Chapter 6 - Javier’s Last Warning
Lucia sat in Alex’s private study while Naomi inserted the memory card into an isolated computer.
Sofi slept in the adjoining room with a guard stationed outside.
Alex stood near the fireplace.
He wanted to ask Lucia why she had never mentioned Javier’s position.
Then he realized how insulting the question would sound.
Lucia had been hired to clean his home.
No one in his company had ever thought to ask about the life she had lived before wearing a uniform.
“My husband was not supposed to be on that platform,” Lucia said.
“He went there because the automated safety alarms had been disabled.”
“Who disabled them?” Alex asked.
“He never told me.”
“He said someone high inside the company was cutting costs and moving money.”
“The night before he died, he said he had found proof.”
Lucia looked toward the computer.
“He was frightened.”
“I had never seen him frightened before.”
Naomi opened the first file.
It contained photographs of rusted support joints and falsified inspection stickers.
The second showed spreadsheets documenting payments to subcontractors that did not exist.
The third was an audio recording.
Javier’s voice filled the room.
If anyone finds this, Marcus Vane authorized the override.
He knows the emergency system is not working.
He says the project cannot survive another delay.
I told him someone could die.
He said one worker was cheaper than losing the contract.
Lucia covered her mouth.
She had not heard her husband’s voice in two years.
Sofi woke in the next room and called for her.
Lucia rushed away before the recording ended.
Alex remained frozen beside the desk.
Marcus had not merely stolen from the trust.
He had knowingly endangered workers.
Javier had died while trying to expose him.
Another file contained copies of private messages between Marcus and an account identified only as G.P.
The messages began fourteen months earlier.
G.P. had provided Marcus with Alex’s travel schedule, security codes, and photographs of confidential documents.
The final message read:
AFTER THE WEDDING, HE WILL NEVER CONTROL THE COMPANY AGAIN.
Julian leaned closer to the screen.
“G.P.”
“Genevieve Prescott,” Alex said.
Ruiz requested a warrant for her arrest.
Before it arrived, a guard called from the library.
Genevieve had collapsed.
They found her on the floor beside an open bottle of pills.
Charles knelt near her, shouting for a doctor.
A handwritten note rested on the table.
ALEX, I AM SORRY.
I NEVER MEANT FOR ANYONE TO GET HURT.
Alex studied the bottle.
The label belonged to Genevieve.
But the pills inside were harmless vitamins.
She had staged the collapse.
May you like
When he turned toward the terrace doors, they were open.
Genevieve was gone.
