Chapter 4 - Uncovering the Sabotage
By 3:00 AM, the penthouse study had been transformed into a command center.
Laptops were spread out across the heavy mahogany desk, displaying live stock charts, social media analytics, and corporate shareholder lists. Sterling Global stock had plummeted eight percent overnight as news outlets picked up the viral video from the gala.
The board of directors had already scheduled an emergency vote of no confidence for 10:00 AM the following morning.
"Julian Vance currently controls twenty-two percent of the voting shares," Adelaide explained, pointing to a spreadsheet on her monitor. "The institutional investors hold forty percent. If Julian convinces the institutional reps that I am a public liability to the brand, they will vote to remove me as CEO and appoint him as interim chairman."
Elias walked over to the desk, holding a mug of black coffee. "How did Victoria get access to the security feeds at the venue?"
"Victoria was the event director," Adelaide replied. "She had full administrative control over the venue's master camera system."
Kalista and Serena were sitting on the plush rug near the fireplace, playing with a set of colored markers. Kalista suddenly tapped Serena’s arm and signed rapidly, pointing toward Adelaide’s laptop.
Serena looked up. "Kalista says the lady in grey had a black box in her purse at the gala. She says it kept flashing blue."
Elias frowned. "A black box with a blue light? That sounds like a portable local storage server or a high-speed wireless transmitter."
Adelaide gasped. "The venue’s internal network is air-gapped! It’s not connected to the public internet for security reasons! The only way that video could have been uploaded so fast was if someone used a local mobile cell-array transmitter inside the building!"
"Which means the raw video file wasn't just sent to social media," Elias added, his janitorial instinct for detail kicking in. "It was uploaded directly to a pre-arranged server. And if Victoria used a private cell array inside the building, the device's MAC address will be logged on the venue's secondary hardware tower."
Adelaide immediately pulled up her phone and dialed her personal chief of cybersecurity, a brilliant young engineer named Marcus whom she trusted implicitly.
"Marcus," Adelaide said as soon as he answered. "I need you to pull the signal logs from the east corridor cellular bridge at the Sterling Gala between 8:00 PM and 8:30 PM. Look for an unauthorized mobile hotspot MAC address."
"Give me two minutes, Boss," Marcus replied over the speakerphone.
While they waited, Elias walked over to his jacket hanging near the door and pulled out a folded piece of paper from his inner pocket. He set it on Adelaide’s desk.
"What's this?" Adelaide asked.
"I found it in the recycling bin outside Julian Vance’s private office suite three days ago while I was doing my night rounds," Elias said calmly. "I usually don't pry, but I saw the word 'Sterling' stamped in red on the top header."
Adelaide unfolded the paper. It was a printed draft of an offshore financial transfer agreement between Vance Holdings and a shell company registered in the Cayman Islands called Silent Haven Education.
As Adelaide read the fine print, her blood ran cold.
The agreement detailed a plan to transfer controlling guardianship of Kalista Sterling to an isolated residential facility in Switzerland immediately following Adelaide's removal as CEO. The justification listed on the document was "severe developmental disability requiring specialized institutional care."
"He was going to take my daughter," Adelaide whispered, her hands shaking violently as she gripped the paper. "He wasn't just going to take my company. He was going to institutionalize my child thousands of miles away so I could never use her to reclaim my reputation!"
"Adelaide! I got it!" Marcus’s voice boomed through the speakerphone. "The cell array uploaded a two-gigabyte raw video file at 8:14 PM. The target destination was an IP address registered to a PR firm called Apex Reputation Management."
"Who owns Apex?" Adelaide demanded.
"A holding company out of Delaware," Marcus answered. "And guess who the managing director is? Victoria Vance."
Adelaide looked at Elias. The trap was fully exposed. Julian and Victoria Vance had orchestrated the entire event—forcing Kalista under the chandelier, recording the footage, transmitting it via an unauthorized array, and using their own PR firm to blast it across the internet to crash the stock and oust Adelaide from her own company.
"They think they’ve won," Elias said softly, a dark smile touching his lips. "They think you're cowering in this penthouse crying into your wine."
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Adelaide folded the paper carefully and set it inside her jacket pocket. She turned to look at Kalista, who was smiling as she drew a picture of four people holding hands under a bright yellow sun.
"They have no idea who they're dealing with," Adelaide said.
