His Secret Addiction

Chapter Twenty-Six

Alex's POV

By Wednesday we'd eliminated eight names from the list.

Background checks came back clean. Financial records showed nothing suspicious. No connections to Maya beyond normal work interactions. That left four people: two senior accountants, one operations manager, and Sophie.

Damien still couldn't let go of his suspicion about Sophie, even though every piece of evidence said she was clean.

"She has motive," he said Wednesday night. We were spread out across his living room floor with printouts and laptops. "Legal sees everything. She'd know exactly how to move money without getting caught."

"She'd also know that eventually someone would find it," I countered. "Sophie's too smart to leave a trail this obvious if she was actually involved."

"Unless the trail is intentionally obvious. Pointing us away from something bigger."

I set down the file I was reading. "Damien, you need to stop. You're spiraling."

"I'm being thorough."

"You're fixating because you can't accept that you might not figure this out in time." I moved closer to him. "Four days left. We need to focus on the people who actually make sense, not chase theories about Sophie because she happens to be competent."

He knew I was right. But admitting it meant admitting he might fail, and Damien didn't know how to do that gracefully.

"The operations manager," I said, pulling up a file. "David Reeves. He's been with the company nine years. Worked directly under Maya for six of them. Divorced two years ago. Has a daughter in private school that costs sixty thousand a year."

"Plenty of people have kids in expensive schools."

"On a ninety thousand dollar salary?" I showed him the financial records Marcus had pulled. "His ex-wife doesn't work. He's paying child support and alimony. After taxes and expenses, he should be underwater. But he's not. He's current on everything."

Damien took the file. Studied it. "Could be family money."

"Parents are both dead. No inheritance on record." I pulled up more documents. "But here's the interesting part. Three months after Maya was arrested, he bought a new car. Forty thousand dollars. Paid cash."

"Where did he get forty thousand in cash?"

"That's the question."

Damien grabbed his phone and called Marcus. "I need you to pull every transaction David Reeves approved in the last six months. Everything. I don't care how small."

Marcus called back an hour later. We put him on speaker.

"Reeves approved eighteen vendor payments in the last six months," Marcus said. "Sixteen are legitimate. Two are questionable. Both to a consulting firm called Meridian Solutions. Twenty thousand dollars each."

"What kind of consulting?" I asked.

"Operations efficiency, according to the invoices. But I can't find any actual work product. No reports, no recommendations, nothing."

Damien and I looked at each other.

"Pull everything on Meridian Solutions," Damien said. "Corporate filings, ownership records, bank accounts if you can access them."

"Already on it. I'll call you back."

********************

We didn't talk while we waited. Just kept reading through files, looking for anything else we'd missed.

My phone rang at eleven. Chen.

"I have news about Maya," she said. "Her lawyer pushed through the plea deal. She's testifying against other members of her network in exchange for reduced charges."

"What does' reduced 'mean?"

"Twenty years instead of life. Eligible for parole at fifteen." Chen paused. "The testimony includes names at Ross Industries. She's claiming Reeves was involved."

I looked at Damien. "David Reeves?"

"Among others. She gave us four names total. We're bringing them all in for questioning tomorrow morning." Chen's voice was careful. "Damien should know before it goes public. This is going to be news."

After she hung up, Damien stood and walked to the window. Didn't say anything for a long moment.

"Maya's still controlling the narrative," he said finally. "Even from jail, she's deciding what information comes out and when."

"But if she's right about Reeves—"

"Then we have our answer. And Sterling will use it as proof that I can't protect the company." He turned around. "Four people named Maya. How many of them do you think are actually guilty versus how many she's just burning to save herself?"

"Does it matter? Chen has to investigate either way."

"It matters because every name she gives makes us look worse. Makes me look worse." He came back to the couch. "Sterling's going to call another vote the second this goes public. Tomorrow morning. Before I have any answers."

He was right. Sterling had been waiting for exactly this kind of ammunition.

Marcus called back at midnight.

"Meridian Solutions is a shell company," he said without preamble. "I registered in Delaware two years ago. No employees, no office, no actual business operations. The ownership is hidden behind three layers of holding companies."

"Can you trace it back?" Damien asked.

"I can try, but it'll take time we don't have. However, I did find something else." Marcus paused. "The bank account for Meridian Solutions shows deposits from six different companies over the past two years. Total amount moved through the account: one point two million dollars. Most of it has been withdrawn as cash. Untraceable."

"Reeves approved payments into an account that's been laundering money for two years," I said. "That's not a coincidence."

"No," Marcus agreed. "That's a criminal conspiracy. I'm sending everything to Chen now. She'll have enough to bring Reeves in tomorrow."

After Marcus hung up, Damien slumped against the couch.

"One down," he said. "Three more Maya named to go. Plus whoever else is actually involved that she didn't name."

"But you found one. Before the board meeting. That counts for something."

"Sterling won't see it that way. He'll see four names and ask why I didn't find them sooner." Damien closed his eyes. "I'm going to lose the company, Alex."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. The math doesn't work anymore. Sterling has the votes." He opened his eyes and looked at me. "And honestly? I'm tired of fighting him."

I sat next to him. "What does that mean?"

"It means maybe he's right. Maybe the company needs someone who didn't let an eight million dollar fraud happen under their watch. Someone who didn't trust the wrong person so completely that people died."

"Maya killed people. Not you."

"I enabled her. By not paying attention. By not questioning. By being so focused on business that I missed everything happening right in front of me." He leaned his head back. "My grandmother would be ashamed."

"Your grandmother built this company by taking risks and trusting people. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn't." I took his hand. "But giving up because Sterling's been waiting for you to fail? That's not honoring her legacy. That's just letting him win."

He looked at our hands. "What if I can't fix this?"

"Then you can't. But you don't get to decide that before you try."

We sat there until after one. Eventually I pulled him to bed. He fell asleep almost immediately, exhausted from days of barely sleeping.