I made my second decision immediately afterward.

I ordered our internal audit team to preserve five years of financial records, contracts, vendor payments, HR files, and executive-office access logs.

Andrew leaned back in his chair.

“Why?”

“Because I’m the new CEO.”

He stared at me for several seconds.

Then he smiled.

“Of course.”

That smile stayed with me.

Three days later, the first audit summary landed on my desk.

Nine consulting companies had received a little over $12 million from Montalvo Holdings during the previous five years.

Four shared addresses, phone numbers, tax records, or registration information connected to Camille Reed.

Every major payment had been approved through Andrew’s office.

I called Camille upstairs.

Andrew came with her.

I hadn’t invited him.

I placed the summary on the table.

“Explain this.”

Camille read the first page.

Her face changed.

“I don’t know what this is.”

“Four companies are connected to you.”

“No.”

I pushed the page closer.

“Your name. Your former address. Your Social Security information.”

She stopped reading.

Andrew reached for the papers.

I put my hand over them.

“I asked Camille.”

He pulled his hand back.

Camille looked at him.

Not at me.

At him.

“You said those documents were for estate planning.”

Andrew said nothing.

Then Camille turned toward me.

“You think I’m having an affair with your husband.”

I didn’t answer.

She touched the white watch.

“I’m not.”

“Then why did he give you that?”

For several seconds, Camille seemed unable to speak.

Finally, she sat down.

“Because Andrew is my brother.”

My Husband Had Been Hiding His Sister

I actually laughed once because I thought I had misunderstood her.

Andrew didn’t.

He closed the conference-room door.

“Lauren, I can explain.”

“Please do.”

Camille was staring at him now.

“You never told her?”

He ignored her.

Then he looked at me.

“My mother had a daughter before she married my father.”

Evelyn.

My mother-in-law.

The woman whose birthday watch Camille was wearing.

Andrew told me Evelyn had been nineteen when Camille was born. Her family had pressured her into placing the baby for adoption.

More than fifty years later, Andrew found Camille through private records.

That had happened six years ago.

Six years.

He had known before our last anniversary, before his father’s funeral, before Evelyn’s seventieth birthday.

He had even hired Camille.

And he had never told his mother that the daughter she had spent half a century wondering about worked thirty feet from his office.

“Why?” I asked.

Andrew glanced toward Camille.

“Mom is old. I didn’t know what it would do to her.”

Camille stood.

“That’s not what you told me.”

Andrew’s jaw tightened.

“Not now.”

“You told me she didn’t want me.”

I watched Camille’s hands.

They were shaking.

Andrew reached toward her.

She moved away.

For the first time since I had met her in the lobby, she didn’t look powerful.

She looked scared.

I picked up the audit report.

“Being family explains the watch.”

Andrew nodded quickly.

“Exactly.”

“It doesn’t explain twelve million dollars.”

His face hardened.

That afternoon, I called an emergency board meeting for the following morning.

For the first time since I had become CEO, Andrew didn’t try to stop me.

I should have wondered why.

The next morning, he arrived carrying a black binder.

He waited until all nine directors were seated.

Then he placed it on the table.

“Before this board discusses any allegations involving my office, there’s something everyone needs to see.”

He opened the binder.

Transaction records.

Authorization logs.

Digital signatures.

My name appeared again and again.

$1.8 million.

$2.4 million.

$900,000.

$3.1 million.

By the final page, the total was just over $28 million.

Authorized under my credentials.

Approved with my digital signature.

Some dated back four years.

I looked at Andrew.

He didn’t look nervous anymore.

“Lauren has had financial access for years,” he said.

One director leaned toward the documents.

“Are these authentic?”

Andrew nodded.

“According to the system, yes.”

I picked up one page.

My employee ID.

My authorization code.

My signature.

Andrew folded his hands.

“I move that Lauren be suspended pending an independent investigation.”

The room went silent.

Then he added:

“And I believe we have an obligation to refer this to federal authorities.”

I looked at my husband.

He didn’t avoid my eyes.

That was when the timing finally made sense.

Andrew had been the person who pushed hardest for my appointment as CEO.

I had thought he believed in me.

Instead, he had put me in the chair three weeks before the annual audit.

And now millions of dollars in questionable transactions were sitting under my name.

I closed the binder.

“Don’t vote yet.”

Andrew smiled faintly.

“Lauren, this isn’t personal.”

The conference-room door opened.

Evelyn walked in.

Camille was beside her.

And behind them was the independent auditor I had hired on my first morning.

Andrew stood up.

“Mom?”

Evelyn didn’t answer him.

She walked directly to Camille.

Then she took her hand.

The Login Was Mine. The Computer Wasn’t.

The auditor connected his laptop to the conference-room screen.

He didn’t give a long explanation.