The Secret Behind the Missing Diamonds
Chapter 03 - The Secret Behind the Missing Diamonds
Emergency lights flickered on, washing the mansion in a cold red glow. Ethan found Maya beside the desk and told her to stay close. Helena was gone. So was Miles.
The side door to the library stood open.
They followed the corridor to the security room, where a monitor had been smashed and the independent drive was missing. Without the recording, Helena could claim the image had been manipulated. The fake necklace was suspicious, but it did not prove who had taken the real one.
Then Maya noticed a tiny green light blinking beneath a shelf.
“My phone,” she said.
She had left it charging near the corridor before the gala. Its voice-recording app was still running because she had been practicing for a nursing-school interview. The microphone had captured everything near the staircase.
Ethan pressed play.
At first there was only music. Then Helena’s voice emerged.
“Put the real necklace in the safe deposit box tonight,” she told Miles. “Once the maid is blamed, no one will question why the foundation’s accounts are empty.”
Miles asked what would happen if Ethan ordered an audit.
“He won’t have time,” Helena replied. “Tomorrow the board will remove him.”
The recording revealed that Helena had transferred money from children’s medical grants into shell companies controlled by Miles. Selling the Bennett Star would cover the final missing payment. Maya had been chosen because, two weeks earlier, she found a donor ledger beneath Helena’s desk. Although she returned it without reading more than a page, Helena assumed she knew too much.
Maya felt sick. “She tried to ruin my life because I picked up the wrong book.”
Ethan looked devastated. His father had warned him before his death that the foundation’s numbers did not make sense, but Ethan had trusted Helena. Now he understood that the gala was the final move in a plan to seize permanent control of the charity.
Police sirens sounded outside.
Then Miles appeared at the end of the corridor holding the missing drive. Helena stood behind him, her elegance replaced by panic. She told Ethan the police had been called because Maya had attacked her and stolen confidential records.
“You have a choice,” Helena said. “Protect the Bennett name, or let this maid destroy your father’s legacy.”
Ethan stepped beside Maya.
“My father’s legacy was helping people you treated as disposable.”
Miles snapped the drive in half.
May you like
Helena smiled—until Ethan did too.
“The camera uploaded everything to my father’s attorney ten minutes ago.”
