Chapter 7 - THE TRAP IS SET
"We have to go to the police," Claire said, rushing to the sofa where Sophie was still sleeping peacefully.
"Not yet," Nathaniel said, his mind calculating a thousand moves ahead like a grandmaster at a chessboard. "If we go to the authorities now, Vance will claim you stole the documents to extort him. He'll use his lawyers to tie it up in court for years, and he'll paint you as a disgruntled, unhinged employee. We need him to confess, or better yet, we need him to catch himself in the act."
"How do we do that?" Claire asked, her heart pounding against her ribs.
"We give him exactly what he wants," Nathaniel replied. A dangerous, predatory smile touched his lips. "We give him an opening."
The next morning, the financial world awoke to a shocking press release. Nathaniel Sterling had announced a temporary leave of absence due to an undisclosed "personal emergency," leaving CFO Richard Vance as acting CEO to oversee the finalization of the $4.6 billion Miami acquisition.
Sitting in the safety of Nathaniel’s penthouse, Claire stared at the television screen in disbelief. "Are you insane? You just handed him the keys to the castle!"
Nathaniel sat calmly in his armchair, sipping espresso. "I handed him a rope. Now we wait for him to hang himself."
Down at Sterling Development, Vance was practically giddy. Sterling had cracked. The pressure of the missing maid and the delayed deal must have sent the notoriously icy CEO into a panic. With executive control, Vance rushed to his office and logged into the central mainframe. He had the clearance now to authorize the final transfer, dump the encrypted files, and erase the digital trail forever.
He typed in his newly elevated credentials. Access Granted.
May you like
Vance smiled, his fingers flying across the keyboard to initiate the final deletion of the ghost accounts. He didn't notice the small red recording icon blinking silently in the corner of his monitor.
---
