Chapter 3 - THE GIRLFRIEND WITH TWO IDENTITIES
Kelsey Hart was not her real name.
Her legal name was Kelsey Mercer.
She had worked for VeyraTech’s cybersecurity contractor until eight months earlier.
Cameron met her during an internal systems review.
Two weeks later, she left the contractor.
One month later, she appeared publicly as his girlfriend.
Her social-media following grew from twelve thousand to nearly two million with help from VeyraTech marketing contracts.
Cameron believed he had created her.
Kelsey believed she had gained access.
“I copied the patent package,” she said.
Margaret stared at her.
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere Cameron cannot reach.”
Cameron moved toward her.
A security officer stepped between them.
“You told me you completed the transfer,” he said.
“I told you the system accepted the request.”
“You changed the recipient?”
Kelsey smiled without warmth.
“Now you understand how your mother’s investors feel.”
The intended recipient had been Veyra Defense Holdings, a company controlled through Lydia.
Kelsey redirected the patents to a trust registered in Switzerland.
She controlled the encryption key.
Her plan was to demand eighty million dollars in exchange for returning them.
“It was insurance,” she said.
“Extortion,” Samuel replied.
“Insurance against Cameron abandoning me after he got what he wanted.”
Cameron laughed bitterly.
“You think this makes you clever?”
“I think your mother should know you planned to replace me with Arden’s director of communications.”
My managing partner’s face appeared in my mind.
Arden’s communications director was Celia Moore.
Married.
Trusted.
Present at every confidential investment meeting.
I called our security chief.
“Lock Celia’s access.”
Kelsey nodded approvingly.
“She sent Cameron every draft term sheet.”
The leak came from inside Arden.
Not only VeyraTech.
The $1.3 billion fraud required participants on both sides.
Margaret whispered, “How many people are involved?”
Kelsey looked around the ballroom.
“More than the people standing here.”
Then the lights went out.
Emergency lamps activated seconds later.
Guests screamed.
Security officers ordered everyone to remain still.
When full lighting returned, Lydia was gone.
A service door stood open behind the stage.
Cameron remained under guard.
Kelsey still held the second phone.
But the crushed silver name card had disappeared from my hand.
Someone had taken it during the darkness.
At first, the loss seemed meaningless.
Then I remembered the card’s construction.
Arden used embedded near-field chips in name cards for high-security events.
The chip authenticated entry to post-gala signing rooms.
My card could open the private suite containing the investment documents.
I ran toward the service corridor.
Samuel and two agents followed.
The signing suite door stood open.
Inside, the contract folders were scattered across the table.
A laptop displayed the Arden investment portal.
Someone had entered using my event credential.
The final approval screen waited for biometric confirmation.
Lydia stood beside the computer.
She had not escaped.
She had come to complete the deal before the suspension reached every external system.
“You cannot authorize my vote,” I said.
She turned.
“No. But Celia can.”
Celia Moore stepped from behind the curtains.
The woman I had trusted for nine years held a compact fingerprint replica.
Mine.
She had lifted it from a water glass during our previous board meeting.
“You knew Cameron would provoke me,” I said.
Celia looked ashamed.
“Lydia said the confrontation would make you leave.”
“The seat was planned.”
Cameron’s cruelty had not been impulsive.
Lydia wanted me removed from the room before the signing.
The name card humiliation created a public distraction.
Cameron enjoyed it enough to improvise.
That improvisation exposed them.
Celia moved toward the scanner.
I reached the laptop first and closed it.
Lydia grabbed my wrist.
An agent ordered her to release me.
She did.
Slowly.
“The company will fail without the money,” Lydia said.
“Then you should not have hollowed out the asset.”
“My sister spent years choosing reputation over family survival.”
“You call theft survival?”
“I call it protecting what our father built.”
Margaret entered the room behind us.
“Our father built the company with stolen government research.”
The revelation silenced everyone.
May you like
Margaret knew a family secret deeper than the current fraud.
And Lydia had been trying to hide it before Arden’s due diligence uncovered the truth.
