Chapter 2 - The Audit Begins
The conference room on the top floor of TechVista Solutions possessed floor-to-ceiling glass walls that overlooked the sprawling Denver skyline. At 9:15 AM on Friday morning, the room was dead silent except for the heavy, rhythmic clicking of Naomi Bennett’s designer heels against the polished concrete floor.
Seated around the sleek oak conference table were four terrified executives: Harold Kim, Vice President of Marketing; the head of Human Resources; the Chief Financial Officer; and, nervously tapping her pen against her notepad, Sienna Brooks.
Sienna looked every bit the corporate climber in a tailored crimson blazer, her long auburn hair cascading over her shoulders. She looked confident, radiant even—completely unaware that the woman sitting at the head of the table, dressed in a charcoal Prada pantsuit and wearing diamond studs that cost more than Sienna’s annual salary, was the legal wife of the man she was sleeping with.
“Good morning,” Naomi said, her voice cutting through the thick morning air like a surgical blade. She didn’t sit down immediately. Instead, she stood at the head of the table, resting both hands on the polished wood, her dark eyes sweeping slowly across the room.
“I want to thank you all for making time for this briefing,” Naomi continued, her tone conversational yet glacial. “As you know, Bennett Capital Partners finalized the acquisition of TechVista six days ago. When a private equity firm acquires an asset of this scale, our primary goal is operational transparency. Which brings us to today’s agenda.”
She gestured to Miranda Stone, who sat to her right, briefcase open, laying out thick folders of financial audits for each department.
“Mr. Kim,” Naomi said, turning her gaze to the shivering Vice President of Marketing. “Let’s start with your department. Specifically, Q3 promotional spend and travel disbursements.”
Harold Kim swallowed hard, adjusting his tie. “O-of course, Ms. Bennett. Our marketing department has consistently delivered strong brand awareness metrics—”
“Has it?” Naomi interrupted smoothly. She stepped over to the flat-screen display mounted on the wall, tapped her tablet, and pulled up a detailed financial ledger. “Because when my forensic accounting team reviewed the last twelve months of travel and entertainment expenses, we found some rather creative accounting.”
Sienna Brooks stiffened in her chair. The rhythmic tapping of her pen stopped instantly.
“Take this entry,” Naomi pointed to a highlighted line item on the screen. “October 14th. Four thousand five hundred dollars for a luxury hotel suite in Chicago, billed under ‘Client Acquisition Meetings.’ Yet, when we cross-referenced TechVista’s client roster for that quarter, there were no active accounts in Chicago. In fact, Mr. Kim, your department hasn’t closed a single client in the Midwest in over two years.”
Harold looked like he was about to faint. “Well… er… that was an exploratory trip. Networking—”
“Networking,” Naomi repeated, her voice dripping with lethal irony. She swiped to the next slide. A photograph appeared on the giant screen. It was a security still from the lobby of the Drake Hotel in Chicago. It showed Sienna Brooks stepping out of an elevator, arm-in-arm with a man whose face was partially obscured by a baseball cap, laughing brightly.
Though the cap hid his features, Naomi knew that jawline, knew that posture, knew the exact watch on his wrist. It was Garrett.
The room went dead silent. You could hear the faint hum of the air conditioning vent overhead.
Sienna’s face drained of all color, her lips parting in a silent gasp as she stared at the screen. She didn’t know who Naomi Bennett was beyond the name of the managing director who signed off on the purchase, but looking at the cold, calculating expression in Naomi’s eyes, a primal wave of terror washed over her.
“Ms. Brooks,” Naomi said softly, turning her gaze slowly toward the younger woman.
Sienna flinched as if she had been struck. “Y-yes?”
“As Director of Brand Marketing, can you explain why company funds were used to finance personal trysts in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco?”
Sienna’s hands began to shake uncontrollably. She looked frantically toward Harold Kim, but Harold was staring intensely at his own shoes, abandoning her entirely to save his own skin.
“I—I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Sienna stammered, her voice cracking. “Those trips were… we were meeting with regional partners—”
“Really?” Naomi raised an eyebrow, stepping slowly around the table until she was standing right behind Sienna’s chair. She leaned down slightly, her perfume—cold, expensive jasmine—wafting over the panicked mistress. “Because my accountants checked the phone records and credit card logs attached to those reimbursements. Every single one of those hotel stays coincided with personal travel booked by a man named Garrett Bennett.”
The name hit Sienna like a physical blow. She jerked backward in her chair, staring up at Naomi with wide, horrified eyes. The realization crashed over her like a tidal wave.
*Garrett’s wife.*
The wife who “barely noticed him.” The wife who supposedly spent all her time at Bennett Capital.
“You—” Sienna choked out, her voice barely a whisper. “You’re...”
“Naomi Bennett,” Naomi finished for her, her voice smooth as silk and cold as winter steel. “Managing Director of Bennett Capital Partners. And, as of six days ago, the sole owner of the company that pays your salary, your bonuses, and your hotel bills.”
Sienna looked like she was about to burst into tears. The sophisticated, polished facade completely dissolved, leaving behind a terrified young woman caught red-handed in systemic corporate fraud.
“Ms. Bennett, please—” Sienna stammered, standing up abruptly. “I can explain everything! It was just a mistake—!”
“It’s not a mistake, Ms. Brooks,” Miranda Stone chimed in smoothly from the table, sliding a formal document across the oak surface. “It’s grand larceny, embezzlement, and misuse of corporate assets under federal wire fraud guidelines. The penalty for which carries up to ten years in federal prison.”
Sienna let out a choked sob, sinking back down into her chair as the walls of her carefully constructed fantasy world came crashing down around her.
Naomi looked down at her, not with anger, but with absolute, crushing indifference.
“Meeting adjourned,” Naomi said, turning back toward the door. “HR, escort Ms. Brooks to security. We’ll be filing formal charges by the end of the day unless she wishes to cooperate fully with our internal investigation.”
As Naomi walked out of the conference room, leaving utter devastation in her wake, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out.
It was a text message from Garrett: *‘Hey babe, are you coming home for lunch today? I miss you.’*
May you like
Naomi looked at the screen, a slow, predatory smile spreading across her face. She tapped out a reply: *‘Not yet, honey. But I’m taking care of your girlfriend today. You could say… she’s working very hard for me now.’*
***
