the leak
316 Words
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Chapter 7: The Leak
Aria didn’t go home.
She drove straight to the Aurelia Ventures basement. The server room. The one Keith told IT to lock her out of six months ago.
The security guard did a double take. "Ms. Stone? We thought you were—"
"In a car accident?" Aria smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. "I’m harder to kill than that. Open the door."
Inside, three techs froze at their monitors.
"Pull every email, text, and call log from the last 18 months," Aria said. "Keith Morgan. Chloe Reyes. Legal. Finance. All of it."
One of them stuttered, "Mr. Morgan said we weren’t supposed to—"
"Mr. Morgan doesn’t run this company anymore," Aria cut in. "I do."
Her hands were steady as she typed. No trembling. No fear. Just cold focus.
By 2am the screen glowed with proof.
Subject lines jumped out at her:
Kill the merger
Make it look like an accident. Clean.
After the payout we split 60/40. Don’t mess this up.
Voice notes. Bank transfers. Photos of Chloe meeting Keith at the marina at midnight.
Aria exported everything. Then she opened the company-wide email list. 400 inboxes.
Subject: Transparency
Body: Read the attachments. Then ask yourself why your CEO was supposed to die in a car crash last week.
Her finger hovered over send for one second. Then she pressed it.
By 6am her phone was exploding. AureliaExposed was trending. JusticeForAria was number 2.
Keith’s face was plastered across every news site. "Former VP under investigation for fraud and attempted murder."
Aria poured black coffee in her penthouse and watched the city wake up.
Day 2.
Her phone rang. Unknown number.
She answered.
"Aria?" Chloe’s voice was thin, panicked. "They won’t let me go. The police have the burner phone. They know about—"
Aria hung up.
She looked out the window.
98 days left.
- Writer
