ChapterThree
1448 Words
Lila hadn’t slept.
The messages still burned behind her eyes, looping endlessly in her head. Stop digging. You don’t know who you’re working for.
By the time morning light slid through her window, she’d already decided. Fear was useless. Curiosity wasn’t.
She was going to find out what Project E really was — and what Adrian Vale was hiding behind those glass walls.
At the office, everything looked the same — polished smiles, hushed voices, the rhythm of power dressed in civility. But something felt off. The air was tighter. Eyes lingered longer.
Even Isla avoided looking at her for too long.
“Rough night?” Isla asked quietly.
“Long,” Lila replied.
“Mr. Vale’s been in since five.”
Lila frowned. “Does he ever sleep?”
“Only when he forgets who he is,” Isla murmured, then quickly excused herself.
Lila tried to work, but her thoughts kept circling the same questions. Why protect a terminated project? Why hide environmental data behind classified encryption?
By mid-morning, she gave in. She opened the internal database — the one Adrian had told her not to touch — and started tracing archived communications.
Minutes passed. Then she saw it: a locked file under a hidden directory labeled E-Black/7. She entered a decryption query, and froze when the access prompt flashed back:
Authorization Required: A. Vale
Her breath caught. His personal key.
She almost closed the window. Almost.
Then she copied the file ID onto a drive and encrypted it. Just in case.
“Miss Monroe.”
Her fingers jumped off the keyboard. Adrian stood in her doorway, his expression unreadable but his gaze sharp.
“I need to see you,” he said.
She followed him into his office. The door shut behind them with a soft click that felt too final.
“Close the blinds,” he said.
She hesitated. “Why?”
“Because someone’s watching.”
Lila did as he asked, heart pounding. The world outside vanished behind gray slats.
Adrian turned toward her. “You received messages last night.”
She froze. “How do you know that?”
He gave a tired sigh. “Because whoever sent them wants me to know they did.”
Her throat tightened. “So it’s true, then. Someone’s trying to stop me.”
He leaned against the desk, folding his arms. “Someone’s trying to stop me. You’re just collateral.”
“That’s comforting,” she muttered.
His mouth curved faintly. “You could still walk away.”
“And let someone else bury the truth?”
“Truth,” he repeated, almost to himself. “You really believe it’s that simple.”
“It’s the only thing that matters.”
He looked up sharply, eyes dark and stormy. “You don’t understand what you’re dealing with.”
“Then explain it to me!”
For the first time since she’d met him, he didn’t answer immediately. His control faltered — just a flicker — and in that silence, she saw something that wasn’t power. It was fear.
“Project E,” he said finally, “was supposed to save everything.”
Lila frowned. “Save what?”
“Our image. Our investors. The planet.” His tone dripped with irony. “We built an environmental restoration program — or that’s what it looked like. In reality, it was a front for data laundering. Someone used it to move money. Hide connections.”
“Someone?”
“Gareth.”
Her heart skipped. “Your brother?”
He nodded slowly. “He built it. I signed it.”
“Why?”
His jaw tightened. “Because I trusted him.”
She stared at him. “You mean—”
“Yes,” he said quietly. “He used my signature to authorize transfers that shouldn’t have existed. By the time I found out, it was too late. People vanished. Whistleblowers. Accountants. One of them was your source from the Herald article, wasn’t he?”
The air left her lungs. “How do you know that?”
“Because I read your notes. Every one of them.”
Her voice trembled. “You destroyed my story.”
He didn’t deny it. “I buried it to protect you.”
“Protect me?” Her laugh came out sharp, bitter. “You destroyed my career!”
“You were on a list,” he said quietly. “The same list as him — the man who disappeared. I thought if I erased your article, I could take you off it.”
She stared at him, unable to speak.
He took a slow breath. “Now you understand why I said working for me isn’t safe.”
Lila pressed her palms against the desk, her voice shaking. “And now? What happens now that I know?”
He looked at her — really looked at her — as though weighing something he’d been avoiding too long. “Now I need you to do what you do best. Help me expose him.”
Her pulse raced. “Expose Gareth?”
He nodded. “He’s planning something. He’s using Vale International’s reputation to hide a new deal — one that’ll ruin everything I built.”
Lila swallowed hard. “Why me?”
“Because you don’t owe me anything,” he said softly. “And you’re the only person I trust to tell the truth — even if it destroys me.”
For a long moment, silence filled the room — not heavy, but fragile.
Then she said, “If I help you, you’ll tell me everything?”
“Everything.”
Their eyes locked, wary allies standing on opposite sides of a secret neither could unsee.
The next few days blurred into motion. They worked late, always behind closed doors. Lila sifted through data trails, communication logs, financial transfers — while Adrian fielded calls, deflected board members, and avoided Gareth’s shadow that seemed to stretch over everything.
Some nights, he barely spoke. Others, he’d watch her work and ask quiet questions — about her time at the Herald, about why she’d chosen truth over comfort.
“You’re different,” he said once.
“How?”
“You still believe people can be good.”
She smiled faintly. “And you don’t?”
He shook his head. “Not anymore.”
On the fourth night, she found something, a hidden offshore account, traced to a holding company in Zurich. It was labeled E7 Restoration Partners.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard. “Adrian, look at this.”
He crossed the room, leaning over her shoulder. His breath brushed her hair, his voice low. “Where did you find that?”
“It’s linked to Gareth’s account. The dates match the missing transfers.”
He frowned. “But there’s another signature here.”
Lila froze. On the document’s footer, under the authorization code, sat a second name.
L. Monroe.
Her blood ran cold. “That’s not possible.”
“It’s your signature.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know.” He straightened, jaw tight. “Someone’s framing you.”
Her mind spun. “How could they even.”
“Gareth has access to our internal systems. He could’ve duplicated your clearance. He’s setting you up to take the fall.”
She stood, panic rising. “We have to prove it.”
He met her eyes, calm but burning. “Then we need to move fast. Before this goes public.”
“How long do we have?”
He hesitated. “Not long enough.”
The air between them pulsed with tension — not just fear now, but something unspoken, something that hummed beneath every look, every word.
“Lila,” he said quietly, “no matter what happens next, you can’t trust anyone outside this office. Not Isla, not the board. No one.”
She nodded, though her heart was pounding. “Not even you?”
His voice softened. “Especially not me.”
Before she could respond, the intercom buzzed sharply. Isla’s voice crackled through:
“Mr. Vale—security just reported a breach in the lower data servers. Someone’s accessing the restricted files.”
Adrian’s eyes snapped toward the door. “He’s here.”
“Gareth?”
He didn’t answer. He grabbed his coat, already moving.
Lila followed, adrenaline flooding her veins.
They stepped into the hallway — alarms flashing red, staff scattering — and somewhere below, deep in the server rooms, a system shutdown began to echo through the building.
Adrian turned to her, his face carved with resolve. “If we don’t stop him now, everything burns.”
And before she could reply, the lights went out.
- Writer
