Chapter 10 - THE EVIDENCE PLANTED IN MY NAME
My first impulse was to laugh.
I had touched my own ring thousands of times.
Of course it carried my fingerprints.
But Rebecca was already examining the message with a face I had learned to fear.
“Do not respond,” she said.
The following morning detectives contacted us about a complaint alleging that confidential client materials had been stolen from my firm.
The complainant had supplied a thumb drive and an engagement ring found together inside a storage locker.
The locker rental used my name.
The identification scan was counterfeit.
But the ring was real.
And the thumb drive contained files belonging to my company.
I gave the investigators the threatening message, our access logs, my chain of custody notes, and the details of Caleb's expired credentials.
They did not promise an immediate resolution.
Instead they asked careful questions about my finances, my marriage, and who had access to my personal property.
Being treated as a possible suspect felt like a second betrayal, even though I understood why they had to ask.
When I returned to the office, our chief operating officer, Marcus Bell, sat waiting with a resignation letter.
He had been my closest professional ally for nine years.
“I'm sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“I should have told you about Trent's calls.”
He confessed that Trent had contacted him repeatedly, offering investors who could supposedly help Lawson Advisory expand.
Marcus had declined the proposals, but he had accepted an introductory dinner with Martin Vale.
At that dinner, Vale proposed buying a minority interest in the firm through a vehicle connected to North Star.
“Did you sign anything?”
“No.”
“Did you share our records?”
“Only a public deck.”
Then Marcus's face crumpled.
“I shared the nonpublic client pipeline numbers.”
The information had been marked confidential.
I could barely speak.
“You knew better.”
“I did.”
He had been desperate to prove he could close a major financing deal without relying on me.
Trent had exploited his pride with the same precision he exploited my love.
I placed Marcus on administrative leave pending independent review.
He accepted the decision without protest.
That evening a search of the locker rental records linked the payment card to Caleb's company.
My relief lasted less than five minutes.
Rebecca called with another discovery.
The thumb drive included a spreadsheet forecasting my firm's collapse under reputational pressure.
Its creation date predated Trent's announcement by four months.
Its author field read M. Bell.
May you like
Marcus had either lied to me again, or someone had built the entire frame around the person I trusted most.
