The weight of Elena’s findings pressed down on me. I knew I had to try Julian one last time. I met him at a quiet cafe, a copy of Elena’s meticulously compiled evidence in my bag.
“Julian,” I said, sliding the printed reports across the table. “Look at this. This is about Chief Harding. And Veronica’s old shell company, Sentinel Guard Solutions.”
He picked up the documents, his eyes scanning the flowcharts and financial records Elena had created. As he read about the “consulting fees” flowing to Chief Harding’s charity, his face drained of color. His jaw tightened.
“This… this is insane,” he whispered, running a hand through his hair.
“She used him, Julian,” I pressed, my voice low but firm. “She used him to destroy her competition, and now she’s using him to destroy me. After she kicked your little brother.”
His shoulders slumped. The guilt, simmering beneath his veneer of denial, finally broke through. He looked up, his eyes bloodshot.
“I didn’t know,” he choked out, his voice thick. “I just… I wanted a peaceful life. Veronica always handles things.”
“She handles things by hurting people, Julian,” I countered. “Our people.”
He pushed the papers away, burying his face in his hands. “There’s an old server vault,” he finally mumbled, his voice muffled. “Veronica had it set up years ago for her earliest company archives. She thought she’d wiped everything when she moved to the new cloud systems. It’s offline, physical. She never thought anyone would look there.”
He fumbled in his wallet, pulling out a small, tarnished brass key. “It’s a storage unit. I have the location. She might have missed something. Or it might be empty. She was meticulous.”
He slid the key and a handwritten address across the table. His betrayal of Veronica, born from profound guilt, was a desperate gamble. But it was our only lead to definitive proof.
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