Chapter 2 - Six Months Earlier
Six months before the gala, Claire believed her greatest problem was that her husband no longer loved her.
Adrian had once been charming, attentive, and ambitious. During their first year together, he brought her coffee in bed and listened while she talked about her work as a financial compliance specialist.
After Richard Vale hired Claire to review Vale Industries’ internal systems, Adrian had proudly introduced her as the smartest person in every room.
But after their wedding, the compliments disappeared.
Adrian began correcting her in public. He criticized her clothes before company dinners and dismissed her opinions during executive meetings. Whenever Claire objected, he smiled and said she was being too sensitive.
Evelyn was worse.
She treated the company as a royal family and Claire as an unsuitable outsider who had somehow entered the palace.
“The Vale name requires loyalty,” Evelyn often said.
Claire slowly realized that loyalty meant silence.
One rainy evening, Claire stayed late at headquarters to review a routine pension report. Vale Industries managed retirement accounts for thousands of factory workers, drivers, engineers, and office employees.
The numbers should have matched perfectly.
They did not.
Three million dollars had been transferred from the pension reserve into a consulting account. That account had paid another company registered in the Cayman Islands.
Claire checked the authorization.
It carried Adrian’s electronic signature.
At first, she assumed it was an accounting mistake. But another transfer appeared the following month. Then another.
By midnight, Claire had found nearly forty million dollars missing.
She copied the records onto an encrypted drive and locked the original documents inside her office safe.
When she arrived home, Adrian was waiting in the dark living room.
“You stayed late,” he said.
“I had work.”
“What kind of work?”
Claire placed her handbag on the table and studied his face.
He already knew.
She could feel it.
“Routine compliance,” she answered.
Adrian smiled, walked over, and kissed her forehead.
“You work too hard.”
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That night, while pretending to sleep beside him, Claire understood that she was no longer simply investigating a crime.
She was living with one of the suspects.
