CHAPTER FOURTEEN C: THE PERSON WHO SIGNED
Simone Ward came to Laila’s office carrying a cardboard archive box that was too heavy for her to hold comfortably.
She placed it on the floor and said she had received permission from counsel to provide copies of her own project correspondence.
Laila checked the permission before opening the box.
Inside were event schedules, vendor contacts, and handwritten notes from meetings where Cedric’s office had represented itself as the foundation’s project manager.
Simone pointed to a photograph of the ceremonial key from the fundraiser.
She said the key had been ordered before anyone selected a contractor for the warehouse renovation.
Yvette remembered posing with the key and telling reporters that the building would change lives.
Simone showed them a seating plan from the same evening.
Alma Reyes’s name appeared on a table reserved for families who had supposedly completed the foundation’s housing program.
Alma had not attended the event.
A staff member had been instructed to leave the chair empty because the family’s absence would make the presentation more moving.
Yvette felt sick.
Laila asked Simone who had given that instruction.
Simone said she had heard it from Cedric’s communications director, but she could not prove who had originated it.
Yvette asked why Simone had stayed silent.
Simone looked at the empty chair in the photograph.
She said she had recently bought a house and was supporting her younger brother through college.
She had told herself that a staged chair was harmless because the program would eventually help real people.
Laila asked whether Simone was prepared to give that account to the board.
Simone said she was prepared to say what she knew and what she had only assumed.
Yvette thanked her, but Simone stopped her before the gratitude became too easy.
She said the foundation had rewarded employees for making impressive events happen and punished them for asking whether the services existed.
Yvette had chaired those events.
Yvette admitted that she had.
For the first time, Simone looked less like an employee defending herself and more like someone deciding whether to trust the room.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN D: BRIANA’S MONDAY
Briana arrived at Cedric’s office to find her access badge rejected by the elevator reader.
The security guard recognized her and looked embarrassed.
He called upstairs, listened, and asked her to wait in the lobby.
Briana stood beside a display of awards while people she had supervised walked past without meeting her eyes.
Twenty minutes later, a human resources manager escorted her to a conference room.
The manager said her system access had been temporarily suspended during a review of vendor approvals.
Briana asked whether Cedric had ordered the suspension.
The manager said the decision had come from the legal department.
Briana requested the reason in writing.
She had learned that phrase from Damian, although she would not have admitted it aloud.
The manager gave her a letter and explained that she could arrange to collect personal belongings later.
Briana walked outside with nothing but her handbag and the letter.
She called Cedric twice before he answered.
He told her to be patient and said the investigation would pass if she stopped making herself visible.
Briana asked why her name appeared on approvals that had been presented as routine.
Cedric replied that she had wanted to be taken seriously as an executive.
She asked whether he would support her if investigators questioned those approvals.
He said they should not discuss sensitive matters on the phone.
The call ended while she was still speaking.
Briana sat in her car and remembered the first time Cedric had praised her judgment.
He had done it in a room where Damian was present, then privately told her that Damian would never understand the scale of her ambitions.
She had mistaken the comparison for proof that Cedric saw something extraordinary in her.
Now she understood that a person who wanted obedience could make it sound like recognition.
She called an attorney whose name she had kept in her contacts for three weeks.
The attorney offered an appointment that afternoon.
Briana accepted before she could change her mind.
