Nothing had been resolved.
The eviction notice remained on the table. Her debts remained unpaid. She still had to find work, and she still had to decide whether she could trust the system that had failed her.
But for the first time in months, she had something she hadn’t felt since losing her job.
A real possibility that tomorrow could be different.
Chapter Four: January Second
At 8:15 on January 2, Ethan Mercer entered the conference room at Mercer Capital’s headquarters.
Around the table sat the company’s general counsel, head of internal audit, chief compliance officer, and two independent investigators.
On the screen behind them was a summary of suspicious payments originating from Harmon Financial Services.
The preliminary findings were worse than Ethan had expected.
Over the previous eighteen months, several executives had approved payments to vendors whose business addresses were unverifiable. Some of those vendors had been incorporated shortly before receiving large contracts. Others shared banking information, contact details, or corporate officers with companies connected to senior employees.
