CHAPTER 6: THE BETRAYAL NO ONE EXPECTED
CHAPTER 6: THE BETRAYAL NO ONE EXPECTED
The investigation exploded in a completely different direction.
The murdered contractor changed everything.
Someone had orchestrated the theft.
Someone had framed Maria.
Someone had pointed suspicion toward Richard.
And now...
Someone was eliminating anyone who knew the truth.
Detective Hayes gathered every executive once again.
"No one leaves Nashville."
"Passports are surrendered."
"Phones remain available."
No one argued.
Except one person.
Thomas Briggs.
My longtime legal adviser.
"This is ridiculous."
"We're attorneys and executives."
"Not criminals."
Hayes watched him carefully.
"Sit down."
Thomas hesitated.
Only for a second.
But Detective Hayes noticed.
So did I.
Later that afternoon I returned to headquarters alone.
Something felt wrong.
Not dangerous.
Familiar.
I stood inside my office, looking around slowly.
The bookshelf.
The paintings.
The safe.
The desk.
Then my eyes stopped.
A crystal chess set sat exactly where it always had.
Except...
One black knight faced the wrong direction.
No one would notice.
No one except me.
My father and I had played chess every Sunday.
He taught me one habit.
Never leave the black knight turned outward.
It had remained that way for years.
Someone had touched it.
I picked up the piece.
It felt heavier than usual.
Very carefully, I twisted the base.
It came apart.
Inside...
A tiny microSD card slid into my palm.
I stared in disbelief.
The stolen files had never left my office.
Someone had hidden them in plain sight.
My hands shook as I inserted the card into my laptop.
A single video file appeared.
No documents.
No contracts.
Just surveillance footage.
Timestamp:
The night of the theft.
I pressed play.
Maria entered exactly as expected.
She cleaned.
She left.
Thirty seconds later, the fake maintenance worker entered.
He walked directly toward my desk.
Then...
Another person stepped into the frame.
Someone already inside the office.
Someone hidden behind the library shelves where the security camera couldn't normally see.
The maintenance worker handed that person the copied files.
The hidden figure accepted them.
As he turned...
His reflection flashed briefly in the glass cabinet.
Only one second.
But one second was enough.
I stopped breathing.
Thomas Briggs.
My legal adviser.
The man who had worked beside me for eleven years.
The man who had written every confidentiality agreement.
The man who knew every camera angle inside my house.
The man who had recommended hiring Richard's "outside contractor" months earlier.
The real thief.
The real mastermind.
Before I could call Detective Hayes...
My office lights went dark.
The building's emergency power failed.
A slow clap echoed from the hallway.
Then Thomas's voice drifted through the darkness.
"I wondered how long it would take you to find the chess piece, Ethan."
My blood turned cold.
"You should've trusted the evidence."
His footsteps grew closer.
"Instead..."
A metallic click echoed through the silent office.
"...you started trusting people."
And for the first time in my life...
May you like
I realized that trusting the right people had made me stronger—
But trusting the wrong one had just placed me face-to-face with a desperate man who had nothing left to lose.
