Chapter 2 - FORTY WITNESSESDerek Vaughn recovered quickly.
Men like Derek often did.
Shock lasted only seconds before instinct took over.
“Madam CEO,” he said, his voice suddenly soft, “there has clearly been a misunderstanding.”
Isabel almost admired the transformation.
Less than sixty seconds earlier, he had thrown freezing water over a woman because he thought she was powerless.
Now that he knew her title, he was practically bowing.
“No,” Isabel said. “I understood everything perfectly.”
Arthur Graham looked toward security.
“Mr. Vaughn's access card.”
Derek stiffened.
“Arthur, surely that isn't necessary.”
“It isn't Arthur to you right now.”
The chief security officer, Benjamin Ross, stepped forward.
“Mr. Vaughn, please give me your badge.”
Derek touched the badge clipped to his belt.
“You're suspending me?”
Isabel answered.
“Pending investigation.”
“For what? I made a judgment call based on security concerns.”
A nervous sound moved through the office.
Isabel looked around.
“Did anyone see Mr. Vaughn ask security to verify my identity?”
Silence.
Derek turned toward his employees.
Nobody met his eyes.
“I said,” Isabel repeated, “did anyone see him contact security?”
A hand slowly rose.
It belonged to a young Black man near the copier.
“No, ma'am.”
Derek stared at him.
“Elliot.”
The man's hand dropped, but his answer didn't change.
“No.”
Another voice came from reception.
“He didn't.”
This time it was the woman who had been recording.
She looked perhaps twenty-six, with auburn hair and a company badge reading MAYA COLLINS — ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR.
Derek glared at her.
“You should be very careful right now.”
Isabel saw Maya flinch.
There it was.
Not arrogance.
Fear.
Real fear.
Isabel stepped between them.
“Mr. Vaughn, you will not address another employee on this floor until the investigation is complete.”
Derek laughed once.
“You cannot be serious.”
“I am.”
“This company has procedures.”
“So do I.”
“You can't humiliate a regional manager based on one incident.”
Isabel glanced down at her soaked clothing.
“Interesting choice of words.”
Derek realized the mistake too late.
Arthur hid a grim expression.
Isabel turned to Benjamin.
“Escort Mr. Vaughn to Conference Room A. Don't let him access his phone, computer, files, or office.”
Derek took a step backward.
“My phone is personal property.”
“The company device is not.”
“You think I'm going to steal something?”
“I think someone buried twenty-seven complaints.”
That landed differently.
The room shifted.
Derek stopped arguing.
For the first time, Isabel saw genuine anxiety in his eyes.
Not fear of losing his job.
Fear of discovery.
Benjamin gestured toward the conference room.
“Sir.”
Derek slowly removed his badge.
As he passed Isabel, he lowered his voice.
“You have no idea what you're doing.”
She met his stare.
“I suspect I'm about to find out.”
The glass door closed behind him.
Then the office erupted into whispers.
Isabel raised one hand.
“Everyone.”
The noise stopped.
She stood dripping in the middle of the office, Arthur’s expensive jacket hanging over her shoulders.
“I owe you an explanation.”
Forty employees watched her.
“My name is Isabel Monroe. Yesterday morning, the board formally approved my appointment as chief executive officer of Monroe Global.”
Some people exchanged astonished looks.
“My grandfather founded this company fifty-eight years ago. My father ran it after him. But I have spent the last eleven years working outside Monroe Global because I wanted to learn what business looks like when your last name doesn't open the door.”
Her eyes moved across the room.
“Over the past year, employee turnover in this region has reached thirty-one percent. That's nearly three times the company average.”
Arthur's expression tightened.
“That isn't the number presented to the board.”
“I know.”
Now everyone looked at him.
Isabel continued.
“Exit interviews disappeared. Complaints were closed without interviews. HR reports were altered. Employees who spoke up were transferred, demoted, or dismissed.”
A woman near the windows began crying silently.
Isabel noticed.
“So I came here without announcing myself.”
She looked down at her clothing.
“What happened today answered one question. But it created several more.”
Maya raised her hand nervously.
“Ma'am?”
“Isabel is fine.”
Maya swallowed.
“I recorded what happened.”
Derek's muffled voice suddenly came through the conference-room wall.
“You did what?”
Maya's face drained.
Isabel turned toward the glass.
Derek had apparently heard her.
He stormed toward the door, but Benjamin blocked him.
Maya whispered, “He's going to fire me.”
“No,” Isabel said.
“He'll find a way.”
“No, he won't.”
“You don't understand.”
The sentence surprised Isabel.
“I understand he is currently suspended.”
Maya shook her head.
“It's bigger than him.”
Before Isabel could ask what she meant, another employee spoke.
“She's right.”
His name was Elliot Reed, the man who had answered earlier.
He stood slowly.
“Derek isn't the only problem.”
Arthur looked troubled.
“Who else?”
Nobody answered.
Isabel scanned the faces.
Something was happening here.
The complaints she had reviewed described bullying, retaliation, falsified performance evaluations, forced unpaid overtime, and discriminatory treatment.
But fear this deep suggested something worse.
She faced Arthur.
“I want everyone on this floor sent home with full pay for the rest of the day.”
