Chapter 7 - The Paper Trail
Julian opened his leather briefcase and pulled out a thick blue folder, laying it flat on Eleanor’s desk.
"Preston wasn't acting alone, Eleanor," Julian revealed, his voice dropping into a serious, calculated tone. "Stealing forty million dollars from a heavily encrypted trust like the Hartwell Foundation requires inside security clearance. Someone gave him the master encryption keys three months ago."
Mason stood up instantly, his dark eyes narrowing into dangerous slits. "Who?"
Julian tapped a highlighted name on the second page of the report. "Harold Ashford—your former Chief Financial Officer."
Eleanor stared at the name on the paper, a cold shock running through her veins. Harold Ashford had been her father's most trusted advisor for over twenty years. He was like an uncle to her and Mason.
"Harold was funneling three percent of the embezzled funds into his daughter's offshore accounts," Julian explained. "And his daughter is none other than Sloane Avery."
Eleanor gasped softly, her hand moving to her chest. "Sloane is Harold Ashford's daughter...?"
"Her legal name is Sloane Ashford-Avery," Julian confirmed. "She changed her surname five years ago after a scandal in Europe. The entire affair between Preston and Sloane wasn't a sudden passion, Eleanor. It was a calculated, multi-year plot by Harold and his daughter to drain the Hartwell fortune from the inside out."
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Mason slammed his hand onto the desk, his jaw clenching hard. "That old snake..."
"They thought Eleanor was too soft to notice," Julian added softly, looking at Eleanor with profound respect. "They had no idea she was two steps ahead of them the entire time."
