Chapter 6: The Woman Amber Never Feared
Sophie ran to the server room while Daniel called the outside data company.
Amber folded her arms at the board table.
“Deleting duplicates is not wrongdoing.”
“Then cancel it,” I said.
“I don’t have access.”
Sophie called from downstairs.
“The command came from Amber’s account, but it requires a second password.”
Everyone looked at Martin.
He smiled.
“You have no proof I know it.”
The boardroom door opened again.
A gray-haired woman stood there holding Amber’s red handbag.
Amber’s face changed.
“Mother, why are you here?”
Diane Vale placed the handbag on the table.
“You left this in my car.”
“Then you should have brought it home.”
“I did not come for the bag.”
Diane looked at me, and her hands shook.
“Margaret, I laughed last night.”
“I remember.”
“I laughed because Amber was watching me.
That does not excuse it.”
Amber stepped between us.
“Mother, stop.”
Diane moved around her.
“When you left the room, Amber said the old woman would be gone by Monday.
I asked what she meant.”
Martin’s voice sharpened.
“Diane.”
“You told me to mind my own business.
I should have made it my business years ago.”
She removed a small recorder from her coat and gave it to Daniel.
“Martin dictates notes while driving.
Yesterday, he forgot this was running.”
Daniel pressed play.
Martin’s voice said, The deletion password is FoundersDay1989.
Once the trust files disappear, Sophie’s copy will look fabricated.
Sophie shouted through the phone, “I’m entering it now.”
Amber grabbed the recorder, but Diane held on.
Mother and daughter pulled against each other until Steven stepped between them.
“Let it go, Amber.”
She released it and stared at him.
“Choose carefully.”
“I chose you every time.”
“Then do it once more.”
She lowered her voice.
“Tell the board your mother forced you to change your statement.
Say she threatened to cut you off.”
Steven’s jaw tightened.
“And if I refuse?”
“I give investigators every company-card statement with your name on it.
You will carry all of it.”
I moved beside him.
“Tell the truth.
Whatever it costs.”
He looked at me.
“Even if I lose everything?”
“You already lost yourself.
Everything else can be rebuilt.”
His mouth trembled.
“I signed pages without reading them.
I used the card.
I looked away when Amber mocked you because I was afraid she would leave me.”
Amber smiled coldly.
“There.
He admitted it.”
Steven removed his wedding ring and set it on the table.
“I would rather face what I did than spend another day becoming what you want.”
Amber’s hand came up, but Diane caught her wrist before it reached his face.
“No,” Diane said.
“You will not do that in front of me again.”
The room fell silent.
Steven stared at Diane.
“Again?”
Diane’s eyes filled.
“She did it to her first husband.
Whenever he questioned the money, she made him believe he was the problem.”
Amber pulled free.
“You hated him.”
“I believed you,” Diane replied.
“There is a difference.”
Sophie’s voice burst from the phone.
“The deletion stopped.
I’ve copied the access logs.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Then we have the user names, timestamps, and every attempted change.”
Martin reached for his briefcase.
Two officers from the company’s financial-investigation unit appeared in the doorway before he could lift it.
“We need everyone to remain in the room,” one said.
Amber pointed at Steven.
“Start with him.
The cards are in his name.”
The officer looked at the recovered log on Sophie’s phone.
“The cards may be,” she said, “but the payment instructions came from another device.”
She turned the screen around.
May you like
Every transfer had been approved from Amber’s private laptop—except one.
The largest payment had come from my home computer at 2:13 that morning, while Steven and I had been standing in the hallway.
