Single Mom Practiced Her Interview in the Elevator — Unaware the Man Was the CEO!
Chapter 8
Emily spent the next morning searching through every memory of her husband.
Every drawer.
Every box.
Every old email.
Nothing.
Then Sophie asked an innocent question.
“Mommy, what happened to Daddy’s blue watch?”
Emily froze.
“His watch?”
“The blue one.”
“He didn’t have a blue watch.”
“Yes, he did.”
Sophie ran to her room.
She returned holding a small wooden box.
“I found it in Grandma’s things.”
Emily opened the box.
Inside was an old watch.
Dark blue.
She hadn’t seen it before.
There was a tiny metal plate beneath the strap.
Engraved letters.
M.C. — N.S.
Northstar.
Emily’s hands shook.
Ethan arrived an hour later.
He examined the watch.
“This is a data key.”
“A what?”
“Before secure cloud systems became standard, executives sometimes stored encrypted information in physical devices.”
He turned the watch over.
A hidden panel opened.
Inside was a tiny memory chip.
Noah connected it to a secure computer.
One folder appeared.
FOR EMILY.
She stared at the screen.
Ethan stood beside her.
“Do you want me to leave?”
“No.”
She opened the file.
A video appeared.
Mark.
Older than she remembered.
Tired.
Serious.
Emily’s breath caught.
“Hey, Em.”
She covered her mouth.
“If you’re seeing this, something happened to me.”
Her eyes filled.
“I’ve spent the last two years trying to understand Northstar.”
Mark paused.
“The company isn’t the problem.”
Emily frowned.
“The company is being used as a shield.”
He explained that Northstar wasn’t originally designed to steal money.
It was created by a small group of executives to secretly move emergency company funds during a financial crisis.
But the system was corrupted.
The emergency network became a private money-laundering operation.
Then Mark discovered something worse.
The final beneficiaries weren’t the executives.
They were using the system to manipulate ownership stakes.
Someone planned to take control of Sterling Innovations without a public takeover.
Emily looked at Ethan.
“Your company.”
“Yes.”
Mark continued.
“There is one person I couldn’t trust with this information.”
Emily’s heart stopped.
“Who?”
“My wife.”
She stared.
“What?”
“I love you, Emily. That’s why.”
Mark explained that if the conspirators discovered Emily knew anything, they would use her and Sophie against him.
He had planned to tell her everything once he had enough evidence.
Then the video jumped.
A second recording opened.
Mark stood beside another man.
Ethan recognized him instantly.
“My father.”
Emily looked at Ethan.
Mark said,
“Gerald Sterling knows what Northstar has become.”
Ethan’s face went pale.
“But he isn’t the one running it.”
The recording ended.
Emily stared.
“Then who is?”
A final file opened.
A list of names.
At the bottom was one person still inside Sterling Innovations.
Daniel Rhodes.
Ethan’s chief of staff.
Ethan’s closest executive adviser.
A man who had worked beside him for eleven years.
Ethan slowly sat down.
“No.”
Emily looked at him.
“You trust him.”
“I did.”
She touched his arm.
“What do we do?”
Ethan looked at the screen.
“We find out how deep it goes.”
Then the office door opened.
Daniel Rhodes walked in.
“Ethan.”
He stopped when he saw Emily.
“What are you doing here?”
Ethan closed the laptop.
“Working.”
Daniel looked suspicious.
“For this long?”
Ethan smiled.
“Yes.”
Daniel left.
Emily waited.
“You don’t trust him.”
Ethan stared at the door.
“Not anymore.”
