Chapter 58
Evelyn got back to Sophie's place around six-thirty in the evening.
She sat in the guest room organizing materials, categorizing and filing the over two hundred photos she'd taken on-site today by area, and began building out the framework for the North District project's preliminary research report.
Her phone buzzed on the desk.
Cedric.
[The watermark on the flower wrapping confirmed it came from the "Scarborough Fair" platform. Legal has contacted the platform to pull order records. They're cooperating well. Should have results tomorrow. Also, the black van tracked from the west gate ended up at an underground parking garage in the east district. That garage belongs to Haven Club.]
Haven Club.
Evelyn's finger paused on the screen.
Haven Club. She'd seen that name in Mr. Lewis's statement. That's where Arianna had handed the forged documents to Mr. Lewis.
Now the van that delivered the white chrysanthemums had also stopped at Haven Club.
All the threads pointed to the same place.
Evelyn took a screenshot of this message and saved it to an encrypted folder.
---
Same day.
Ashford Group CEO's office.
Three files lay spread across Sebastian's desk.
The first was an encrypted report his assistant Jack had delivered—results of tracing the actual controller of Ben Fund.
The results had kept Sebastian's brow furrowed for five solid minutes.
Ben Fund (restructured version) had a shareholding structure layered four deep.
First layer: surface shareholder Blake McCoy, holding thirty-five percent.
Second layer: an offshore company registered in the Cayman Islands holding forty percent.
Third layer: the Cayman company's parent company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Fourth layer: the BVI company's actual controller information sealed in confidentiality agreements at a local trust company.
Four layers of shell companies. Every layer legal and compliant, but every layer blocking the real puppet master completely.
Jack stood across from the desk.
"Mr. Ashford, the trust company at that BVI layer is called Anderson Trust. It's an established offshore trust, industry-renowned for confidentiality. Unless the party voluntarily authorizes it or there's a judicial order, there's no way to access beneficiary information."
Sebastian closed the report.
"How long would the judicial process take?"
"Suing domestically has no jurisdiction. You'd have to go through BVI local courts. Minimum six months, up to a year and a half."
Sebastian leaned back in his chair. Six months to a year and a half. Too slow.
He thought of that surveillance screenshot—Arianna walking out of the club's private room holding a man's arm, the White family cufflink on the man's wrist.
If that man was Benjamin, or Brian, he'd returned to the country through Ben Fund (restructured), hiding behind shell companies while getting close to Arianna on one hand and watching the Ashford family's movements on the other.
What was this man's goal?
Revenge? Reclaim the Hawk family assets the Ashford family had swallowed years ago? Or something bigger?
Sebastian locked the Ben Fund report in his drawer and picked up the second file.
Arianna's resume.
This resume he'd had HR pull from the archives, supplemented with some external investigation.
Arianna, birth name Arianna Jackson. Twenty-nine years old.
College at a southern financial and economics school, finance major.
After graduation, worked two years as an analyst at a mid-sized securities firm.
Then, blank.
The resume had a gap of nearly ten months.
From leaving the securities firm to meeting Samuel, a full ten months where Arianna had no traceable work records, social security payments, or public activity.
Ten months later, she appeared in Samuel's social circles through "friend introductions."
Three months after that, they went public with their relationship.
Six months later, they registered their marriage.
Sebastian's finger pressed on that blank timeline.
Ten months.
A young woman disappears from the workforce for ten months, then precisely enters the life of an heir to a prominent family.
Coincidence?
Sebastian picked up his phone and sent his assistant a message.
[Look into Arianna's whereabouts during the ten months after she left the securities firm. Focus on entry-exit records, bank statements, and social connections. Find her former colleagues at that company. See if anyone knew why she quit.]
After sending the message, Sebastian opened the third file.
This one had been found in the old archives room at the Ashford estate. A yellowed guest registry.
Four years ago, Samuel's engagement party guest list.
Arianna's name was on page nineteen, categorized under "bride's side guests."
In the referral column, one line.
Self-invited.
Sebastian closed the registry.
Self-invited. Not referred by anyone. She'd come on her own.
Four years ago at the engagement party, the Ashford family had arranged security protocols. Self-invited guests required identity verification and basic background checks.
But who'd been in charge of security then?
Sebastian made a call.
Allen's voice came through the receiver.
"Mr. Ashford."
"Allen, you arranged security for my brother's engagement party four years ago?"
Two seconds of silence on the other end. "Yes."
"Who handled Arianna's entry clearance?"
Another two seconds of silence.
"I'll check. What are you looking into?"
"Family business."
Sebastian used the same line he'd given Arianna last time.
He hung up.
Outside the window, the sky had darkened. City lights in the distance lit up one by one, forming a band of warm yellow light.
Sebastian stood at the window, his finger rubbing against his pant seam.
The threads in his mind pulled tighter and tighter.
Arianna hadn't appeared in the Ashford family by chance. Her appearance was premeditated, motivated, with a deliberately erased ten-month gap.
And during that gap, she'd very likely been in contact with someone.
Someone who needed to plant a chess piece inside the Ashford family.
Sebastian's hand withdrew from his pant seam.
He opened his phone and pulled up a screenshot—from the Moonlight Club hallway surveillance, a letter on that cufflink.
W.
---
Three days later.
Jack placed an encrypted USB drive on Sebastian's desk.
"Mr. Ashford, we found some of Arianna's whereabouts during the ten months after she left her job."
Sebastian plugged in the drive and opened the file.
Bank statements.
After Arianna left the securities firm, her salary income stopped. But starting the second month after leaving, a fixed deposit began appearing in her bank account.
$120,000 per month.
The sender was a corporate account.
Account name: BW Business Consulting, LLC.
Sebastian's gaze locked onto the letters "BW" for three seconds.
BW Fund. Brian.
His finger struck the keyboard once.
Jack continued, "BW Business Consulting has registered capital of $500,000. Legal representative is named Mike Smith—as generic a name as they come. The company was established five years ago. Business scope lists business consulting and corporate management. The company has no public office address, no employee social security records, no tax filings for any operational income."