CHAPTER 7 THE MEN WERE NOT AFTER THE COMPANY… THEY WERE AFTER ONE SINGLE PAGE INSIDE THE LEDGER
The conference room door burst open.
Two security officers rushed inside first.
Behind them came three men in dark suits wearing company security badges.
Daniel Cross took one look at them and whispered,
"Those aren't our security officers."
Rachel immediately pulled Evelyn behind the conference table.
"Stay with Lily."
The tallest man smiled politely.
"We're here to collect company property."
His eyes never left the leather briefcase.
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
The man's smile disappeared.
"You've been hiding long enough."
Without warning, he lunged toward the briefcase.
Rachel slammed the heavy conference chair into his path.
The chair crashed across the polished floor.
Employees screamed outside the room.
The fire alarm continued echoing through the building.
Nolan suddenly appeared in the doorway with two uniformed police officers close behind him.
"I figured someone would try this," he shouted.
The three fake security officers exchanged nervous glances before bolting toward the emergency stairwell.
One of them dropped a folder during the escape.
Rachel picked it up.
Inside were photographs.
Not of company buildings.
Not of bank accounts.
Photographs of Evelyn.
Leaving the hospital with Lily.
Shopping for groceries.
Walking through the park.
Even standing outside her brother's house.
Someone had been watching her for months.
Daniel slowly opened the leather briefcase.
"There is one page they're desperate to destroy."
Rachel carefully turned through the old ledger until Daniel stopped her.
"This one."
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary accounting record.
Then Rachel noticed several names written in the margins.
Judges.
Politicians.
Construction executives.
Bank directors.
Beside each name was a payment amount.
And every payment dated back nearly twenty years.
"This isn't fraud," Rachel whispered.
"It's an entire corruption network."
Daniel nodded.
"The Hawthornes weren't the top of the pyramid."
Evelyn looked up.
"Then who was?"
Daniel answered quietly.
"The people who built the pyramid."
That evening, every television station reported the attempted theft at Hawthorne Development.
Federal investigators immediately placed the building under protection.
But someone else was watching the news.
In a quiet lakeside estate nearly two hundred miles away, an elderly man switched off the television.
He smiled.
"So... the Mercer girl finally found the ledger."
May you like
He reached for an old rotary phone.
"It's time."
