Chapter 4 - Gathering the Evidence
The immediate crisis with Rosa was resolved, but the war had just begun. I spent the remainder of the evening locked in my office with my head of corporate security, Marcus Thorne—a former FBI digital forensics expert who had been with my company for a decade.
"I need everything, Marcus," I said, pacing the room while he typed furiously on a secure terminal. "Every transaction, every email, every contract Arthur Harrison and my brother Julian have touched over the last three years. I want to know exactly how deep this rot goes."
Marcus didn't look up from his screen. "It’s deep, boss. Julian wasn't just skimming from the household staff. Harrison helped him set up fake vendor accounts for the estate’s maintenance. Look at this: you’ve been paying forty thousand dollars a month for 'mansion roof restoration' to a company called Vanguard Roofing. Except Vanguard Roofing’s address is a P.O. Box in Reno, and its corporate registration matches the same Delaware shell company."
"How much total?" I asked, my jaw clenching.
"Over the last two years? Easily three point eight million dollars," Marcus said, spinning his screen toward me. "They were bleeding your personal accounts dry, assuming you were too busy with the Vance Global mergers to notice a few hundred thousand missing here and there from your domestic cash flow."
"And the staff?"
"It looks like Rosa was the first one they actually stopped paying entirely," Marcus sighed. "They started by delaying payments to the landscaping crew and the catering services, paying them just enough to keep them from quitting, then pocketing the rest. But three months ago, Julian’s gambling debts spiked. He got desperate. He ordered Harrison to freeze Rosa’s pay completely, betting that her immigration status or her fear of losing her job would keep her silent."
A profound disgust filled my chest. Julian knew Rosa’s vulnerabilities. He knew she was a single mother who relied on this job for survival, and he exploited that to cover his own pathetic failures.
"Where is Julian right now?" I asked.
"He’s at his penthouse in Century City," Marcus replied. "And based on his text logs with Harrison from an hour ago, he knows Harrison has been fired. He’s panicking. He’s already contacting his brokers to liquidate some of the stocks he holds in your company."
"Block the transfers," I ordered flatly. "As CEO, I have the authority to freeze any insider stock movements under suspicion of corporate fraud. I want him completely trapped. Tomorrow morning, I’m paying my little brother a visit."
Before I left the office for the night, I walked down to the kitchen. Rosa was packing her things, preparing to take a rideshare home with Camila.
"Rosa," I called out gently.
She turned, looking nervous. "Yes, Mr. Vance?"
"Tomorrow, you are not cleaning this house. You are taking a paid week off. When you return, you are no longer a housekeeper. You are the new Director of Domestic Operations for this estate. You will oversee all staff, manage the budget, and your salary will be doubled. No one will ever handle your money except me."
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Rosa burst into tears, throwing her arms around me in a brief, emotional hug before apologizing profusely for breaking protocol. Camila looked up at me, her uneven braids tossing as she smiled. "You're not a liar after all," she whispered.
"I promise you, Camila," I said, kneeling down to her level, "I will spend the rest of my life making sure the truth wins."
