Chapter 4: The Evidence Against Me Was Better Than I Expected
Chapter 4: The Evidence Against Me Was Better Than I Expected
For a moment, nobody moved.
My business partner stood in the doorway holding my missing access card.
The two officers beside him looked serious.
Lauren stared at me.
Then at the card.
Then back at me.
I could see the question forming in her eyes.
Had I really done something she didn’t know about?
I understood immediately.
That was exactly what they wanted everyone to believe.
“I didn’t steal anything,” I said.
One of the officers nodded.
“We’re not asking you to explain everything here.”
My business partner stepped forward.
“He’s been moving money from the company for months.”
I looked at him.
“You know that’s a lie.”
He pulled out a folder.
Inside were bank statements, authorization forms, and transaction records.
Everything appeared to point toward me.
My signature was on several documents.
My company credentials had been used.
And the money had been transferred into an account bearing my initials.
It was almost perfect.
Almost.
Rachel stepped beside me.
“May I see those?”
The officer hesitated.
My business partner laughed.
“She has nothing to do with this.”
Rachel ignored him.
“Then you won’t mind.”
He suddenly became quiet.
That reaction caught my attention.
Rachel noticed it too.
She turned to the officer.
“Before you arrest him, check the timestamps.”
The officer frowned.
“What timestamps?”
Rachel pointed at the documents.
“These transactions were supposedly authorized from his office computer.”
She looked at me.
“Where were you that day?”
I thought for a second.
Then remembered.
“I was in Atlanta.”
Lauren looked at me.
“I remember.”
Rachel nodded.
“Exactly.”
She turned toward the officers.
“There are airport records, hotel receipts, and security footage proving he wasn’t in Charlotte.”
My business partner’s smile disappeared.
The officer looked at him.
“Is that accurate?”
He didn’t answer.
Rachel continued.
“And there’s another problem.”
She opened her phone.
“The access card being used wasn’t actually activated.”
The officer looked confused.
“What?”
Rachel zoomed in on a security report.
“This card was reported lost two weeks ago. It was deactivated immediately.”
She looked at my business partner.
“So how did you supposedly use it?”
His face went pale.
I stared at him.
“You weren’t using my card.”
He said nothing.
“You copied it.”
Still nothing.
Rachel’s expression hardened.
“Or someone gave you a duplicate.”
David suddenly spoke.
“There are only three people with administrator access to the security system.”
Everyone looked at him.
He continued.
“Me, Lauren’s father, and him.”
He pointed at my business partner.
Lauren looked horrified.
“My father?”
David nodded.
“But his credentials were used remotely.”
Rachel shook her head.
“No.”
She opened another file.
“His credentials weren’t used remotely.”
Everyone waited.
“They were cloned.”
My business partner stepped backward.
I finally understood why he had brought the police.
He had expected them to arrest me before anyone checked the evidence carefully.
He hadn’t expected Rachel.
Or David.
Or the recording.
The officer took the folder from him.
“We’re going to verify all of this.”
My business partner immediately protested.
“You don’t understand. I have proof.”
The officer looked at him.
“We’re aware.”
Then he turned to me.
“Sir, you’re not under arrest at this moment.”
Relief washed over me.
But it didn’t last.
The officer opened another document.
“There is still an active complaint involving your company.”
I nodded.
“I’ll cooperate.”
Lauren stepped closer.
“I will too.”
I looked at her.
For the first time that night, there was no defensiveness in her expression.
Only regret.
“I should have told you about Michael.”
I didn’t answer.
She continued.
“I should have told you everything.”
Rachel glanced at her.
“That would have helped.”
Lauren lowered her eyes.
Michael suddenly spoke.
“Lauren wasn’t involved in the money.”
I looked at him.
“Were you?”
He shook his head.
“I was involved in something else.”
“What?”
He hesitated.
“I was told to keep you distracted.”
The room became silent.
“Distracted from what?”
Michael looked at my business partner.
“He was trying to gain control of your company.”
My business partner finally snapped.
“Shut up.”
Michael didn’t.
“He wanted your voting shares.”
I stared at him.
“How?”
Michael swallowed.
“By forcing you into a legal dispute.”
Rachel nodded.
“The affair was supposed to become evidence.”
Lauren looked horrified.
“Evidence of what?”
Michael answered quietly.
“Your husband being unstable. Financially irresponsible. And incapable of managing the company.”
My stomach tightened.
“So the plan was to make me look incompetent.”
“Yes.”
“And Lauren?”
Michael looked at her.
“She was supposed to be the reason.”
Lauren covered her face.
I suddenly understood everything.
The unexplained arguments.
The financial confusion.
The rumors at work.
Even the photographs of me leaving bars alone.
Someone had been collecting pieces of a story.
A story that wasn’t true.
Then Rachel said something that stopped me.
“There is still one missing piece.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
She opened the final file.
“The person who started this.”
My business partner looked away.
Rachel placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a man entering a private office.
The date was six months earlier.
I stared at the photograph.
I knew the man.
Lauren knew him too.
Her face went white.
“That’s impossible.”
I looked at her.
“Who is he?”
She whispered his name.
Her father’s attorney.
The man who had handled our company’s original incorporation documents.
The man who had access to our signatures, contracts, financial records, and personal information.
Rachel looked at me.
“He didn’t just forge your signature.”
She pointed to the photograph.
“He had access to the original documents.”
My business partner suddenly moved toward the door.
The officers stopped him.
“Where are you going?”
He froze.
Then his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Whatever he saw made the color drain from his face.
I noticed the caller ID.
It wasn’t his lawyer.
It wasn’t Lauren’s father.
It was the attorney in the photograph.
My business partner answered.
“Hello?”
Nobody could hear the voice on the other end.
But his expression told us everything.
He slowly lowered the phone.
Then looked directly at me.
“He knows.”
I frowned.
“Knows what?”
My business partner swallowed.
“He knows you found the original contract.”
I felt my blood run cold.
Because I had never told anyone about the contract.
Not even Rachel.
I looked at her.
She looked just as confused.
Then I remembered something.
The original contract wasn’t with me.
It was still locked inside my home office.
And the only person who knew where I kept it was Lauren.
