C3 THE SECRET HE TRIED TO HIDE

For the first time since meeting Alexander Sterling, Isabella Hart wished she had never asked him a question. The photograph on her phone showed her entering Sterling Global that morning. Beneath it, the anonymous sender had written: ASK HIM WHAT HE DID AFTER YOUR FATHER CALLED HIM THAT NIGHT. Alexander had stared at the message with an expression she couldn't understand. He had recognized something about it, she was certain, but he had refused to explain. Now Isabella needed someone who had known her father before his company collapsed, someone who could tell her what Daniel Hart had discovered before his death.

Samuel Reed was the first person who came to mind. He had served as Hartwell Designs' accountant for years before resigning shortly before the acquisition. After Daniel's funeral, Samuel had sent Isabella a brief condolence message and promised to answer her questions whenever she needed him. She had ignored the offer, believing the financial records would eventually explain everything. Now she suspected those records had been deliberately altered. She called him, and he answered after four rings.

Isabella explained that she needed to discuss her father. Samuel paused before telling her to meet him at Bellamy Café in an hour. He insisted that she come alone and tell nobody where she was going. Before she could ask why, he ended the call.

At eleven, Isabella entered Bellamy Café and found Samuel sitting near the rear window. His silver hair looked thinner than she remembered, and he kept glancing toward the entrance as though he expected someone to follow her. When he saw her, he stood. He told her she looked like Daniel and that her father would have been proud of her. Isabella sat opposite him and asked him to explain what had happened. Samuel opened a folder containing financial statements and handwritten notes. Six months before his death, Daniel had discovered that money was leaving Hartwell Designs through transactions unrelated to legitimate projects. At first, the amounts were small enough to resemble ordinary accounting errors.

Samuel slid a statement across the table. Several payments had passed through different companies before reaching Northbridge Holdings. Isabella recognized the name from the suspicious records she had already discovered. She asked who had authorized the transfers. Samuel explained that the money passed through companies registered under different names, making the original transactions difficult to trace. Daniel had asked him to investigate, but supporting documents had already disappeared from the accounting system.

Someone inside Hartwell might have been involved, Samuel admitted, although Daniel believed the person responsible had help from outside the company. Isabella asked about Victor Hale, and Samuel immediately looked up. He wanted to know where she had heard the name. She explained that her father had mentioned him in his notes.

Victor had been hired to review Hartwell's finances. He claimed he could identify weaknesses in the accounting system and recommend improvements. Daniel agreed because he believed an independent consultant could help him understand the discrepancies. However, within weeks of Victor receiving access to confidential records, the suspicious transactions increased. Daniel confronted him, but Victor blamed old contracts and unpaid invoices. Samuel couldn't prove Victor was responsible, but Daniel had become convinced something was wrong.

Isabella looked down at the statements. Her father had been fighting a problem she had barely understood while he was alive, and someone had apparently made sure he couldn't solve it. She asked what happened after Daniel confronted Victor. Samuel explained that Daniel had requested a separate record of every questionable payment, with copies kept somewhere outside the office. A few days later, Daniel called him late at night and said someone had entered his office. He refused to explain everything over the phone. They arranged to meet in person, but that meeting never happened because Daniel died the following week.

Isabella struggled to keep her voice steady. The police had investigated her father's death, Samuel explained, but the financial problems were treated as a separate matter. Hartwell was already collapsing, employees were leaving, and the records were scattered. Nobody wanted to spend money pursuing a complicated fraud investigation. Isabella suspected someone had deliberately ensured that nobody could follow the money.

She asked whether Daniel had mentioned Alexander Sterling. Samuel hesitated before admitting that Daniel knew Alexander was involved in the acquisition discussions. Daniel respected his business ability but distrusted the Sterling family because of an older investment agreement. He believed the family had promised one thing and arranged something different behind closed doors. Daniel had said the original documents would explain everything, but Samuel never learned where he kept them.

Isabella thought of her father's letter and the mysterious partnership agreement delivered to her apartment. She asked whether Daniel believed someone wanted him dead. Samuel's expression tightened. Near the end, Daniel had become frightened. He checked the locks at his office and changed his route home. Once, he asked Samuel whether someone could destroy a business without leaving a clear trail. Samuel had replied that records always left traces. Daniel answered that traces could be erased, but mistakes were harder to hide.

The words sent a chill through Isabella. Her father's letter contained almost the same warning: never trust the first explanation. Samuel admitted that Daniel had never explained exactly what he meant. He had only insisted that if anything happened to him, nobody should assume the first explanation was the right one.

Samuel's phone vibrated. He glanced at the screen, and the color drained from his face. When Isabella asked what was wrong, he dismissed it and told her to stop investigating. She demanded to know why everyone kept warning her away from the truth. Samuel explained that he couldn't prove who arranged the suspicious transactions, whether Victor Hale was involved in Daniel's death, or whether anyone inside Sterling Global knew what was happening. However, Daniel believed the people responsible had influence in places ordinary investigators couldn't easily reach.

That only strengthened Isabella's determination. Samuel closed the folder and pushed it toward her. He told her to keep the copies somewhere safe and never meet Victor Hale alone if he contacted her.

Isabella asked whether he knew where Victor was. Samuel wrote an address from an old consulting file on a napkin and handed it to her. As she stood, he caught her wrist gently and revealed one final detail. Daniel had believed the person who delivered the replacement partnership agreement had access to both sides of the deal. That person was the key to everything. Daniel had never named the individual, but he had said the person had earned his trust.

Those words followed Isabella out of the café. Whoever altered the agreement might not have been a stranger. It could have been someone her father trusted enough to let into his business.

She had nearly reached the subway entrance when her phone vibrated. An unknown number had sent a message: SAMUEL REED SHOULD HAVE KEPT HIS MOUTH SHUT. A second message followed: YOUR FATHER DIDN'T DIE BECAUSE OF HIS BUSINESS. HE DIED BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DISCOVERED.

Isabella stopped walking and turned toward the café. Through the window, she could still see Samuel at the rear table. Then a man in a dark coat entered and walked directly toward him. Isabella couldn't see the man's face clearly, but Samuel stood so abruptly that his chair scraped across the floor. The stranger placed something on the table and leaned close to speak. Samuel looked toward the window. Their eyes met, and Isabella understood the warning in his expression.

Run.

She stepped backward, turned into the crowd, and hurried around the corner. Her heart pounded as she called Samuel, but he didn't answer. She tried again. Nothing. An email arrived from an unfamiliar address. The subject line contained only her father's name. Inside was a photograph of Daniel standing beside Alexander Sterling outside a restaurant. The date printed beneath the image was the night before Daniel died.

A short message accompanied it: YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT ALEXANDER DID THAT NIGHT? LOOK AT THE MAN STANDING BEHIND THEM.

Isabella enlarged the photograph. Daniel's expression was serious, and Alexander appeared to be listening to him. Behind them stood a third man, partly hidden in the restaurant doorway. His face was unmistakable. She had seen it in the portrait gallery at Sterling Global, beneath a plaque identifying him as the family's retired chairman.

Richard Sterling.

His hand rested on Alexander's shoulder.

Isabella stared at the photograph, her mind racing. If Richard had met Daniel the night before his death, why had Alexander never mentioned it? Had the billionaire been telling the truth when he claimed he knew nothing about the altered agreement, or had he carefully chosen which parts of the past to reveal?

Her phone vibrated again. This time, the message contained only one sentence.

ASK ALEXANDER WHO LEFT THE RESTAURANT ALIVE.