CHAPTER 2: The Envelope Under the Door

Naomi lowered the microphone.

Three weeks earlier, a plain envelope had appeared beneath her apartment door. Inside were copies of Hart Automotive’s internal emails, a map of the Vesper testing facility, and a note written in block letters:

ASK WHO PROFITS IF THE CAR FAILS.

Naomi had assumed the sender was a frightened engineer. She had spent days verifying dates, suppliers, and technical codes. The evidence suggested someone was leaking information, but it did not identify the source.

Now Celeste had admitted sending it.

Daniel guided Naomi and Priya into a conference room while security escorted guests away from the courtyard. Celeste followed without invitation.

“You warned a reporter that my company was being sabotaged,” Daniel said. “Then you forged my signature to take the car. Explain.”

Celeste shut the door. “I was trying to protect you.”

“By stealing from him?” Naomi asked.

Celeste’s stare hardened. “You don’t understand what Victor Kane does to people who disappoint him.”

Daniel went still. “How long have you been working with Victor?”

“I never worked for him.”

Priya placed the photograph from Naomi’s phone on the screen.

Celeste looked away.

Daniel’s voice lowered. “How long?”

“Before I met you.”

The answer struck harder than a confession about the car.

Their first meeting had seemed accidental. Celeste had spilled coffee on Daniel at a museum fundraiser, laughed at his ruined jacket, and refused to let him buy her another drink. He had loved that she treated him like an ordinary man.

Now even that memory felt purchased.

Celeste sat down. “Victor approached me because my brother had worked on your father’s original prototype. He said the Hart family covered up the crash that killed him.”

Daniel’s jaw tightened. “Your brother was Owen Wynn?”

Naomi recognized the name. Seven years earlier, test engineer Owen Wynn had died when an early electric prototype lost control on a closed track. The official report blamed a battery fire and driver error.

“My mother lost everything after Owen died,” Celeste said. “Victor showed us documents proving your father ignored safety warnings.”

“My father spent the rest of his life trying to understand that crash.”

“And I spent mine watching your family become richer.”

Priya interrupted. “That does not explain the forged transfer.”

Celeste’s composure cracked. “Victor said the Vesper contains the same defect. He wanted the car moved before the demonstration. He said if Daniel drove it tonight, he could die.”

Daniel stared through the glass at the black car outside.

“Why not tell me?”

“Because you would never believe me without proof.”

Naomi remembered the note: Ask who profits if the car fails.

“You sent me the envelope because you wanted an outsider to investigate,” she said.

Celeste nodded once.

Daniel looked at the woman he had planned to marry.

“Then why did you accept Victor’s money?”

Celeste said nothing.

And silence answered the question better than any confession.