C12 THE WARNING IN THE FILE

The stranger's face followed Isabella into the night. She could still picture his dark suit, the way he had watched her from the reception area, and how quickly he had disappeared when she noticed him. Alexander had called security, but the cameras covering the lobby showed only a blurred figure leaving through the underground entrance. The visitor had known where to go and how to avoid being identified. That meant he was either familiar with Sterling Global or had help from someone who was.

In the car, Alexander spoke with his security director, demanding a review of visitor logs and camera recordings. Isabella watched the city slide past the window, thinking about Martin Cole's reaction to the old agreement. Every answer seemed to lead to another person with access, another missing document, another reason to suspect that Daniel's death had been planned long before the company collapsed.

When Alexander ended the call, she asked whether he believed Martin was responsible. He said he believed Martin was hiding something, but that was not the same as proving he had caused Daniel's death. Isabella agreed that suspicion was not evidence. Still, she had learned that powerful people could use the absence of evidence as a shield, especially when they controlled the records.

Alexander suggested they return to the mansion and examine the copied page again. Isabella refused to wait until morning. She wanted to know the name of the witness whose signature appeared on the agreement, and she wanted to compare it with the financial records before anyone had another chance to erase them.

They returned to Sterling Global instead. Most of the offices were empty, and the reception lights had been dimmed. Alexander used his access to retrieve the digital index for the partnership archive while Isabella searched the payment confirmations she had saved. The witness signature was difficult to read, but the first initial looked like an R, followed by a surname that could have been Mercer.

Isabella searched Hartwell's old records. A name appeared in a meeting summary from the month before Daniel died: Robert Mercer, an external legal adviser who had reviewed several contracts for both companies.

Alexander read the entry twice. He remembered Mercer as a lawyer who had attended a handful of meetings with his father. Richard had trusted him, and after Richard died, Mercer had reportedly retired from corporate work. Alexander had never been told that the lawyer was involved in the Hartwell partnership.

“Can we find him?” Isabella asked.

Alexander searched the company's archived contacts. The address listed for Mercer was outdated, and his office number had been disconnected. However, a recent invoice showed that a small legal consultancy had paid him for reviewing a private settlement. The invoice had been processed only three months earlier.

Isabella copied the consultancy's name. Before she could search further, the archive screen refreshed and a warning appeared: her access to the partnership index had been revoked. Alexander stared at the notice, then checked his own permissions. His account still worked, but several files had vanished from the folder they had opened minutes earlier.

Someone was changing the records while they watched.

Alexander called the technology team and ordered them to preserve the system logs. The employee who answered sounded confused, insisting that no scheduled maintenance was underway. Alexander told him not to touch the archive until the security team arrived. He ended the call and looked at Isabella, his expression now stripped of its usual calm.

“This isn't a family dispute anymore,” he said. “Someone is actively protecting it.”

She asked Alexander whether the company could trace the person who revoked her access. He said the change had been made through an administrator account, which narrowed the possibilities but did not identify the user. Martin's department managed those permissions.

They left the office and went to the security control room, where a technician was reviewing the building's camera system. The footage showed Martin entering the administrative corridor after his meeting with them. A few minutes later, he came out carrying no folder and left through the private lift. The unknown man did not appear on the main lobby cameras at all.

A vehicle had waited near the underground exit before the stranger arrived, then driven away moments later. Its registration was obscured by glare, but the car was registered to a company that had once provided consulting services to Sterling Global. Alexander recognised the name as one of the businesses involved in the old partnership.

The connection was too precise to ignore. Isabella asked for the company's files, but the technician could only access current records. Alexander promised to request the archived contracts first thing in the morning. Isabella looked at him sharply, reminding him that someone had already begun deleting the very information they needed.

He understood. He called the company's external counsel and asked for an emergency preservation notice covering every record linked to Daniel Hart, Richard Sterling, Martin Cole, and Robert Mercer. He also instructed security to restrict archive access to a group whose identities he would personally verify.

As they prepared to leave, Isabella's phone vibrated. A new message had arrived from the unknown number.

STOP LOOKING FOR MERCER. HE SIGNED THE AGREEMENT, BUT HE DID NOT WRITE IT.

Below the message was a photograph of a handwritten note. The ink had faded, but one line remained legible: “The original must be kept away from Richard until both parties are present.” The note was dated two days before Daniel's death.

Isabella enlarged the photograph. The handwriting looked familiar, though she could not immediately place it. Alexander studied it beside her, then grew very still. He recognised the writing from letters his father had kept in a locked drawer, letters he had seen only after Richard's funeral.

He would not say whose handwriting it was at first. Isabella demanded that he stop deciding which truths she was allowed to hear. Alexander admitted that the writing resembled his father's, but the note could have been copied or deliberately altered. He did not want to accuse Richard without proof.

Isabella understood his caution, but she also understood the pattern. Their fathers had made an agreement, someone had changed its terms, and a witness had signed a document that was now being erased. The message suggested that even Mercer might not be the person who created the trap.

She asked the sender what the original document contained. No reply came. Instead, another image arrived: a photograph of the entrance to Hartwell Designs, taken from across the street on the day Daniel died. A black car stood outside the building. Its rear door was open, and someone was visible behind the glass.

Isabella recognised her father's car immediately, without hesitation. She had seen it in family photographs and remembered the small dent near the rear wheel. The picture had been taken hours before the official time of his death, yet the timestamp displayed a different date.

She felt the familiar coldness of uncertainty settle over her. If the timestamp had been altered, the photograph could be an attempt to mislead her. But if it was genuine, someone had been watching Daniel before he died, and the official account of his final hours might be wrong.

Alexander asked her to send him the original image so his team could examine its metadata. She did, while keeping a separate copy. For once, she did not hide the evidence from him. Their trust remained damaged, but working alone had left them vulnerable to someone who knew their every move.

The security director arrived and confirmed that the archive access change had come from an administrator terminal assigned to Martin's department. He could not yet prove Martin had used it. The director also reported that Martin had not returned to his office or answered his work phone.

Alexander ordered a formal search of the relevant access logs and asked security to contact Martin without alerting the wider staff. Isabella noticed that he avoided making any accusation aloud. He was protecting the investigation, she told herself, not necessarily protecting Martin. She needed to remember the difference.

He made a note of every decision and asked the technician to confirm the preservation request in writing. Isabella watched him carefully, wondering whether this was the first time he had truly chosen the truth over his family's legacy.

They finally left the building shortly before midnight. In the car, Alexander promised that he would show her every record connected to their fathers, including anything that might damage his family's reputation. Isabella wanted to believe him, but promises had been the foundation of too many lies already.

At the mansion, she went straight to her room and placed the photograph of Daniel's car beside the copied agreement. The message had warned her that Mercer signed the document but did not write it. Somewhere, the original agreement still existed, and its author had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep it hidden.

Her phone vibrated once more. This time the message contained no photograph, only a sentence that made her forget the exhaustion in her body.

YOUR FATHER KNEW WHO CHANGED THE AGREEMENT. HE MET THAT PERSON THE NIGHT HE DIED.

Isabella read it again, then looked toward the closed door separating her room from Alexander's. If Daniel had known the truth before his death, the answer might be buried in the last conversation he had with someone he trusted.

And if that person was still inside Sterling Global, they were closer to her than ever.