They Forced Me to Take the Fall…Then a Billionaire Heir Chose Me!
Chapter 5
They hid in an abandoned warehouse outside the city.
Ava opened the notebook.
The pages contained names, dates, payments, account numbers, and meetings.
Some names belonged to executives.
Others belonged to lawyers.
One belonged to a senior government official.
And one belonged to someone Ava knew.
Her former manager.
She stared at the name.
“He was involved.”
Julian nodded.
“Yes.”
“He gave them access to my credentials.”
“Probably.”
Ava turned another page.
Then she stopped.
There was a photograph.
It showed Richard meeting with the same man who had been standing outside the conference room.
Ava recognized him.
“The security consultant.”
Julian looked at the photograph.
“His name is Victor Hale.”
“Who is he?”
“Former intelligence contractor.”
Ava’s expression hardened.
“So they have someone trained to eliminate witnesses.”
Julian nodded.
“Which means we can’t go to the police.”
“Why?”
“Because three names in this notebook belong to people inside law enforcement.”
Ava closed the book.
“What are we supposed to do?”
Julian looked at her.
“We go public.”
“With what?”
“The notebook.”
“If we release it, they’ll deny everything.”
“Not if we have the original financial records.”
Ava understood.
They needed proof that couldn’t be dismissed as fabricated.
She remembered something.
“The transaction system.”
Julian looked at her.
“What about it?”
“The company keeps physical backup servers.”
“Where?”
“Under Hawthorne’s headquarters.”
Julian stared.
“You want to break into your former workplace?”
“I want to retrieve the original transaction logs.”
“Security will be extreme.”
“I know.”
“Richard will be watching.”
“I know.”
Julian smiled.
“You really don’t scare easily.”
Ava looked at him.
“I’m terrified.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because I’m tired of being the person everyone thinks they can sacrifice.”
They returned to the city after midnight.
Ava knew the building.
She knew the maintenance corridors.
She knew which cameras were active.
Julian followed her through the basement.
They reached the server room.
Ava connected a portable device.
The original records appeared.
Thousands of transactions.
She searched her credentials.
The system showed something shocking.
Her credentials had been duplicated.
But the duplicate was created from inside the executive network.
Ava looked at Julian.
“This proves it.”
Then the lights turned on.
Victor Hale stood behind them.
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“It proves exactly what we wanted you to find.”
Ava froze.
Julian stepped forward.
Victor raised a gun.
“You’ve both been chasing the wrong trail.”
Ava looked at the screen.
Victor continued:
“The fraud was never designed to hide Richard’s theft.”
“Then what was it for?”
Victor smiled.
“To bring Julian here.”
Julian’s face changed.
“Why?”
Victor answered:
“Because Richard couldn’t control the heir.”
He looked at Ava.
“But he could control the woman the heir would never abandon.”
Ava felt her heart sink.
She suddenly realized the truth.
She wasn’t merely the scapegoat.
She was bait.
And Julian had walked directly into the trap.
