Chương 4
“Yes.”
“I broke the rules.”
Catherine looked at the expensive office around them.
Then at the people arguing over secrets worth more money than she would earn in a lifetime.
“Sometimes rules are there to protect people.”
She paused.
“Sometimes people hide behind rules because they don’t want to be bothered.”
Lily looked at her.
“Which one is this?”
Catherine did not have an answer.
James walked back to the desk.
“Where is the folder?”
Catherine’s hand moved away from it.
“Right there.”
He opened his mouth.
Then stopped.
“What?”
Rebecca asked.
James pointed at the documents.
“The order is wrong.”
Rebecca stepped closer.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean these pages were rearranged.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
James picked up the folder carefully.
Not touching the papers.
Looking instead.
“Maxwell had a system.”
Catherine almost smiled at the idea of a billionaire having a system for paper.
Everyone had habits.
Even people who owned companies.
“He put the oldest information first,” James continued.
“Then the newest.”
Rebecca looked down.
“And now?”
“Now it’s backwards.”
Daniel frowned.
“Someone wanted you to notice?”
James shook his head.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
James looked tired.
“I don’t know anymore.”
That answer bothered Catherine more than certainty would have.
A person who knew exactly what they were doing was dangerous.
A person who had lost control could be even worse.
Rebecca picked up one page.
Her eyes moved quickly.
“Where is the original digital copy?”
James pointed toward the computer.
“Maxwell’s files.”
Rebecca walked to the screen.
The computer was locked.
She entered a password.
Nothing happened.
Again.
Nothing.
She looked at James.
“What?”
“It rejected me.”
“Try again.”
“I know his password.”
“Try again.”
James did.
The screen remained locked.
A strange expression crossed his face.
“What?” Rebecca asked.
“He changed it.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were his closest adviser.”
James looked at her.
“That doesn’t mean he told me everything.”
The sentence sounded simple.
But it carried something else.
A wound.
Rebecca noticed.
So did Catherine.
Before anyone could respond, the elevator chimed again.
This time everyone reacted.
Daniel stepped into the hallway.
“Stay back.”
A man appeared from the elevator.
Not security.
Not an executive.
An older man in a dark coat holding a small overnight bag.
Catherine recognized him after a second.
Mr. Bennett.
Not Maxwell.
His father.
Richard Bennett.
She had seen him once before at a company event when she was cleaning afterward.
He had stood in the lobby for almost an hour talking to employees nobody expected him to remember.
He looked different tonight.
Older.
More tired.
“What happened?” Richard asked.
Nobody answered immediately.
His eyes moved across the room.
The folder.
The computer.
James.
Then Lily.
He stopped.
“Who is she?”
Catherine stepped forward.
“My daughter.”
Richard looked at Lily.
“Why is your daughter in Maxwell’s office?”
“She answered the phone.”
Richard’s expression changed.
“What phone?”
“The private line.”
The older man stared at her.
“Who called?”
“Chen Wei.”
The reaction was immediate.
Richard grabbed the edge of the doorway.
James noticed.
“You know him.”
Richard did not answer.
“Dad.”
The word came from James.
Everyone looked at him.
Richard closed his eyes briefly.
“I know the name.”
“How?”
“Because Maxwell told me.”
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
James stared.
“You never mentioned that.”
Richard’s face hardened.
“You never asked.”
The answer created another silence.
Catherine watched the two men.
The way they looked at each other was not like family in a crisis.
It was like two people carrying different versions of the same memory.
“What did Maxwell say?” Rebecca asked.
Richard looked at her.
“He said he made a mistake.”
James went still.
“What mistake?”
Richard looked toward the window.
Snow continued covering the city.
“He said he trusted someone because he wanted to believe he had built something bigger than himself.”
Nobody spoke.
James looked away first.
Catherine noticed.
That bothered her.
“Mr. Bennett,” Rebecca said carefully.
“Are you saying Maxwell suspected someone inside the company?”
Richard looked at James.
“No.”
The answer surprised everyone.
Then he added:
“I’m saying he suspected himself.”
James frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Richard placed the overnight bag on the floor.
“Maxwell found evidence that someone had been moving money through hidden accounts.”
He looked at the folder.
“He thought the person responsible had access to everything.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning the person knew him.”
Richard swallowed.
“Someone he trusted.”
James laughed once.
Not because it was funny.
Because sometimes people laughed when something hurt too much to process.
“You think it was me.”
Richard did not respond.
That silence was enough.
James stepped back.
“After everything?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
The room changed.
Catherine felt it.
A family argument was different from a business argument.
Business arguments were about money.
Family arguments were about every old injury that never healed.
James looked at his father.
“You know what’s funny?”
Nobody answered.
“You all think trust means someone knows your secrets.”
He smiled bitterly.
“It doesn’t.”
He looked around the room.
“It means they know exactly where to hurt you.”
Richard’s expression softened slightly.
But he said nothing.
Daniel’s radio crackled again.
This time the voice sounded urgent.
“Ruiz, we found something.”
Daniel lifted the radio.
“What?”
“The access point.”
“Where?”
A pause.
Then:
“Inside the executive office.”
Everyone looked toward Maxwell’s desk.
Daniel’s face changed.
“It was not from the computer.”
Rebecca stepped closer.
“Then where?”
The security officer looked down at the small device in his hand.
“A backup terminal.”
James frowned.
“There is no backup terminal.”
Daniel looked at him.
“There is now.”
Nobody moved for several seconds.
The sentence seemed too strange to fit inside the room.
A backup terminal.
In Maxwell Bennett’s office.
A thing nobody knew existed.
James stared at Daniel.
“You’re certain?”
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
He was a security officer, not an investigator.
May you like
He was used to checking badges, watching cameras, and calling someone when a door was left open.
He was not used to standing in a billionaire’s office explaining that the building itself had secrets.
