Chapter 2: The Airport Intercept
I answered the phone while staring at the flashing red warning on my monitor. The kitchen was quiet in a way our house had not been for years. No performance. No careful, manufactured smiles. Morning light touched the quartz counter, illuminating the empty mug Daniel had used to drug me the night before.
Daniel was already shouting through the receiver, the airport terminal announcements echoing faintly behind him. “What the hell did you do?!”
I kept my voice deadpan, masking the sudden spike of terror the security alert had triggered. “Good morning, Daniel. I hope the traffic on the expressway wasn’t too heavy.”
“Don’t play games with me, Audrey! The wire transfers were rejected. My black card was declined at the VIP lounge. Chloe’s card isn’t working either. What did you do to the accounts?”
“Are you referring to the corporate expense cards you used to book luxury suites in Milan, first-class flights to Dubai, and personal gifts?” I asked, my fingers flying across my laptop keyboard as I frantically tried to trace the origin of the data breach.
There was a heavy pause. I could almost hear the gears grinding in his head as he desperately tried to rearrange his face, choosing the patronizing tone that had always pacified me before. “Audrey… honey. You’re confused. You’re having an episode again.”
I let out a dry, humorless laugh. Confusion had been his favorite diagnosis for my intuition for nine years. If I asked about a late night, I was insecure. If I asked about a transfer, I was inexperienced.
“I uncovered twelve questionable authorizations,” I said, my voice hardening into a blade. “Three attempted offshore transfers totaling more than eleven million dollars. And three-point-six million in payments to a consultancy firm whose primary service appears to be sleeping with my husband.”
Daniel went dead quiet. In the background, I heard Chloe whisper something sharp and frantic.
“You don’t understand how the company operates, Audrey,” he finally stammered, scrambling for footing.
My company. My mother had left me sixty-eight percent of Sterling Global. After we married, I made the fatal mistake of appointing Daniel as Chief Operating Officer. I did not transfer a single voting share into his name, but I had given him the keys to the kingdom. He mistook my dislike of noisy corporate politics for a lack of authority. He heard me stay silent in meetings and decided silence meant I had nothing to say.
“At 4:15 a.m., the board received the evidence file I assembled,” I recited calmly. “At 4:31 a.m., they voted to suspend you pending a forensic review. At 4:43 a.m., the bank restricted all corporate transfers tied to your credentials. You are locked out, Daniel.”
“You can’t prove anything in court!” he spat, his panic morphing into rage.
“Perhaps not on paper alone. But the security cameras and audio recorders I had legally installed in my home office three weeks ago tell a different story. I heard you and Chloe discussing shell accounts. I heard you discussing the dosage of the sleeping pills for my tea.”
Silence hung on the line, thick and suffocating.
“There is one more thing,” I added, looking down at the empty velvet case he had discarded on the counter. “The bracelet Chloe is wearing in that photograph is a cubic zirconia replica I bought for two hundred dollars. My mother’s real diamond bracelet has been in a secure bank vault for eight months. You stole glass, Daniel.”
I heard Chloe curse violently in the background. “Hang up!” she hissed at him.
“Audrey, listen to me—” Daniel pleaded, his voice breaking.
“No, you listen. You thought you were leaving me with nothing. The problem is, you underestimated the wrong woman.”
I ended the call. I didn’t have time to bask in his humiliation. My eyes were glued to the monitor. The data extraction from Server 4 was accelerating. Someone was bypassing the secondary firewalls.
My phone rang again. It was Margaret Hale, my lead corporate attorney.
“Margaret, the bank freeze worked, but something else is happening,” I said immediately. “Someone is pulling the source code for the new automated logistics algorithm.”
Margaret’s voice was uncharacteristically grim. “Audrey, I have the feds at the airport. They just intercepted Daniel at the gate. But that’s not why I’m calling.” She paused, and I could hear the rustle of papers. “My private investigator finally got the background check back on Chloe Ruiz. She isn’t a consultant, and she isn’t just a gold digger.”
A cold dread coiled in my gut. “Who is she?”
“Her real name is Clara Vance. She’s a known corporate espionage operative. She’s been on the payroll of Apex Solutions—our biggest international rival—for three years. Audrey, the money transfers were a smokescreen. She seduced Daniel to get access to his administrative security clearance. She’s stealing the algorithm right now.”
The breath rushed out of my lungs. Daniel wasn’t a criminal mastermind. He was a useful idiot. And I was about to lose the lifeblood of my mother’s company.
