Chapter Four – The Witness Who Knew Too Much
Veronica Ellis arrived at Voss Global through the underground parking garage just after midnight.
Rebecca Lin had chosen the hour carefully.
No reporters.
No employees.
No cameras waiting outside the front entrance.
Only two private security officers, a legal team, and Elena.
Veronica stepped out of a black sedan wearing a gray coat, dark glasses, and none of the confidence she had displayed in the boardroom.
She looked smaller now.
Not physically.
Something inside her had collapsed.
She clutched her handbag with both hands as security escorted her to the forty-second floor.
When the elevator doors opened, Elena was waiting inside the conference room.
Veronica stopped.
For a moment, neither woman spoke.
The last time they had faced each other, Veronica had stood beside Damian with a satisfied smile while Elena endured his public humiliation.
Now Veronica could barely meet her eyes.
Rebecca gestured toward a chair.
“Sit down.”
Veronica obeyed.
A court reporter activated the recording equipment.
Two independent attorneys opened their notebooks.
Rebecca placed a written cooperation agreement on the table.
“This interview is being recorded,” she said. “Nothing you say guarantees immunity. If you lie, conceal evidence, or destroy information, this agreement becomes worthless.”
“I understand.”
“Do you have evidence of financial misconduct involving Damian Hale?”
Veronica stared at the handbag in her lap.
“Yes.”
“How much evidence?”
She slowly removed a silver flash drive.
“Enough to destroy everything he has left.”
Rebecca did not reach for it immediately.
“What’s on the drive?”
“Emails. Audio files. Contracts. Private ledgers.”
Elena remained near the windows, silent.
Veronica looked toward her.
“He kept copies of everything.”
“Why?” Rebecca asked.
“Because Damian never trusted anyone. Not even the people committing crimes for him.”
She pushed the flash drive across the table.
“He believed evidence was power. He recorded conversations so he could threaten his partners later.”
Rebecca picked it up using an evidence sleeve.
“How did you obtain this?”
“I had access to his private apartment.”
Elena’s expression did not change.
Veronica lowered her gaze.
“He thought I was loyal.”
“Were you?” Elena asked.
The question was quiet.
That made it harder to answer.
Veronica swallowed.
“I was loyal to the life he promised me.”
“And when did that change?”
“When I realized he was preparing to blame me for everything.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“Explain.”
Veronica took a breath.
“Three months ago, Damian created documents showing I authorized payments to several shell companies. My signature was copied from an old employment agreement.”
“Did you approve those payments?”
“No.”
“Did you benefit from them?”
Veronica hesitated.
“Some.”
The attorneys stopped writing.
Rebecca’s eyes sharpened.
“How much?”
“About four million dollars.”
Elena finally turned from the windows.
Veronica rushed to continue.
“I didn’t know where the money came from at first. Damian called them consulting bonuses. Gifts. Property investments.”
“But later you knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed.”
Veronica’s voice cracked.
“Yes.”
No one offered comfort.
None was appropriate.
Veronica opened her handbag again and removed a paper folder.
“There’s something else.”
She slid a photograph onto the table.
It showed Damian standing beside three men outside a private airfield.
One was a former Voss Global procurement director.
Another was a government contractor.
The third was a man Elena recognized immediately.
Martin Crowe.
A senior board member.
One of the directors who had voted to remove Damian.
Rebecca looked closely.
“When was this taken?”
“Six months ago.”
“What were they discussing?”
“A plan to move Voss Global’s defense technology patents into a private company.”
Elena stepped closer.
“Which company?”
Veronica whispered the name.
“Crown Meridian Systems.”
Elena felt the room change.
Crown Meridian had submitted an offer to purchase Voss Global’s cybersecurity division less than a week before Damian’s dismissal.
The offer had seemed suspiciously low.
Now she understood why.
Damian had not merely stolen money.
He had planned to dismantle the company piece by piece, then purchase its most valuable technology through businesses he secretly controlled.
“How many board members were involved?” Elena asked.
Veronica stared at Martin Crowe’s face in the photograph.
“At least three.”
Rebecca immediately stood.
“Seal the building.”
One of the attorneys looked up.
“Tonight?”
“Right now.”
Rebecca called security.
“No director leaves headquarters until we identify who accessed the patent servers.”
Across the city, Damian received a message from an unknown number.
She has the drive.
He read it twice.
Then he threw the phone across the hotel room.
May you like
For the first time, losing the company no longer seemed like his greatest problem.
Prison did.
