Chapter 14 - The Planted Drive
Detectives arrived twenty minutes later.
Emily’s apartment had been searched pursuant to a warrant based on an affidavit alleging stolen Vale Meridian data.
Rebecca reached the building before Emily went upstairs.
“You say nothing without me.”
“I didn’t take anything.”
“I know.”
“They found it in my home.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“That is what we determine.”
Inside, two detectives waited near the kitchen.
A sealed evidence bag lay on the counter.
Inside was a black USB drive.
Emily stared.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Rebecca placed a hand on her arm.
One detective asked, “Ms. Carter, did you have possession of Unit 14-7-3 before it was sealed?”
Rebecca answered.
“My client will not be making a substantive statement tonight.”
The detective nodded.
No threats.
No dramatic handcuffs.
That frightened Emily more.
This was real procedure.
Paper.
Chain of custody.
Affidavits.
People who could ruin her life without raising their voices.
The police seized her laptop and phone temporarily under the warrant.
Rebecca arranged a replacement phone.
Julian arrived downstairs.
Emily refused to see him.
Not because she believed he planted the drive.
Because she had begun associating him with catastrophe.
The next morning, the gossip headline was worse.
PREGNANT VALE EMPLOYEE TARGETED IN CORPORATE DATA THEFT PROBE.
Emily sat in Rebecca’s office staring at it.
“I’m going to lose every chance of getting another job.”
“Maybe temporarily.”
“Temporarily doesn’t pay rent.”
Rebecca slid a legal pad toward her.
“Then help me reconstruct access to your apartment.”
Emily listed everyone.
Landlord.
Maintenance.
Cleaning service she had never used.
Rebecca paused.
“Who knew the address?”
“You. Julian. Claire. Martin.”
“Victoria?”
“She could find it.”
“Peter?”
“Probably.”
The building hallway had cameras.
They requested footage.
It had been erased during a “system upgrade.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
But a neighboring veterinary clinic had a camera covering the shared alley.
At 2:13 a.m. two nights earlier, a black SUV entered.
Its plate was unreadable.
A man exited wearing a hood.
No face.
He entered through the apartment building’s service door.
Rebecca froze the image.
On his right hand was a large silver signet ring.
Emily recognized it.
Peter Daines wore one every day.
“Peter.”
“Maybe.”
“Can we prove it?”
“Not from this.”
Emily leaned back.
Her stomach cramped.
She instinctively pressed her hand against it.
Rebecca noticed.
“You need to go home.”
“I am home. Apparently everybody else has keys.”
“Emily.”
“I’m fine.”
She wasn’t.
That night, abdominal tightening sent her to the emergency department.
The baby was fine.
Stress and dehydration.
The physician told Emily to rest and follow up with her obstetrician.
Julian appeared at the hospital but remained outside her room until Emily permitted him inside.
He stood near the door.
“Rebecca told you?”
“Yes.”
“I told her not to.”
“She didn’t. Martin did.”
Emily sighed.
“I’m tired.”
“I’ll leave.”
“Wait.”
He stopped.
She looked at him.
“Did you plant the drive?”
Pain crossed his face.
“No.”
“I had to ask.”
“I know.”
“Did Claire?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No evidence suggests she did.”
Emily almost smiled.
“You’re learning.”
“Slowly.”
He sat.
“Peter withdrew another hundred thousand dollars from a joint account yesterday.”
Emily looked up.
“Rebecca told you that?”
“My investigator found a lien filing connected to him. We checked public property records and lawful financial disclosures from prior litigation. Not his bank account directly.”
“So we can’t say Victoria paid him.”
“Not yet.”
Emily stared at the ceiling.
“I called him. I gave him the chance to claim harassment. That was my fault.”
“He chose to lie.”
“I gave him material.”
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
He did not rescue her from responsibility.
She appreciated that.
Two days later, the USB was forensically examined.
It contained confidential Vale Meridian files.
But its metadata created a problem for the prosecution theory.
The drive had been formatted on a computer running a system build used exclusively by Blackthorne Estate’s security office.
Rebecca smiled for the first time in days.
“Peter made a mistake.”
Emily didn’t celebrate.
“Can he explain it?”
“He can try.”
Then another result came.
The drive contained a hidden text file.
A draft statement.
I, Emily Carter, removed documents from Vale Meridian archives at the request of Julian Vale...
Emily’s blood ran cold.
It was a confession somebody expected her to sign.
Or intended to claim she had written.
Julian read it.
“They were going to use you to destroy me.”
Emily looked at him.
“No.”
She pointed at her own name.
“They were going to use you to destroy me.”
That distinction mattered.
She was finished being collateral in the Vale brothers’ war.
That afternoon, she instructed Rebecca to separate her civil case entirely from Julian’s corporate litigation.
“No joint filings unless absolutely necessary.”
Julian accepted it.
Then Vale Meridian’s audit committee issued an unexpected announcement.
The board would hold a shareholder meeting in ten days to consider the sale of the logistics division.
If approved, the sale could permanently reshape the company—and potentially move hundreds of millions of dollars beyond the reach of future restitution claims.
Julian looked at Emily.
“They’re accelerating.”
“Who?”
“Adrian still controls enough voting proxies through the disputed trust to influence the sale.”
Emily stared.
“Even suspended?”
“Ownership rights don’t disappear because someone loses a job.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Only if we invalidate the trust amendment or prove the vote is tainted.”
Emily thought of Nora’s records locked behind court restrictions.
Then Rebecca’s phone rang.
It was Martin Keller.
He had found one more instruction Nora left behind.
A sealed note.
It contained only five words.
WHEN THEY SELL, GO HOME.
Emily read it twice.
“Home?”
Julian looked toward the snow beyond the window.
Emily understood first.
Nora did not mean Emily’s apartment.
May you like
She meant Blackthorne.
---
