She Whispered “I Have Nowhere Left to Go”… His Answer Changed Her Life
Chapter 3
Daniel read the note twice.
Then he looked at Sarah.
“Who would send this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
Sarah sat down.
“My former employer?”
“Maybe.”
“Why would they care where I live?”
Daniel looked at the paper.
“They wouldn’t.”
“Then who?”
Sarah became silent.
There was one possibility.
Jonathan Pierce.
The vice president who had fired her.
He had spent years protecting the company’s reputation.
Sarah knew he had been hiding financial problems.
She had seen unusual transfers.
Consulting payments.
Missing invoices.
She had asked questions.
Three days later, she was fired.
But why would he follow her now?
Sarah explained everything.
Daniel listened carefully.
“You think someone at the company was stealing?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“But enough to get you fired?”
Sarah nodded.
Daniel stood.
“Give me your laptop.”
She looked confused.
“Why?”
“I want to see the files you were working on.”
Sarah hesitated.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I signed a confidentiality agreement.”
Daniel nodded.
“Then don’t show me anything confidential.”
She almost smiled.
“You really enjoy rules when they’re convenient.”
“I enjoy not getting sued.”
He sat beside her.
“I can help you without seeing protected information.”
Sarah finally opened her laptop.
She showed him the file names.
Payroll.
Vendor management.
Travel expenses.
Internal audit.
Daniel stopped.
“Open that.”
Sarah frowned.
“Why?”
“Because if you were fired over a missing file, that’s probably the one they wanted.”
She opened it.
The file was empty.
Sarah looked at him.
“I swear there were documents here.”
Daniel studied the metadata.
“Someone deleted them.”
“How do you know?”
“Because they were copied before deletion.”
He pointed at the timestamp.
Sarah stared.
“I didn’t copy them.”
“Then someone else did.”
She suddenly remembered a colleague.
Michael Reed.
He had worked in accounting.
He had told her weeks earlier that something was wrong.
Then he disappeared from the company.
Sarah searched her old emails.
There was one unread message.
From Michael.
She opened it.
Sarah, if you’re reading this, don’t trust anyone at Dalton & Pierce. I found something connected to the East Harbor deal.
There was an attachment.
A spreadsheet.
Sarah clicked it.
Names.
Payment amounts.
Shell companies.
Several executive names.
And one name she recognized immediately.
Jonathan Pierce.
Daniel studied the screen.
“East Harbor.”
“What?”
“I know that project.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m negotiating to buy the shipping terminal next to it.”
Sarah looked at him.
“How much?”
“Three hundred million.”
Her face changed.
“The company I worked for was buying land around that terminal.”
Daniel stared at the spreadsheet.
Suddenly, the puzzle made sense.
Someone was artificially inflating land values around East Harbor.
If Daniel purchased the terminal at the inflated price, someone would make millions.
And Sarah’s missing file contained the proof.
Daniel looked at her.
“You didn’t lose your job because of a missing file.”
Sarah shook her head.
“They fired you because you found it.”
The room went silent.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
He answered.
“Hello?”
His lawyer’s voice sounded urgent.
“Daniel, we have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“The East Harbor deal was leaked.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“When?”
“An hour ago.”
He looked at Sarah.
Someone had known she was there.
And now someone knew Daniel was involved.
