Chapter 2 - The Name Reed
Nobody laughed after that.
Charles Whitmore pulled Maya away from the pool, but she stopped before he could touch her arm.
“Do not put your hands on me.”
His jaw tightened. “You are an intern in my company.”
“No. I’m an external risk observer placed through Reed Strategic Partners under the merger’s independent review clause.”
Claire blinked. “That’s not real.”
Maya looked at her. “You should read the contracts your father signs.”
Alden Capital’s general counsel, Rebecca Sloan, stepped closer. “Maya, did you trigger Article Nine?”
“I did.”
The words landed harder than the splash.
Article Nine allowed any verified integrity reviewer to force a seventy-two-hour transaction hold if evidence suggested material fraud, undisclosed liabilities, or deliberate misstatement.
Charles went pale. “On what basis?”
Maya opened her phone and showed Rebecca three photographs.
The first was a vendor ledger.
The second was a payment authorization signed by Whitmore’s chief operating officer.
The third was a spreadsheet with forty-three shell entities receiving money from corporate accounts.
Rebecca’s face hardened. “Where did you get this?”
“Floor forty-seven.”
Charles stared at her. “There is no finance operation on forty-seven.”
“Exactly.”
Claire stepped in. “This is insane. She’s angry because she fell into a pool.”
Maya turned slowly. “You tripped me in front of thirty witnesses. That was stupid. But not nearly as stupid as using your personal foundation to move twelve million dollars through companies that don’t exist.”
Claire’s color drained.
Maya noticed.
So did Rebecca.
Charles snapped, “Claire, say nothing.”
“Dad—”
“Nothing.”
Maya had expected anger. She had expected denial.
She had not expected fear.
That was better.
Her phone buzzed.
One text.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED UNDERWATER.
Maya read it twice.
Then another message arrived.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: ASK YOUR FATHER WHY HE LEFT CHICAGO IN 2009.
For the first time that night, Maya’s control cracked.
Her father had never worked in Chicago.
At least, that was what he had always told her.
She looked up at Charles.
May you like
He was already watching her.
And the fear on his face had nothing to do with the merger.
