Chapter 8 - SOMEONE HAD USED MY NAME TOO
For eight months, I lied to Dakota.
That was mine.
I leaked information to Trinity through carelessness and vanity.
Also mine.
I used company money for personal expenses.
Mine.
But the altered Bellarosa financial projection?
Not mine.
For the first time since the plane door opened, I faced something I could truthfully deny.
“I didn’t upload this.”
Luca studied me.
“Then we need to determine who did.”
The metadata showed the file was submitted at 2:14 a.m. Eastern Time six weeks earlier.
I had been in Boston that night.
Trinity had been with me.
Dakota had been working an overnight flight.
“Who had your credentials?”
“No one.”
Luca gave me a look that made clear how often investigators hear that sentence.
Then I remembered.
Trinity had once borrowed my laptop charger in Boston.
I left the laptop unlocked while I showered.
My stomach turned.
“Trinity.”
“Possibly.”
But if she had modified the projections, why?
To make Caldwell more eager to close.
To push us deeper into Robert Vale’s trap.
We reviewed login data.
The upload came from the hotel network.
My room.
I sat down.
Even if Trinity acted without telling me, I had created the access.
Again, no dramatic villain required.
Just my own recklessness opening doors.
Then Luca showed me the original document.
One line caught my attention.
Property renovation liability: €63 million.
The altered version:
€13 million.
Fifty million euros disappeared.
If Caldwell had closed without discovering it, the transaction would have been catastrophic.
“How was it found?”
“Dakota.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Not directly.”
Apparently Dakota had noticed the name Bellarosa on my printed itinerary.
Months earlier, while researching Florence routes for her certification, she had read about preservation disputes involving one of Bellarosa’s historic hotels.
Public records suggested major restoration obligations.
The numbers didn’t match what she later saw on one page I had carelessly left on our printer.
“She told Richard?”
“She asked him whether the liability figure was accurate.”
A flight attendant had noticed what an acquisitions team missed because she had bothered to read about the place she dreamed of flying to.
I laughed.
It hurt.
“What did Richard say?”
“He asked why she wanted to know.”
“And?”
“She told him she didn’t.”
Dakota never accused me of fraud.
She simply noticed something inconsistent.
That question triggered the deeper audit.
My affair had exposed the expense misuse.
My expense misuse exposed Trinity.
Trinity exposed the Vale connection.
And Dakota’s curiosity exposed the altered deal model.
The entire structure had unraveled because the woman I stopped listening to had kept paying attention.
Then Luca’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He ended the call.
“Trinity is cooperating.”
My pulse jumped.
“With what?”
“She told security about the necklace.”
My stomach tightened.
“The pendant?”
“Yes.”
Inside the antique pendant was a microSD card.
Trinity had copied material from her father’s private server three weeks ago.
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
Of course.
The card allegedly contained recorded conversations, instructions, and financial transfers linking Robert Vale directly to the Bellarosa scheme.
That could protect Trinity.
It could also destroy her father.
Then Luca added:
“There’s a folder on it labeled COLEMAN.”
My heart stopped.
Inside were files about me.
Not company records.
Personal files.
My mortgage.
My marriage.
Dakota’s flight schedules.
My mother’s medical history.
Photographs of our house.
Robert Vale hadn’t simply targeted an executive.
May you like
He had studied my entire family.
And according to the first document, Dakota had been considered a problem from the beginning.
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