Chapter 2 - The Missing Ledger
Roman stood up so fast his chair rolled back and slammed against the mirrored closet doors. He punched the speed dial for his chief financial officer, Victor Vance—no relation to Celeste, but a man who prided himself on knowing every dollar that moved through the Vascari empire.
The phone rang twice before a raspy, sleep-thickened voice answered. “Boss? It’s 6:00 a.m. What’s—”
“Victor, talk to me about the primary operating fund right now,” Roman cut him off, his voice dropping into the icy, controlled register he used when someone was about to die. “Why is there an active transfer sweep hitting the escrow account?”
Silence stretched across the line for so long Roman could hear the faint hum of Victor’s home air conditioning.
“Boss... I’m looking at the terminal now,” Victor stammered, keyboard clicks clattering frantically in the background. “The transfer was authorized using your primary cryptographic key. The master signature matches your credentials down to the digital timestamp.”
“I didn't authorize a damn thing,” Roman snarled, pacing across the hardwood floor. “My key has been in my pocket or locked in the safe behind the painting. Who accessed it?”
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“Nobody, Roman... that’s the problem,” Victor whispered, panic bleeding into his tone. “The system logs show the key wasn't duplicated or brute-forced. It was entered manually from your home terminal at 2:14 a.m. While you were downstairs.”
Roman froze mid-stride. At 2:14 a.m., he had just walked through the front door smelling of another woman's perfume. Celeste had been standing in the bedroom, seven months pregnant, with her coat already on and her hands entirely steady.
