“That is enough.”
She flinched, and for the first time I saw what had been hidden beneath her polished clothes and careful posture.
Tessa wasn’t confident.
She was terrified.
But she remained beside me.
“The registration address is a private mailbox,” she continued.
“The recovery email and phone number both trace back to him.”
Adrian laughed once, sharply.
“You’re an intern.
You don’t understand corporate structures.”
“I understood the invoices you made me process.”
Her words landed harder than a shout.
Several employees exchanged looks.
Adrian noticed.
“She’s trying to protect herself,” he told me.
“Tessa made serious mistakes at work.
She knows she’s about to be dismissed.”
Tessa’s eyes filled, but her voice stayed level.
“He gave me access to the vendor system two months ago.
He said he was training me.
Then invoices started appearing under my login after midnight, when I wasn’t in the building.”
She removed another sheet.
The page showed six payments to Aster Advisory.
Each had been approved using Tessa’s employee credentials.
Together, they totaled more than four hundred thousand dollars.
“I confronted him,” she said.
“He told me the company was reorganizing and the payments were confidential.
He said questioning him could destroy my career.”
Adrian turned to me.
“Listen to how ridiculous this sounds.
She had my attention, and now she wants money.”
The sentence hurt because it contained a fragment of truth sharpened into a weapon.
Tessa had his attention.
I had heard it in the voice message.
I had seen it in their photographs and dinner reservations.
But the evidence in my hands said their relationship had not been Adrian’s only secret.
I removed the next pages from the envelope.
They were screenshots of messages between Adrian and Tessa.
Some were the romantic messages I had already seen on his laptop.
Promises.
Compliments.
Plans for a future together.
Then the tone changed.
Adrian began asking her to complete small tasks after hours.
Scan this invoice.
Approve this vendor update.
Send this file from your login because mine is locked.
Don’t discuss it with anyone.
People here are threatened by us.
Each request was wrapped in affection.
You’re the only person I trust.
You’re brilliant.
When this is over, we won’t have to hide anymore.
Tessa spoke quietly.
“I believed him at first.”
I looked at her.
