Chapter- 7
1072 Words
The following morning, Hannah arrived at Blackstone earlier than she needed to. She had barely slept the night before, partly because of the confidential project sitting in her inbox and partly because of the company name she had seen in the documents. She had spent hours trying to remember where she had seen it before, but the memory remained frustratingly incomplete.
She placed her bag beside her desk and opened the file again. The company was listed as a potential investment partner, and the numbers looked ordinary at first glance. But Hannah knew better. In her previous life, she had seen that same name mentioned shortly before several problems began inside Hawthorne Holdings. At the time, nobody had paid attention to it. Neither had she.
Now she couldn't stop looking at it.
Mia appeared beside her desk with two cups of coffee. “You look like you were awake all night.”
Hannah accepted the cup with a small smile. “I wasn't.”
Mia raised an eyebrow. “That sounded suspiciously like a lie.”
“It was more like poor time management.”
Mia laughed and pulled the chair beside her. “You'll get used to Blackstone. The first few days are always overwhelming.”
Hannah glanced at the documents on her screen. “Does everyone here work on confidential projects this early?”
“Not everyone.” Mia lowered her voice. “You got lucky. The chairman doesn't personally assign projects to new employees unless he sees something in them.”
Hannah didn't answer.
She remembered the conversation from yesterday. The chairman hadn't looked impressed when she pointed out the mistake in the proposal. He hadn't praised her either. He had simply watched her, asked questions, and then handed her something far more important than she had expected.
That made her more curious about him than she wanted to admit.
By ten in the morning, Hannah had finished the first review of the documents. She found several inconsistencies, but nothing serious enough to explain why the chairman had personally given her the project. She decided to look deeper instead of rushing to conclusions.
She opened the company's previous financial reports and compared them with the current proposal. The numbers were different, but the pattern was familiar. Money had moved between several companies before eventually reaching the same investment group.
Hannah frowned.
She had seen this pattern before.
Not in Blackstone.
In Hawthorne.
Her fingers stopped moving across the keyboard.
In her first life, a similar chain of transactions had appeared in one of Hawthorne Holdings' internal reports. Adrian had dismissed it as normal business activity when she asked about it. She had believed him because she had never had a reason not to.
Now she wasn't so sure.
A notification appeared on her screen.
Chairman's Office: Please come upstairs.
Hannah stared at it for a moment before closing the file.
The elevator took her to the top floor. When the doors opened, the atmosphere was completely different from the rest of the building. It was quieter, more controlled. Even the employees seemed to speak more carefully.
The chairman's assistant looked up when Hannah approached.
“He's expecting you.”
Hannah nodded and walked inside.
The chairman was standing near the windows with his hands in his pockets. His back was toward her, the city stretching behind him.
“You wanted to see me?”
He turned around.
“I did.”
His eyes moved briefly toward the folder in her hand. “You found something.”
It wasn't a question.
Hannah placed the folder on the table. “I found a few irregularities.”
“Only a few?”
She looked at him carefully.
“There are several companies connected through the same investment group. Their transactions aren't necessarily illegal, but the pattern doesn't make sense.”
He walked toward the table and opened the folder.
“Why?”
“Because they're moving money through companies that don't seem to have any reason to work together.”
He studied the pages silently.
Hannah watched him. “Is that why you gave me this project?”
“No.”
She waited.
“I gave it to you because you notice things other people ignore.”
His answer caught her off guard.
The chairman closed the folder. “How much do you know about Hawthorne Holdings?”
Hannah's expression remained calm, but her heart skipped.
“Not much.”
“You're Adrian Vale's fiancée.”
There it was.
She had expected the question eventually, but hearing Adrian's name inside this office still made her uncomfortable.
“Yes.”
“Then you should know that Blackstone and Hawthorne have crossed paths before.”
Hannah looked at him.
“How?”
“That isn't something you need to know yet.”
She almost smiled. “Then why tell me?”
“Because you're already looking in the right place.”
His words left her quiet.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then he pushed the folder back toward her.
“Keep investigating.”
“Should I report what I find?”
“To me.”
Hannah picked up the folder.
“Directly?”
“Directly.”
She nodded and turned toward the door.
“Hannah.”
She stopped.
“Don't discuss this project with Adrian Vale.”
Her fingers tightened around the folder.
She slowly looked back at him. “Why?”
“Because this project belongs to Blackstone.”
His voice remained calm, but there was something firm underneath it.
“Not Hawthorne.”
Hannah held his gaze for a moment before nodding.
“I understand.”
She left the office with more questions than answers.
As the elevator doors closed, Hannah looked down at the folder in her hands.
The strange company name was still there.
But now she knew something she hadn't known before.
Blackstone and Hawthorne had a history.
And somehow, that history had found its way into her new life.
Her phone vibrated.
A message from Adrian appeared on the screen.
Adrian: I'm outside Blackstone. Come down. We need to talk.
Hannah stared at the message.
Yesterday, she would have gone without asking why.
Today, she simply locked her phone and stepped out of the elevator.
For the first time since waking up five years earlier, she had something Adrian couldn't control.
A life of her own.
And she wasn't going to hand it back to him.
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