THE PADDOCK CONTRACT PRINCESS

CHAPTER 12

Paywall

Sofia spent the next morning inside the Vantari headquarters, surrounded by lawyers, security officers, and executives who suddenly looked less like colleagues and more like suspects. Lucien had ordered a confidential internal investigation, but Sofia quickly discovered that corporate investigations had their own rules, most of which seemed designed to protect the organization before protecting the truth. She demanded access to the original property acquisition records, and the legal department informed her that several files were classified as privileged. Sofia looked at Lucien and said, “Then your lawyers can explain why my father’s life is privileged from me.”

Lucien dismissed the lawyers from the room. Once they were alone, he told Sofia that Vantari’s internal archive contained thousands of documents connected to Henri’s old projects. Some involved national-security contracts, aerospace technology, and private research partnerships that could create legal consequences if exposed without proper review. Sofia said she understood confidentiality, but not when the confidential information concerned her father.

Lucien agreed to open the archive, but there was one problem. Henri had personally restricted access to Project Sovereign, and only two people still had authorization: Henri himself and Elias. Sofia asked whether Lucien had ever requested access. He admitted that he had tried once after Mateo’s death, but Henri had refused.

That revelation surprised her. She asked why Lucien had never investigated further, and he said he had been nineteen, angry at his grandfather, and convinced that Mateo had betrayed the family. Sofia asked whether that belief had been based on evidence or simply what Henri told him. Lucien answered quietly, “I trusted him.”

The words softened something inside Sofia because she suddenly understood that Lucien had been manipulated too. He had inherited the family’s version of events just as she had inherited silence from her father. Both families had protected their children by withholding information, and both had created adults who were now paying the price.

Their conversation was interrupted when Margaux entered carrying a folder. She had discovered that the senior executive whose account had been compromised had resigned unexpectedly six months earlier but remained an external consultant for Vantari. The consultant had handled several property acquisitions, including the company that demolished Sofia’s workshop. Margaux said she could not prove Elias was connected to him, but the timing was too precise to ignore.

Sofia asked to see the consultant’s records. Margaux warned her that accessing them could trigger another legal barrier, but Sofia replied that she was beginning to believe legal barriers existed mainly to protect people who already had power. Lucien smiled faintly and said, “Now you understand my family.”

They accessed the consultant’s payment records through a secure terminal. Several transfers appeared normal until Sofia noticed one account that had received money from the consultant shortly before the Black River acquisition. The account belonged to a private trust registered in Luxembourg. Lucien recognized the trust immediately.

“It belongs to Henri,” he said. Sofia asked why his grandfather would secretly fund a company that demolished her father’s workshop. Lucien said he did not know, but his voice had changed, because the discovery challenged everything he believed about Henri.

Sofia asked whether Henri had ever visited Mauritius after Mateo’s death. Lucien said he believed not, then stopped when he remembered an old family itinerary. Henri had traveled to Mauritius two years after Mateo died, supposedly for a private business meeting. Sofia stared at him.

Her father had died six years earlier. Henri’s trip had occurred four years ago. Sofia asked what business he could possibly have had there, and Lucien admitted that he did not know. She told him that was exactly the problem.

Later that afternoon, Sofia received another anonymous message. This time it contained a scanned page from Mateo’s old project files. At the top was the title SOVEREIGN, followed by a technical description involving adaptive thermal management for high-performance engines. Sofia read the page twice before recognizing several concepts she had seen in modern Vantari engineering.

At the bottom was a note written by Mateo: They want the design, but they cannot control what it becomes. Sofia felt a chill move through her body. The project was not merely an old racing experiment; it appeared to have been a technology capable of changing the performance limits of modern engines.

She showed the page to Lucien. He read it carefully, then told her Project Sovereign had been officially terminated before he joined Vantari Racing. Sofia asked whether the technology had ever been used, and Lucien said the company had no active project under that name.

“Then why does your current car use principles from it?” she asked. Lucien did not answer. He looked at the technical page again and realized that Sofia had uncovered something his own engineers had never known.

That evening, Lucien took her to a restricted section of the headquarters where old development archives were stored. He entered his credentials, but the system rejected them. He tried again, and the screen displayed a message that made both of them go silent.

ACCESS DENIED — PROJECT SOVEREIGN REMAINS ACTIVE.

Sofia turned toward Lucien. He looked genuinely shocked. The project her father supposedly abandoned twenty years ago was still active inside Vantari’s system, which meant someone had been developing his work in secret. And if that person had access to the technology, they also had a reason to make sure Sofia never discovered where it came from.