.
My stomach turned.
I looked at him.
“What did you do?”
He sat down.
“I didn’t know Adrian was involved at first.”
I laughed.
One sharp sound.
“That’s your defense?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He looked at me.
“North Coast approached me eight months ago.”
“For what?”
“To discuss Bellamy.”
“Why you?”
“Because they knew Whitmore wanted it.”
My hands went cold.
“You were playing both sides.”
“I was trying to protect us.”
I almost lost control.
“Everybody keeps saying that right before admitting betrayal.”
Daniel flinched.
“I thought Whitmore was undervaluing the company.”
“So you sent confidential information to a competitor?”
“No.”
I pointed at the folders.
“Then what is that?”
He stood.
“Valuation models.”
“With our numbers.”
“Yes.”
“Our private numbers.”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“Do you hear yourself?”
He looked ashamed.
“I wanted leverage.”
“Against who?”
“Whitmore.”
“Without telling me.”
“You would have refused.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why.”
My eyes burned.
“So you decided my company needed protection from me.”
“Our company.”
The words exploded out of him.
Silence.
There it was.
The real thing.
Not strategy.
Not leverage.
Resentment.
I studied him.
“You think Carter Retail is yours.”
His face changed.
“I built it too.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why is your name on everything?”
I went still.
He looked horrified by his own words.
But they were out.
And they were true to him.
“You think I took credit from you.”
“I think people act like you built this alone.”
“I have never said that.”
“You never had to.”
Richard shifted slightly.
Daniel looked at him.
“This is private.”
Richard answered, “So is stolen commercial data.”
Daniel’s eyes hardened.
“Stay out of it.”
I stepped between them.
“No.”
Daniel looked back at me.
“Simone, I did not sell anything.”
“Did you send files to North Coast?”
He hesitated.
“Some.”
My heart sank.
“How many?”
“Enough to show them Whitmore’s offer was low.”
“Did Adrian get them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you know North Coast was working with him?”
“No.”
“Did you know they were going to use them to pressure me?”
“No.”
“Did you sign an NDA?”
“Yes.”
“Did you violate it?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
I sat down.
Not because I wanted to.
Because my knees had weakened.
Daniel whispered, “I’m sorry.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“I told you.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You told me what you did.”
I looked up.
“Why did you betray me?”
His eyes filled.
“For years, I watched you become the face of everything we built.”
I said nothing.
“You got the magazine covers.”
“Daniel—”
“The keynote speeches.”
“Because you hated public speaking.”
“I hated being invisible.”
That stopped me.
He laughed bitterly.
“I told myself it didn’t matter.”
“For twenty-three years?”
“For twenty-three years.”
My chest hurt.
“You could have told me.”
“You were always moving.”
“That’s not an excuse.”
“No.”
“You sat beside me after Naomi died.”
His face crumpled.
“Don’t.”
“You know what trust means to me.”
“I know.”
“And you still did this.”
He started crying.
Not theatrically.
Quietly.
“I was angry.”
“So you punished me?”
“I thought I was proving my value.”
“To who?”
He had no answer.
Then Richard’s phone rang.
He checked it.
His expression changed.
“Federal investigator.”
I looked at Daniel.
He understood immediately.
“They know?”
“Yes.”
His shoulders collapsed.
He sat down.
“What happens now?”
I wanted to hate him.
It would have been easier.
Instead, all I could see was a man who had been my brother in every way except blood.
A man who made one terrible choice after another because resentment grew in silence.
“What happens now,” I said, “is you tell the truth.”
He looked at me.
“All of it.”
His voice shook.
“Will you help me?”
I closed my eyes.
That question nearly broke me.
“No.”
His face fell.
“But I won’t lie about who you were to me before this.”
Tears ran down his face.
I stood.
“Get an attorney.”
Richard opened the door.
Before I left, Daniel called my name.
I turned.
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
I looked at him for a long time.
“Intent doesn’t erase impact.”
Then I walked out.
By morning, Daniel had voluntarily surrendered his laptop and phone.
He admitted sharing internal files with North Coast.
He denied knowing Adrian had criminally obtained other data.
Investigators believed parts of his story.
Not all.
Our board convened at eight.
For the first time in twenty-three years, Daniel’s chair was empty.
I sat at the head of the table.
Not because I felt powerful.
Because nobody else could.
The general counsel finished his report.
Then one director asked the question I expected.
“Simone, should you step aside temporarily?”
The room went quiet.
I looked around at faces I had known for years.
People who trusted me.
People who were now afraid.
I understood.
“What’s your reason?”
“Governance.”
“Say more.”
“You canceled a major acquisition during a personal confrontation.”
There it was.
The headline.
I folded my hands.
“I canceled because the acquiring party’s representative participated in unauthorized operational interference.”
“That wasn’t established at the time.”
“No.”
“So was the decision emotional?”
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
The room shifted.
I continued.
“And correct.”
Silence.
“Those things can coexist.”
Nobody spoke.
I leaned forward.
“If you want to remove me, vote.”
One director frowned.
“That isn’t necessary.”
“It is.”
I looked around.
“Either trust my leadership through this investigation or don’t.”
No one moved.
Finally, our chairwoman spoke.
“I move we retain Ms. Carter as CEO subject to independent review.”
Seconded.
Vote.
Unanimous.
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, my phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
You think Daniel was the leak. He was only the door.
My blood went cold.
A second message arrived.
If you want the person who actually planned this, look at the one place you never audit.
Then one photograph.
My stomach dropped.
It showed a storage facility.
Carter Retail Archive Center.
The basement entrance.
And standing beside it was a woman I recognized immediately.
My late husband’s sister.
May you like
Rebecca.
The woman I had trusted with Naomi’s foundation for fifteen years.