Arthur nodded.
“Of course.”
“I also want an independent investigation team here before six.”
The chief legal officer, Teresa Bell, stepped forward.
“I'll arrange it.”
“Not our regular outside counsel.”
Teresa hesitated.
“Why?”
“Because whoever buried these complaints may already know them.”
Arthur stared at Isabel.
“You think the problem reached Legal?”
“I don't know where it reached.”
That was the truth.
And Isabel hated it.
For thirty minutes, security supervised employees collecting their belongings.
Maya approached Isabel quietly.
“Can I show you something?”
“Yes.”
Maya glanced toward Conference Room A.
“Not here.”
Isabel studied her face.
“What is it?”
“I have the video. But I have other things too.”
“What things?”
“Emails.”
Isabel's pulse quickened.
“Emails from Derek?”
Maya nodded.
“And expense reports. Vendor invoices. Copies of files he told me to delete.”
“You kept them?”
“I started keeping everything after what happened to Rachel.”
“Who's Rachel?”
Maya's eyes moved toward the floor.
“Rachel Kim. She worked in Finance.”
Isabel remembered the name.
One of the twenty-seven complainants.
Rachel's file said she had resigned voluntarily eight months earlier.
“What happened to her?”
“She discovered payments to a consulting company she couldn't verify.”
Arthur had joined them.
“What consulting company?”
Maya looked at him uncertainly.
“Vantage Strategic Solutions.”
Arthur frowned.
“I don't recognize it.”
Teresa did.
Isabel noticed immediately.
“You do.”
Teresa's reaction was subtle, but unmistakable.
“I've heard the name.”
“Where?”
“Some procurement contracts.”
“How much?”
“I'd need to check.”
Maya whispered, “Almost nine million dollars.”
Everyone went silent.
Arthur turned toward her.
“Nine million?”
“Over three years.”
“Why wasn't that flagged?”
“It was.”
Maya’s answer was barely audible.
“Rachel flagged it.”
Isabel felt ice colder than the bucket water crawl down her spine.
“And then she resigned.”
Maya looked directly at Isabel.
“She didn't resign.”
“What happened?”
“Derek fired her.”
Isabel's jaw tightened.
“What reason was given?”
“Performance.”
“And what was her performance record before she questioned those payments?”
“Excellent.”
Arthur muttered something under his breath.
Isabel asked the next obvious question.
“Who owns Vantage Strategic Solutions?”
“I don't know.”
Maya opened her handbag.
Her hands trembled as she removed a small flash drive.
“But Rachel found something the night before Derek fired her.”
She handed it to Isabel.
“What?”
“A connection between Vantage and someone inside Monroe Global.”
Arthur leaned closer.
“Who?”
Maya shook her head.
“Rachel wouldn't tell me over email. She said she had proof and wanted to show me in person.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the next morning her account was disabled before she entered the building.”
Isabel closed her fingers around the flash drive.
Then someone knocked hard on the conference-room glass.
Derek stood behind it.
He was staring at the flash drive in Isabel’s hand.
And he no longer looked angry.
He looked terrified.
Ten minutes later, Benjamin returned from Derek's office carrying a laptop.
“There's a problem.”
“What?”
“His corporate drive has been wiped.”
Teresa frowned.
“When?”
“Seven minutes ago.”
Isabel turned toward the conference room.
Derek's phone was on the table.
His laptop had been disconnected.
“How?”
Benjamin's expression was grim.
“Remote administrator access.”
Arthur spoke first.
“Someone outside this floor?”
Benjamin nodded.
“Someone with high-level IT credentials.”
Isabel looked at the forty employees preparing to leave.
Then at Maya.
Then at Derek.
The bucket incident had seemed simple.
A cruel manager abusing someone he believed could not fight back.
But somewhere between the hidden complaints, the missing millions, the fired accountant, and the remotely erased computer, everything had changed.
Derek wasn't the disease.
He was a symptom.
Isabel walked toward the conference room.
Through the glass, he watched her approach.
She entered.
Benjamin remained by the door.
Derek sat down and folded his arms.
“You finally understand,” he said.
“Understand what?”
“That you walked into something you weren't prepared for.”
“Who erased your computer?”
He smiled.
“You think I know?”
“Yes.”
“You're wrong.”
“Who owns Vantage Strategic Solutions?”
His smile disappeared.
“I want an attorney.”
“You're entitled to one.”
“Good.”
Isabel turned toward the door.
Derek suddenly spoke.
“Your father couldn't control this company either.”
She stopped.
Nobody had mentioned her father.
Not once.
She turned back.
Derek’s face had changed.
For years, Isabel had believed her father, David Monroe, died believing his company was healthy.
He had suffered a fatal heart attack sixteen months earlier.
But before his death, he had told Isabel something she had never forgotten.
There are people inside Monroe I no longer trust.
At the time, she had assumed grief and exhaustion were making him paranoid.
Now Derek smiled.
“Maybe you should ask what your father discovered before he died.”
Isabel stared at him.
“What did he discover?”
Derek leaned back.
“That's the nine-million-dollar question.”
May you like
And for the first time since accepting the CEO position, Isabel wondered whether she had inherited not merely a company—
but a war.
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