The Secret Rebecca Carried
Chapter 08 - The Secret Rebecca Carried
Vivian smiled without warmth. “Your mother discovered the consulting network years ago. It was smaller then. She planned to report it and remove me from the company.”
Sienna remembered Rebecca’s final months: the late-night calls, the sudden arguments with Thomas, the sense that her mother was afraid of something she would not explain. Rebecca died when her car lost control on a mountain road. The police called it an accident caused by rain.
“Did you cause the crash?” Sienna asked.
“I did not touch her car,” Vivian said. “But I knew she was driving to meet investigators. I called her. I told her Thomas would lose everything if she spoke. She became upset. What happened after that was her choice.”
The answer was cruel, carefully shaped to avoid a direct confession. Yet Vivian had just admitted to intimidation and to knowing about Rebecca’s investigation.
The hidden officer recorded every word.
Vivian stepped closer. “Open the archive, Sienna. Grant can still protect the company. Thomas can blame the missing money on me and Julian. You can keep your name, your hotels, and your perfect public life.”
“My perfect public life has a scratch across its face.”
“That will heal.”
“So will the company.”
Vivian’s expression hardened. She raised the injector and moved toward Sienna. At that moment, Marcus triggered the elevator’s emergency lights. The service passage flashed bright white. The officer stepped from the maintenance compartment and ordered Vivian to drop the device.
She ran.
Sienna followed through the passage while the officer called for backup. Vivian reached a stairwell leading to the ballroom, but Thomas was waiting at the landing. He did not try to grab her. He simply blocked the doorway and said, “It is over.”
Vivian looked at the man she had advised, flattered, and manipulated for five years. “You need me, Thomas. You always needed someone to make decisions after Rebecca died.”
“I needed my daughter,” he said. “I was too proud to admit it.”
Officers arrived and took Vivian into custody. The portable drive in her hand contained copies of falsified records and emails linking her to the consulting firms. It also contained a draft plan to transfer employee pensions to an investment fund controlled by Grant.
Back in the lobby, Sienna inserted Rebecca’s brass key into the hidden terminal beneath the security desk. The black camera rotated toward her.
“Cole archive,” she said. “Open verification record.”
A screen displayed years of encrypted approvals. The earliest suspicious transfer had not been authorized by Thomas. His digital signature had been copied from a legitimate construction contract. Later approvals were real, but the first—the one Grant claimed proved Thomas’s involvement—was a forgery created through Vivian’s account.
Thomas was negligent, but he had not begun the theft.
The archive also contained a final video from Rebecca.
Sienna pressed play.
May you like
Her mother appeared on the screen, alive in a way memory had never managed to preserve.
“If you are watching this,” Rebecca said, “then someone finally chose truth over comfort.”
