Chapter 40
Closer Than You Think
Elena’s pulse pounded in her ears. Closer than you think.
Philip’s words replayed in her mind as she studied his face, searching for any sign of deception. He looked exhausted, wary—not like a man caught red-handed, but like someone who had already lost.
Naomi folded her arms. “If you were trying to stop the real traitor, why didn’t you come to us?”
Philip scoffed, shaking his head. “You really think that would’ve worked? That I could just waltz into Elena’s office and tell her someone in her inner circle is selling her out?” He exhaled. “You wouldn’t have believed me.”
Elena kept her expression unreadable, but deep down, she knew he wasn’t wrong. If Philip had approached her with this theory before today, she would’ve dismissed it outright.
But now? Now, she wasn’t sure of anything.
She straightened. “Who is it?”
Philip hesitated.
Elena’s patience snapped. “If you want any chance of walking out of this with your career intact, you start talking. Now.”
Philip ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know exactly who. But I know where to start looking.”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not good enough.”
“It’s all I have,” Philip snapped. “Whoever it is, they’ve been careful—a ghost. I only caught wind of them when I started noticing inconsistencies in financial reports. Small numbers, things no one would question, but they didn’t add up.”
Elena frowned. “You think they’ve been laundering money?”
Philip nodded. “Or funneling company assets somewhere off the books. And the deeper I dug, the more things didn’t make sense.”
Elena exchanged a glance with Naomi. This wasn’t just about leaks—someone was moving money.
Philip leaned forward. “I managed to trace some of the activity to one of the company’s internal servers—but it’s restricted access. Only a handful of people have clearance.”
Elena’s stomach tightened. That meant it had to be someone high up.
She turned to Jordan, who had been listening in silence. “How quickly can we pull access logs for that server?”
Jordan was already tapping away on his tablet. “I can have them in an hour.”
Philip exhaled, sitting back. “Then you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”
Elena studied him for a long moment.
If he was lying, he was damn good at it. But if he was telling the truth… then the real traitor was someone she trusted.
Naomi’s voice was low. “If what you’re saying is true, we have a bigger problem than we thought.”
Elena nodded slowly, a pit forming in her stomach.
This wasn’t just sabotage.
This was an inside job.
And now, she needed to find out who was pulling the strings—before it was too late.
