Chapter 5 - Whispers in the Executive Suite
By 8:00 AM the next morning, the scandal had hit a fever pitch.
The tabloids were running pictures of me, calling me a "honeytrap corporate spy." Board members were demanding an emergency vote of no confidence to strip Adrian of his CEO title, claiming his personal involvement with a suspect threatened the company's survival.
When Adrian and I walked into the Blackwell & Reed lobby together, hand in hand, with Mia holding my other hand, the silence in the lobby was deafening.
Security guards cleared the way as employees gawked. Adrian held his head high, his grip on my hand unyielding. He wasn't hiding anymore. He was making a statement: She is with me.
We reached the top floor, where Arthur Blackwell was already standing outside Adrian’s office, accompanied by three corporate lawyers and two city police detectives.
“Adrian! This has gone far enough!” Arthur bellowed, handing a legal document to Adrian. “The board has convened an emergency session. We have issued a temporary suspension of your executive powers until the investigation into the Bellamy leak is concluded. And Ms. Vance is to be escorted off the premises immediately!”
The detectives stepped forward, but before they could reach me, Adrian stepped directly in front of them, his presence so commanding the officers paused.
“Touch her, and I will have your badges by noon,” Adrian warned in a tone that sent shivers down my spine. He turned his chilling gaze onto Arthur. “You’re moving fast, Arthur. Almost too fast. It’s almost as if you wanted this leak to happen.”
Arthur’s face flushed a deep, mottled red. “That is slander! Vanguard holds the leaked designs! They are preparing to launch a identical line of jewelry on Friday!”
“They think they hold the leaked designs,” I stepped out from behind Adrian, my confidence returning, forged by the strength of the man beside me.
Arthur sneered at me. “What are you talking about, girl?”
I pulled a encrypted flash drive from my coat pocket and held it up.
“The files Julian Sterling stole from my home network weren't the real Bellamy Collection,” I said, a dark smile touching my lips. “Three weeks ago, Mr. Kane and I suspected there was a leak on the board. We uploaded a decoy set of watermarked, flawed designs into the primary server. The real Bellamy designs have been locked in a Swiss vault, untouched.”
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Arthur froze. The blood completely drained from his face.
“Which means,” Adrian added, his voice like a executioner's axe falling, “when Vanguard launches their stolen collection on Friday, they will be launching flawed, copyrighted traps that will trigger an automatic three-hundred-million-dollar lawsuit. A lawsuit that will bankrupt Vanguard—and anyone on our board who secretly took a kickback from them.”
