Chapter 3 - The Setup
By midnight, the Delroy estate no longer felt like a dinner party.
It felt like a crime scene without police.
Guests had been quietly dismissed.
The catering staff had been moved to the opposite wing.
Marcus Delroy’s private security team controlled every exit.
Adrien stood inside the library with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled once, staring at the email allegedly sent from Lillian’s account.
The attachment contained almost four hundred pages.
Contract records.
Internal projections.
Private correspondence.
Material valuable enough to damage Moretti Group if placed in the wrong hands.
And the digital signature belonged to Lillian Parker.
Stefan read the header again.
“Sent at 9:47.”
Lillian stood across the table.
“At 9:47 I was sitting beside Marcus.”
“We know.”
“I didn’t bring my work laptop.”
“We know.”
“My phone never left my clutch.”
Adrien looked up.
“Where is it?”
She handed him the device.
He gave it to Stefan.
Marcus’s cyber specialist had arrived twenty minutes earlier.
A woman named Elena Cho plugged the phone into a secure diagnostic machine.
“No outgoing corporate mail.”
Adrien nodded.
“Then it’s spoofed.”
“Not exactly.”
Elena turned the screen.
“The message came from her actual account.”
Lillian stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“Someone authenticated using your credentials.”
“I use two-factor authentication.”
“They bypassed it.”
“How?”
Elena hesitated.
“Internal administrator access.”
The room went quiet.
Stefan looked at Adrien.
“Marco.”
Adrien’s jaw tightened.
“He didn’t have admin privileges.”
“Not officially.”
Lillian folded her arms.
Adrien noticed the movement.
Not defensive.
Cold.
Thinking.
“What?” he asked.
She looked at him.
“Marco asked IT to reset three executive accounts last month.”
Stefan frowned.
“Why?”
“He said an external audit required password standardization.”
Adrien swore quietly.
Lillian continued.
“I thought it was strange.”
“Did you report it?”
Her expression hardened.
“Yes.”
Adrien already knew the answer before asking.
“To Marco?”
“To you.”
The words hit him again.
Another briefing packet.
Another warning overlooked.
Adrien turned away.
For years, people had told him he saw everything.
They were wrong.
He saw threats that announced themselves.
He saw competitors.
He saw betrayals performed by men powerful enough to deserve suspicion.
What he had failed to see were small things.
Quiet warnings.
A secretary placing a highlighted note on his desk.
Lillian had seen those.
He had not.
Elena interrupted.
“I need access to the Moretti servers.”
Adrien nodded.
“You’ll have it.”
Marcus spoke from the fireplace.
“Not from here.”
Everyone turned.
“The system is compromised,” he said. “If Marco has internal access, he may still be watching.”
Adrien’s eyes narrowed.
“We move to the secondary office.”
Lillian shook her head.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“No?”
“Marco knows every Moretti property you use.”
Adrien paused.
She was right.
Stefan asked, “Then where?”
Lillian thought.
“My apartment.”
Adrien stared at her.
“No.”
She almost laughed.
“Why?”
“Because if Marco is framing you, your home may already be compromised.”
“Then where do you suggest?”
Adrien’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
Then a recording played.
Marco.
“You always did underestimate the wrong people, Adrien.”
The line disconnected.
Adrien’s expression turned dangerous.
Stefan moved toward the security console.
“Trace?”
Elena shook her head.
“Probably bounced.”
Lillian watched Adrien.
She had seen him angry before.
This was different.
Controlled rage made him almost motionless.
“Marco wants you emotional,” she said.
Adrien looked at her.
“He wants you chasing him instead of asking what he actually wants.”
Marcus nodded.
“Smart.”
Adrien did not enjoy being analyzed.
Tonight, he had no choice.
“What does he want?”
Lillian walked toward the table.
“The Delroy consolidation.”
James frowned.
“He can’t control it.”
“Maybe he doesn’t need to.”
She rearranged several files.
“Twenty-eight million was diverted through consulting contracts. That’s money.”
She pointed toward another report.
“But if the consolidation collapses after the contracts are signed, someone could profit from the failure.”
Adrien understood.
“Short positions.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Exactly.”
Stefan swore.
“Marco’s betting against the deal.”
Lillian nodded.
“Or someone above him is.”
That changed everything.
Marco Vitali was ambitious.
Greedy.
Vindictive.
But he was not brilliant enough to construct a scheme involving shell companies, city contracts, cybersecurity, and market positions on his own.
Adrien looked toward Marcus.
“You think there’s another player.”
Marcus answered calmly.
“I know there is.”
He opened a second folder.
Inside was a photograph.
Lillian leaned closer.
A silver-haired man entering a restaurant.
Adrien knew him immediately.
Victor Salerno.
A former Moretti associate.
Once trusted by Adrien’s father.
Banished eight years earlier after attempting to seize control of two family companies.
Adrien’s expression darkened.
“Where was this taken?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Marcus slid another photograph forward.
