Part 2
Priya didn't wait for him to guess. She pulled up a spreadsheet on the shared screen, her face grim. "Over the last three months, a total of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars has been diverted from the Hayes Children’s Foundation account. It wasn't an administrative error, Daniel. The funds were transferred in smaller, increments directly into a private offshore account registered under an LLC. And do you know who has sole signing authority on that foundation account besides you?"
Daniel’s chest tightened. He didn't need to answer. He had given Vanessa that authority as a engagement gift, a way to let her manage the philanthropic wing of his company so she could feel more connected to his world. It was supposed to be a gesture of trust.
"Are you absolutely certain?" Daniel asked, his voice dropping into a dangerous, quiet register.
"The digital signature matches her private encryption key," Priya said softly. "I wouldn't bring this to you if there was any room for doubt. She’s stealing from a charity meant to fund school lunch programs in low-income districts, Daniel. The irony is sickening."
Daniel closed his eyes. The luxury hotel suite suddenly felt suffocating. He thought of Vanessa’s perfect smile, her flawless pedigree, and the way she talked about high society with effortless grace. It was all a mask. But as the betrayal settled into his bones, a sudden, cold instinct gripped him. If she was capable of stealing from starving children she had never met, how was she treating the people right under her nose?
He remembered Maria’s exhausted eyes from the last time he saw her. He remembered how quiet the house had felt lately whenever he called.
"Priya, freeze the accounts immediately," Daniel commanded, opening a new tab on his laptop. "Don't notify her legal team yet. I want a full audit by tomorrow morning."
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"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to check on my house," Daniel whispered. He hung up the call and opened the encrypted security app for the Greenwich estate. He bypassed the exterior gates and the garage feeds, clicking directly on the internal server archive for the kitchen and staff hallways. He selected the playback logs from the past two weeks, dialing the timeline back, searching for a pattern he prayed he wouldn't find.
