Chapter 3 - The Confrontation
For five agonizing seconds, Harrison didn't breathe. The polished composure he had maintained for twelve years dissolved right before my eyes, revealing the desperate, cornered rat beneath.
"Mr. Vance... I can explain," Harrison stammered, taking an involuntary step back toward the open doorway.
"Shut the door," I commanded.
He obeyed instantly, his hands trembling as he pulled the heavy oak door shut.
I stood up from my desk, walking slowly around the edge of the mahogany wood until I was standing three feet from him. "You lied to a woman who scrubs my floors. You let her nine-year-old daughter beg for her mother's earnings while you bought designer suits and rerouted corporate funds. But more importantly, Harrison... you don't have the authorization code to initiate offshore transfers from Vance Global. Who gave you the executive encryption key?"
Harrison swallowed hard, his throat moving violently. "Sir, I... I was instructed—"
"Who gave you the key?" I roared, slamming my palm down on the side table.
Harrison flinched, dropping his clipboard onto the rug. "It was Julian! It was your brother!"
The confirmation hit me like a physical blow to the chest, but I didn't let my expression flicker. I had suspected it the moment I saw the ledger, but hearing it spoken aloud made the air in the room feel suffocating.
"Tell me everything," I said, my voice dangerously low. "Now."
Harrison began to babble, his words spilling out in a panicked rush. "Julian... he's in deep, Mr. Vance. He got involved with a private high-stakes gambling ring in Macau six months ago. He lost over eight million dollars. The people he owes... they aren't bankers. They're dangerous. They threatened to go to the board, to ruin the company's stock, to come after him personally."
"So he used you to steal from me," I said flatly.
"He promised he'd pay it back!" Harrison pleaded, placing his hands together as if praying. "He said he just needed a few months to liquidate some real estate assets. He used the household payroll system to test if the transaction monitoring software in your private office would flag small, batched transfers. When he saw you didn't notice the small amounts missing from the household account, he authorized the larger offshore wires using his master key!"
"And Rosa?" I asked, my blood boiling. "Why steal three months of wages from a housekeeper?"
"Julian needed cash... liquid cash for his daily interest payments to the bookies," Harrison whimpered, looking down at the floor. "He told me to hold back the cash distribution for the junior staff and route it to his personal driver. He said they were just staff... that they wouldn't dare complain to you directly. He said they'd be too afraid of losing their jobs."
I stared at Harrison with pure disgust. They had calculated that the poorest people in my house would be too terrified of my power to speak up. They had counted on their silence. They had counted on my blindness.
If Camila hadn't stood in that hallway today, if that nine-year-old girl hadn't possessed more courage than every executive in my corporate headquarters, I might have never known.
"Get out of my sight," I whispered.
"Mr. Vance, please—"
"I am giving you ten seconds to walk out of this room," I said, picking up my phone. "If you are still on my property in five minutes, my head of security will not call the police—he will take you directly to a federal holding cell. Leave your keys, your badge, and your phone on that desk."
Harrison didn't hesitate. He stripped his key ring and phone from his pockets, dumped them on my desk, and practically ran out of the study.
I didn't watch him leave. I pressed speed-dial for my personal executive assistant, Mark.
"Mark," I said the moment he picked up. "I need fifty thousand dollars in cash delivered to my estate in thirty minutes. Direct from our private vault. And call my personal attorney, Marcus Vance. Tell him to meet me in the main house immediately."
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"Right away, sir," Mark replied. "Is there anything else?"
"Yes," I said, looking toward the window that overlooked the east wing guest house where my brother was currently living. "Find out where my brother is right now. And make sure he doesn't leave the property."
