CHAPTER 6: Marissa’s File Turns Black

Arthur nodded once to the younger man behind him.
A laptop connected to the boardroom screen.
The red merger chart vanished.
In its place came transaction logs, wire records, consulting invoices, and a chain of approvals leading from Grant’s office to Marissa Vale’s private company.
No document stayed long enough for anyone to pretend it was harmless.
Marissa stood so fast her chair rolled backward.
“Those are confidential.”
Arthur looked at her.
“They are criminal if the signatures are real.”
The room went still again, but this silence had a different owner.
Grant turned on Marissa with disbelief that should have been reserved for a mirror.
“You said that account was clean.”
Marissa’s eyes flashed toward Grace, and there it was: the oldest instinct of the guilty, looking for the quiet woman to blame one more time.
Grace did not lower her gaze.
“You used my login,” she said. “You used my name on files I never opened. You used my marriage as cover.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
The security officers moved closer to the doors.
For the first time all night, Grant seemed to understand the room no longer belonged to him.
On the screen, Marissa’s initials appeared beside a midnight authorization.
Beside it was Grace’s forged digital approval, time-stamped while she had been at a hospital fundraiser standing beside Grant for photographs.