Chapter 3

Sloane spoke first, though. "Manager Coleman."

"One more word tonight that has nothing to do with the project, and you're out."

Derek's face went stiff. He didn't make another sound.

I froze for a second.

Something warm stirred in my chest.

But before I could hold on to that warmth, trouble came again in the second half of the dinner.

While checking the payment milestones, their legal counsel suddenly said that the proposal budget they'd received didn't match the version we'd brought with us.

The difference was a full $1.2 million.

Sloane and I both stopped short.

I immediately pulled up my laptop, while Sloane simply took the documents from them.

The more she read, the deeper her frown grew.

The electronic copy sent to the client clearly contained several execution fees that didn't exist at all.

And the sender's address showed my company account.

Derek's voice shot up. "Ethan, what is this?"

My head jerked up. "That's impossible. That's not the version I sent."

"So the email didn't come from your account?"

"The account is mine, but I didn't change the attachment."

Derek gave a cold laugh. "Well, it's not like the client changed your quote themselves, is it?"

The air in the private room pulled taut.

My palms were drenched in sweat.

I knew better than anyone that once something like this stuck, at best it was a question of competence. At worst, it was a question of business integrity.

Worse still, Sloane would think I'd used this connection to set something up on purpose.

Without thinking, I glanced at her.

She wasn't looking at me.

She kept her eyes on the budget sheet, her voice steady. "Ms. Langley, could you forward that email to us?"

Mom nodded. "Of course."

Derek sighed from the side. "With a personal connection right here, and it still ended up like this. There's really no excuse."

I clenched my fists.

In that moment, a very bad feeling came over me.

This didn't look like an accident.

On the way back to the office, the car was so quiet it was unnerving.

Derek sat in the passenger seat and sighed the whole way.

"I always said we had to be careful with projects like this."

"Great. Now what's the client going to think of us?"

"The worst thing is if people think we padded the price on purpose and then counted on a private connection to let it slide."

I held it in for half the drive, but finally spoke. "Can you shut up?"

He twisted around to look at me. "What, I'm not allowed to talk now?"

"That budget went out from your account. You owe us some kind of explanation."

Sloane sat in the back and didn't say a word the entire time.

Yet the longer she stayed silent, the more panicked I felt.

By the time we got back to the office, it was almost ten.

The whole floor was still lit.

Everyone on the project team was waiting for news.

The moment Sloane got out of the car, she went straight into the conference room and shut the door.

"Give me the laptop."

I pushed it over.

She sat down and started going through the email logs.

I stood beside her, palms slick with sweat.

Derek followed us in and deliberately sat as far from me as he could, as if afraid something dirty might rub off on him.

Before long, the company's VP, Victor Hale, showed up too.

He ran the business side and was usually close with Derek.

The moment he came in, he looked at me, then at Sloane, his expression sour.

"What happened?"

Derek jumped in first and recounted everything from the dinner.

At the end, he made sure to add, "I'm not accusing anyone, but Ethan and Ms. Langley on the client side really do have an unusual relationship. This is too sensitive."

Victor frowned at me. "Why didn't you report it beforehand?"

I kept my temper in check. "I had no idea the client's lead was my mom."

"Well, now you know. It's not too late."

"Mr. Hale, my mom is my mom, and the project is the project. I never once used her connections."

Victor sneered. "Anyone can say that."

He turned to Sloane. "Sloane, how are you running this project team? A connection this big, and you had no idea at all?"

That was the real point.

He wasn't after me.

He was using me to take a swing at Sloane.

Starline's internal power struggles had been fierce for the past two years.

Sloane had risen fast, and Victor had always resented her.

Especially with the Southside project. If it closed, she had a real shot at moving up another step, into a VP seat next year.

It suddenly clicked.

Tonight's trap wasn't aimed only at me.

It was aimed at her too.

Sloane set down the mouse and finally looked up.

"I lead this project. I'll take responsibility."

"But responsibility gets assigned once the facts are clear. Whoever shouts loudest doesn't get to be right."

The conference room went silent at once.

Victor's face darkened. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sloane looked at him. "It means don't be in such a hurry to convict one of mine."

My heart gave a hard thud.

One of mine.

She'd said one of mine.

Victor was caught off guard for a beat, and his voice turned colder. "Then investigate. If you can't get to the bottom of it, the whole project team gets suspended pending review."

He left as soon as he'd said it.

On his way out, Derek glanced back at me, a smugness in his eyes he couldn't quite hide.

The conference room door closed again.

Only Sloane and I were left.

The air went still.

I stood there a long while before saying quietly, "I'm sorry."

She was still going through the emails and didn't look up. "Sorry for what?"

"For causing you trouble."

"Until the facts are clear, don't go admitting fault."

She paused, her voice dropping lower. "Ethan, I'll ask you one more time. Did you change the budget sheet?"

I looked at her. "No."

She finally raised her eyes.

We held each other's gaze across the conference table for a few seconds.

Then she said, "Fine. I'll trust you this time."

In that instant, I nearly lost my footing.

She trusted me.

Even if it was only this once, it was enough.

She turned the laptop around. "The email was sent at 6:14 yesterday afternoon. Where were you then?"

"In a meeting room with the design team, going over materials."

"Can anyone vouch for you?"

"Yes. Tessa Brooks and Liam Foster from design were both there."

She nodded and immediately called the two of them in.

Tessa was already worked up as she came through the door. "Ethan was helping us revise the key visual all afternoon yesterday! I even ordered his dinner for him. He never left the meeting room."

Liam nodded too. "Sometime after six, he was still walking me through the second draft of the script."

I let out a breath.

Sloane asked another question. "Was your laptop ever out of your sight?"

I froze.

It actually had been.

At five-thirty yesterday afternoon, I'd gone to the print room to pick up a contract and left my laptop at my desk for about ten minutes.

The moment I said it, Tessa remembered something. "Oh, right! Around then, I think Manager Coleman came looking for you."

I turned to her. "Are you sure?"

"I walked by and saw him standing next to your desk. He even asked me where you'd gone."

The conference room fell silent.

Sloane and I looked at each other at the same time.

Her eyes darkened.

"Security footage,"

she said.

"Go pull the security footage."