Rachel entered carrying a folder.
She had worked beside me for eleven years.
She was one of the few people I truly trusted.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
The answer caught her off guard.
I almost never allowed anyone to see weakness.
Not in business.
Not in life.
She carefully placed the folder on the desk.
“What happened?”
I turned one of the monitors toward her.
She looked at the screen.
Her expression immediately changed.
“Oh my God.”
“Exactly.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Rachel leaned in closer.
“Ethan?”
I said nothing.
I didn’t need to.
Her silence told me she understood.
“Adrian…”
Her voice became quieter.
“Are you sure?”
I looked at her.
“That’s the wrong question.”
“What’s the right one?”
“How many people knew?”
That was the question that mattered.
Ethan couldn’t have done this by himself.
Not on this scale.
Rachel shifted uneasily.
“Should I contact legal?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if Ethan knows we’re investigating, evidence disappears.”
She slowly nodded.
Then hesitated.
“Adrian?”
“Yes?”
“What are you going to do?”
I looked through the glass wall of my office.
At the employees moving below.
Hundreds of people.
Many of them trusting a company that had failed them.
“I’m going to find everyone responsible.”
At 9:00 a.m., Ethan entered my office.
Exactly on time.
That bothered me.
A guilty man should have looked nervous.
Ethan looked calm.
Confident.
