Claire POV
Day three and Claire hasn't slept.
She's been in the operations center for sixty-two hours straight. Coffee sits cold next to her keyboard. Her eyes burn but she can't stop looking at numbers. The spreadsheets are growing. The evidence is piling up. And every file she opens leads to ten more files she needs to check.
The company is being destroyed. Systematically. Methodically. From the inside out.
She finds the first theft on day two. A payment to a vendor that doesn't exist. Fifty thousand dollars transferred to an account in Delaware. She traces it backwards through the system. There are dozens of payments like this. Different amounts. Different fake companies. Same pattern.
Someone's been stealing for years.
By day five, she's identified over two million dollars in unauthorized transfers. She creates a spreadsheet with dates and amounts and vendor names that don't lead anywhere. She cross-references the account numbers. She builds a map of where the money goes.
It all leads back to the board.
Day seven brings a bigger discovery. A file marked "Discretionary Fund Allocation." Inside are signatures. Names of board members authorizing transfers. Some of the names she recognizes. Others are people who've moved on. One name keeps appearing over and over.
David Marchant.
Her old boss. The man who let her go to prison. The man who knew she was innocent and did nothing. The man who chose Walsh family money over her life. He's been stealing from this company for four years. Millions of dollars. All documented. All traceable.
Claire sits back from her computer and laughs. Actually laughs. The irony is almost perfect. David Marchant, the man who sacrificed her for money, has been stealing money the whole time. He's been committing the exact crime he let her take the fall for.
She sends a message to Emma. "Found David Marchant. He's been stealing millions. This is beautiful."
Emma responds immediately. "Good. Document everything. This is exactly what we need."
Day nine and Claire has documented everything.
She creates presentations. Color-coded spreadsheets. Flow charts showing exactly where money goes and who authorized it. She builds a case that would hold up in court. That would convince a jury. That would destroy people.
She also finds something else.
A file labeled "Insurance Policy." Inside is a contract. Signed by Sebastian. A contract that shows he knew about the fraud. Not just knew. That he participated. That he authorized some of the transfers. That he used company money for personal expenses. That he knew exactly what was happening and let it happen because it was profitable.
He didn't just frame Claire to save his company. He framed her while he was stealing from the company himself.
The hypocrisy makes her want to scream.
She spends day ten just sitting with this information. Trying to process it. Trying to figure out how to feel about it. Sebastian didn't frame her because he was desperate to save the company. He framed her because she found out about the theft and threatened to report it. He destroyed her to protect his own crime.
Her phone buzzes. A text from Margaret.
"Sophia is asking about you again. She's having nightmares. I don't know what to tell her anymore."
Claire's hands shake. She types back. "Tell her mommy is working on something. Tell her I love her. Tell her I'm coming back."
But she doesn't send it. She just stares at the message because she knows what she's doing to her daughter. While she sits here documenting evidence of Sebastian's crimes, Sophia is having nightmares wondering where her mother is.
She deletes the message without sending.
By day twelve, Emma calls her.
"You've been there for two weeks," Emma says. "What do you have?"
"Everything," Claire says. "I have board members stealing. I have David Marchant siphoning millions. I have Sebastian authorizing fraudulent transfers. I have vendor accounts that don't exist. I have a complete map of how this company has been systematically destroyed from the inside. I could go to the FBI right now with all of this."
"Good," Emma says. "Because we need you to go to the board."
"What?"
"We need you to present your findings to the board," Emma says. "We need them to see it all. We need them to panic. We need them to ask questions. We need Sebastian to watch his entire world fall apart knowing that he's trapped and there's nothing he can do to stop it."
"That's not part of the plan," Claire says. "The plan was to find evidence. Not to destroy him with it yet."
"Plans change," Emma says. "David's people are getting nervous. The FBI is getting close anyway. We need to move before someone else finds this first. You present tomorrow. You present everything. And you watch his face when he realizes what you've found."
Emma hangs up.
Claire sits alone in the operations center at one in the morning. The city is quiet outside the windows. The office is empty. Just her and the evidence and the knowledge of what she's about to do.
She pulls up her presentation one more time. All the files. All the numbers. All the proof of what these men did. What Sebastian did. What he's going to lose because of it.
She thinks about Sophia having nightmares.
She thinks about the promise she made to her daughter. To never leave her again.
She thinks about the promise she made to herself. To destroy Sebastian Walsh completely.
Both promises are about to come true.
She's closing down her computer when she hears footsteps. Someone's in the office at one in the morning. Someone who works late like she does. The footsteps get closer and she knows before she sees him.
Sebastian appears in the doorway of the operations center.
He looks like he hasn't slept in days. His tie is loose. His jacket is unbuttoned. His eyes are red and exhausted. He's holding a folder and his hands are shaking.
"Ms. Peterson," he says quietly. "We need to talk."
Claire's heart stops.
"I know you've found something," Sebastian continues. "I know you've been digging through the files. I know you've been documenting evidence. And I know that whatever you've found, it's going to destroy me."
He walks closer. He sits down at the desk next to hers. He opens the folder. Inside are documents. Prison records. Court transcripts. Photos. All from her trial. All from four years ago.
"I don't know who you really are," Sebastian says, his voice breaking slightly. "But I know you're connected to what happened to me. I know somehow this is about that. About Claire. About what I did."
He looks at her directly. His eyes are searching. Desperate. Like he's trying to remember something he's desperately trying to forget.
"Was it worth it?" he asks. "Coming back here. Destroying everything. Making me suffer. Was destroying me worth whatever it cost you?"
Claire can't speak. She can't breathe. He doesn't know it's her but he knows something. He knows enough.
"Because I need you to know something," Sebastian says, his voice steady now. "I've spent four years wondering where Claire went. I've spent four years trying to find her. I've spent four years wondering if she survived prison. If she got out. If she's okay. And I'd give everything I have to know that she's okay. I'd burn this company down myself just to know that I didn't destroy someone I loved completely."
The words hit Claire like a physical blow.
"So before you destroy me," Sebastian says, "I need to ask you one thing. Is she alive? Is Claire alive?"