Chapter 5 - The Ledger and the Leak
The grandfather clock in the corner of the study struck 3:00 AM just as the heavy oak doors opened and Evelyn Price stepped into the room.
Evelyn was fifty, sharp-eyed, impeccably dressed in a charcoal pantsuit, and possessed a legal mind that had kept half of Dominic’s capos out of federal penitentiaries for over a decade. She carried a thick leather briefcase and looked as alert as if it were the middle of a sunny afternoon.
“Miles briefed me on the drive over,” Evelyn said, tossing her wet umbrella into the brass stand by the door and walking straight toward the desk. She glanced at Claire, offering a brief, reassuring nod. “Good evening, Claire. I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Thank you, Evelyn,” Claire replied, pulling Dominic’s coat tighter around her shoulders.
Dominic gestured toward the coffee table where the manila folder lay open. “Look at the transfer codes on page four, Evelyn. Tell me what you see.”
Evelyn adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses, leaning over the papers. Her fingers traced the printed rows of numbers, her expression shifting from professional curiosity to sharp, concentrated focus.
“These aren't standard routing codes,” Evelyn muttered, flipping the page. “They’re encrypted sub-routines. They use the same encryption protocol we implemented for the European shipping channels two years ago.”
“Which means?” Dominic prompted.
“Which means whoever authorized this transfer didn't just have administrative access,” Evelyn said, looking up at Dominic with grave eyes. “They had executive clearance. They had to know the master encryption keys that only you, Miles, and your chief operating officer possess.”
The name hung in the air like a blade waiting to drop.
Chief Operating Officer.
Marcus Sterling had been with Vale Maritime for eight years. He had managed the port expansion, negotiated with the municipal unions, and sat at Dominic’s right hand during every major corporate restructuring.
If Marcus was the leak, it meant the entire upper tier of Dominic’s legitimate enterprise had been compromised from the inside, funneling syndicate profits directly into Silas Harrow’s expansion fund while framing Dominic for federal tax evasion.
“Marcus has been pushing for the past month to merge our port logistics with Harrow’s transport union,” Claire added quietly, her analytical mind piecing the puzzle together. “He said it would streamline customs inspections. But every time I asked to review the joint venture agreements, he told me they were being handled at the executive level.”
Dominic stared down at the desk, his jaw tight.
For months, he had suspected someone was trying to undermine his transition from pure syndicate operations to fully legitimized corporate holdings. He had assumed it was an external rival—Harrow testing his boundaries.
Instead, it was a mutiny wrapped in a corporate merger.
“Evelyn,” Dominic said, his voice cold and flat. “If we hand these documents to the federal authorities right now, what happens?”
“We trigger a federal raid on Vale Maritime within twelve hours,” Evelyn answered immediately. “Marcus Sterling goes down, but so do half of our legacy holding accounts. The government will freeze every asset while they sort through the wreckage. Silas Harrow walks away clean, and we spend the next five years fighting indictments in a federal courtroom.”
She closed her briefcase with a sharp snap.
“That is not an option if you want to keep the empire intact.”
“Then we don't go to the feds,” Dominic said, walking back to his desk. “We handle this ourselves.”
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Claire looked up, a flicker of warning in her eyes. “Dominic, if Marcus realizes we have these records, he won't just send Grant Keller to intimidate me. He’ll mobilize every asset he controls inside the company to cut us off completely.”
“Let him try,” Dominic replied, his eyes dark with lethal intent. “We’re going to give him exactly what he wants. We’re going to let him think he’s winning.”
