Chương 6 - The Betrayal Inside the EmpireI didn’t tell them.
Not yet.
That decision would haunt me.
The person who used two spaces after every period was Evelyn Price.
Larkin’s chief legal counsel.
Forty-six years old.
Elegant.
Precise.
Employed by the Steves family for nineteen years.
She had survived Larkin’s father.
Gregory.
Two federal investigations.
Three corporate restructurings.
And every office war imaginable.
If she was connected to the messages, I needed proof before accusing someone that powerful.
Especially because Evelyn had been kind to me.
Which, in our world, made her either innocent or extremely dangerous.
At 11:15 a.m., Larkin called a meeting.
Thomas.
Evelyn.
Head of security.
Me.
Evelyn entered wearing a navy suit.
Her eyes paused on me.
“You look tired.”
“I’ve had an eventful evening.”
“So I heard.”
Two spaces.
Every email.
Every memo.
Every text.
I wondered if she had sent the message personally or if someone was copying her habits.
Larkin placed the scanned ledger on the conference screen.
“This stays in this room.”
Evelyn studied it.
For the first time since I knew her, she showed surprise.
“Where did you get that?”
“Anonymous source.”
Her eyes moved to me.
Interesting.
Thomas spoke.
“Adrian Vale has the original.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
Larkin said, “Why?”
“Because Adrian has been looking for it too.”
Silence.
Thomas frowned.
“How do you know?”
“His attorney approached me six months ago.”
Larkin’s voice became cold.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t believe it mattered.”
Larkin stood.
“That decision isn’t yours.”
Evelyn remained calm.
“They asked whether Meridian Allied records survived the 2014 archive purge.”
My father died around that period.
I said, “What archive purge?”
She looked at me.
“A storage facility fire destroyed several hundred boxes.”
“Accident?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
I stared at her.
“You know it wasn’t.”
Evelyn sighed.
“Everyone knew.”
“Who started it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was my father’s file there?”
Her silence answered.
I stood.
“What happened to him?”
“Penelope—”
“What happened?”
Larkin said quietly, “Answer her.”
Evelyn looked at me.
“Your father found evidence Gregory Steves was moving money into private accounts.”
I felt my throat tighten.
“He planned to tell Larkin’s father.”
“And?”
“He never got the chance.”
“Because he died.”
“Yes.”
“Who killed him?”
“I don’t know.”
I stepped closer.
“You’re lying.”
Thomas shifted.
Larkin said nothing.
Evelyn’s gaze sharpened.
“Careful.”
“No.”
I was done being careful.
“For three years, I brought coffee to people who lied in front of me because they assumed I was too stupid to notice. I’m finished with that.”
Evelyn looked almost impressed.
Then she said, “Your father called me the night before he died.”
My knees nearly weakened.
“What?”
“He was frightened.”
“What did he say?”
“That Gregory knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That he had copied the ledger.”
The room went silent.
I whispered, “Where?”
“He didn’t tell me.”
“What else?”
“He said if anything happened to him, I should protect you.”
My breath stopped.
“Me?”
“You were sixteen.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
I laughed bitterly.
“How?”
“Your mother received anonymous money for several years.”
I remembered.
After Dad died, Mom always said an old insurance claim had been settled.
It paid rent.
Groceries.
Part of college.
“That was you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your father asked me.”
The anger inside me cracked.
Not disappeared.
Changed.
“Then why send me those messages?”
Evelyn’s face went blank.
“What messages?”
I watched her closely.
“The threat at the gala.”
“I didn’t send any threat.”
“The computer message used your typing pattern.”
She stared at me.
Then something in her expression shifted.
Fear.
Real fear.
“Show me.”
I opened the screenshot.
She read it.
Her face drained.
“That isn’t me.”
Thomas scoffed.
“Convenient.”
She turned on him.
“Someone is using an old internal template.”
Larkin said, “Meaning?”
“Years ago, our communications system automatically inserted double spaces after punctuation.”
“Who had access?”
“Senior staff.”
“When?”
“Before your father died.”
My skin prickled.
The sender wasn’t mimicking Evelyn.
They were using old system formatting.
Possibly an old account.
Possibly someone connected to my father’s era.
Then security entered.
“Mr. Steves.”
Larkin turned.
“We found something in the basement archive.”
He placed an object on the table.
A small cassette recorder.
Old.
Dusty.
On the side was masking tape.
One name written in black ink.
DANIEL WOODS.
My father.
My hands shook as I picked it up.
“When was this found?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Where?”
“Behind a false panel.”
Nobody moved.
Larkin brought in an old player.
We inserted the tape.
Static filled the room.
Then came a voice I had not heard in twelve years.
My father.
“Penelope, if you’re hearing this, then I failed to protect you from something you were never supposed to know.”
I covered my mouth.
The recording continued.
“There are two ledgers.”
Thomas whispered, “Two?”
My father’s voice crackled.
“One is about money.”
Pause.
“The other is about names.”
Everyone in the room went still.
“If Gregory finds the second ledger, people will die.”
Static.
Then my father said something that changed everything.
“And Larkin Steves’ father cannot be trusted.”
Larkin’s face turned white.
The tape clicked off.
No one spoke.
May you like
Because the enemy was no longer one man.
The entire history of the Steves empire had just become a lie.
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