Marco was beside Victor.
Lillian inhaled softly.
Adrien felt cold clarity settle over him.
This was not theft.
It was revenge.
Victor wanted the Moretti Group weakened.
The Delroy project was merely the instrument.
And Lillian—
Lillian was the perfect scapegoat.
Low enough in the hierarchy to be sacrificed.
High enough in access to be believable.
Invisible.
The word sickened Adrien.
He had handed Marco the idea himself.
Nobody pays attention to the fat secretary anyway.
He closed his eyes briefly.
Marco had heard the comment.
Maybe Victor had too.
Lillian watched him understand.
“You didn’t cause this.”
Adrien looked at her.
“No?”
“You insulted me. That’s yours.”
He almost smiled despite everything.
“But Marco was already planning this.”
“Maybe.”
She stepped closer.
“But you made it easy for him to believe nobody would defend me.”
That silenced him.
At 1:13 a.m., they relocated to a private office beneath a Delroy-owned hotel.
Elena began tracing server activity.
Stefan coordinated security.
Marcus worked the financial angle.
Lillian sat beside Adrien reviewing old access logs.
Hours passed.
At 3:41, she found something.
“Here.”
Adrien leaned over her shoulder.
An executive calendar entry from six months earlier.
Marco.
Victor Salerno.
Listed under false initials.
Location: Moretti Group conference room C.
Adrien stared.
“He met Victor inside my building.”
Lillian nodded.
“During your Chicago trip.”
“Who approved visitor access?”
She opened another line.
The name appeared.
L. Parker.
Adrien looked at her.
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because I was in Chicago with you.”
He remembered.
She had coordinated the trip.
Marco had forged her approval months before the dinner.
The frame had been prepared long in advance.
Lillian leaned back.
“He’s been building a case against me.”
Adrien’s expression hardened.
“Then we destroy it.”
She looked at him.
“We?”
“Yes.”
“You believed me quickly.”
“I know you.”
A sad smile touched her mouth.
“No. You know my schedule.”
Adrien wanted to argue.
He could not.
Morning light began appearing behind the city skyline.
At 5:17, Elena finally found the access point used to send the email.
Moretti Group.
Thirty-second floor.
Adrien’s executive suite.
Stefan frowned.
“The building was empty.”
Elena shook her head.
“Someone’s there now.”
Adrien stood.
Lillian did too.
“No.”
He turned.
“You’re staying.”
Her eyebrow lifted.
“Absolutely not.”
“This is not a debate.”
“It became one when my name was used.”
“Lillian.”
“Adrien.”
It was the first time she used his first name directly.
He stopped.
She stepped closer.
“He built the frame around my routines. My access. My work. You need someone who knows what he changed.”
Adrien stared at her.
Finally, Stefan sighed.
“She’s right.”
Adrien looked as though he might fire them both.
Forty minutes later, they entered Moretti headquarters through the underground garage.
Security footage showed nothing unusual.
That was unusual.
The executive floor was dark.
Elena stayed downstairs.
Adrien, Stefan, and Lillian took the private elevator.
When the doors opened, Lillian immediately noticed something.
“My desk lamp.”
It was on.
She never left it on.
Adrien moved ahead.
The office appeared empty.
Then Lillian saw a sheet of paper resting on her keyboard.
She approached.
Adrien stopped her.
“Don’t touch it.”
They read it without moving the page.
Three sentences.
You should have stayed invisible.
Tell Adrien the game ends at noon.
He knows what I want.
Adrien’s face went pale.
Lillian looked at him.
“What does he want?”
Adrien did not answer.
“Adrien.”
Stefan’s expression changed too.
Lillian looked between them.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Adrien walked into his private office.
He opened a safe hidden behind a painting.
Empty.
Lillian stared.
“What was inside?”
Adrien turned slowly.
“A ledger.”
“What kind of ledger?”
“One my father kept.”
Stefan finished for him.
“A record containing thirty years of transactions, alliances, debts, and names.”
Lillian’s stomach dropped.
“If Victor gets it?”
“He can destroy half the people at the Delroy table.”
Adrien looked toward the city.
“And start a war between everyone else.”
Lillian remembered the note.
The game ends at noon.
“What happens at noon?”
Adrien checked his watch.
Five hours.
Then his phone buzzed.
A video message appeared.
Marco stood inside an unfamiliar room.
Behind him was the stolen ledger.
And beside it—
Lillian’s personnel file.
Marco smiled at the camera.
“Adrien, bring me the Delroy consolidation documents by noon.”
He lifted Lillian’s file.
“Or I release everything under her name.”
Lillian’s face went still.
Marco continued.
“And if Parker thinks this is only about money…”
He opened her personnel folder.
“…ask her why her father’s name is already in the ledger.”
The video ended.
Lillian stopped breathing.
“My father?”
May you like
Adrien looked at her.
And for the first time that night, Adrien Moretti looked afraid to answer.
