Chapter 2 - The Hidden Ledger Dominic bypassed the urgent meeting upstairs, instructing Marco Russo, his iron-fisted security chief, to escort Nora and Ella to his private penthouse suite on the top floor. There, surrounded by bulletproof glass and panoramic views of a freezing New York, the girls were wrapped in cashmere blankets and fed warm broth by the estate cook.
Yet, Dominic’s mind was not at ease. He walked over to his private terminal and pulled up the building's personnel files for the past six months. He typed in the name the girls had whispered when he asked about their mother: Clara Vance.
The search yielded nothing. Clara Vance did not exist in the active employee registry.
"Boss," Marco murmured, walking quietly into the study while keeping an eye on the children playing near the fireplace. "I ran the registry through our back-channels. Clara Vance did work here. But her records were completely scrubbed three weeks ago. Someone with high-level administrative clearance wiped her W-2s, her keycard logs, and her locker assignment."
May you like
Dominic's jaw tightened. Corven Tower was his fortress. No one deleted files inside his building without authorization. Only two people possessed the master administrative override codes: Dominic himself, and his trusted head of security, Nico Falcone.
"Bring me the physical visitor logs from thirty-eight days ago," Dominic ordered softly, his voice dropping an octave into the register that preceded bloodshed. "And bring Nico to my study. Quietly."
