Chapter 23 23

Chapter 23 23
Adrien's POV
Half an hour later, I walked into my office and found three familiar faces waiting: my brothers.

“Hello,” I smirked. “Jesus, you’ve both gotten uglier since I last saw you. Didn’t think that was possible.”

They chuckled, and we hugged. I missed them. Their roles in the company kept them in the London office; I only got to see them once a month. Matt stayed longer when he visited, so he got more time with them.

I slapped the Morning Ledger onto my desk. “What the hell is this?”

“Fucking hell,” Matt whispered as we all took seats around the board table.

“What’s going on?” Elliot snapped. “I don’t believe this.”

I exhaled heavily. “We got a new staff member—Karin Ellis.”

Matt smirked. I rolled my eyes. “And?” Christopher interrupted.

“She ran a story on her second day and wasn’t sure of the suspect’s name, so she made one up on the spot, planning to change it later. Only she forgot.”

They frowned.

“Jesus.” Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose. “Useless.”

“No,” Matt corrected. “Diabolical. The exact same story ran in the Morning Ledger the next day… with the bogus name.”

Elliot and Christopher exchanged glances.

“How do you know this?” Christopher asked.

“I know the reporter. We met a while ago.” I paused, not wanting to elaborate.

“You know who she is?” Matt smirked.

“Who?” Elliot’s eyes flicked between us.

“Remember ages ago when Rien got a motherfucking huge hickey?” Their faces fell. “No.”

Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose again. “Please… don’t tell me.” He laughed out loud. “What did you call it? Stopover shame?”

“I had to wear a turtleneck for two weeks.” I sighed.

“Remember the black-tie dinner for Mom’s charity?” Matt threw his head back laughing. “And you had the hugest hickey anyone had ever seen. You had to hide from Mom all night, wear cover-up… that was hilarious.”

“Mortifying,” I shivered at the memory. “Anyway, back to the story.” I glared at Matt. “Karin—that’s her name—started three weeks ago. This mishap with the name wasn’t coincidence. She came to me suspecting something fishy: a fake name wasn’t random.” I looked at my brothers. “Our stories are being sold on the black market.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Elliot snapped.

“Our share prices are dropping because we’re no longer breaking news,” Matt added.

“Because the reporters we pay are working for our competition,” Elliot said, shaking his head.

Matt snapped. “We tested it this week. We got Karin to write a bogus story through normal channels… and look.” I hit the paper with my fingers. “Page three of the Morning Ledger.”

They all stared, deep in thought.

“So… what do we do?”

“Firing everyone works for me,” I snapped.

“No. We do this properly. There are a hundred people on that floor, not to mention IT and the mailroom.”

The brothers chattered, discussing options. I pushed the intercom. “Can we get Richard from Legal up here, please?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Should Karin write another story so we can track it more closely?” Elliot asked,
“No,” I snapped. “I don’t want her involved again. I don’t want her up here at all.”

Matt smirked.

“I’m going to wipe that stupid smirk off your face in a minute,” I shot back.

“Scared she’s going to give you another hickey?” Elliot joked. “Must have some pretty good suction going on.”

They all laughed.

I glared at him. “Cut the shit. I’m not in the fucking mood today.”

A knock came at the door. “Come in,” I called.

Richard appeared. “Please, take a seat.”

“How can I help you?” he asked with a polite smile.

“We have reason to believe someone on the news floor is selling our stories to a competitor. How do we legally handle this?”

Richard frowned, glancing between us. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He exhaled, thinking. “Well… you’d hire a corporate investigation firm.”

“What do they do?” I asked.

“They’re business-centric. They verify business partners or deals, look into theft or loss of proprietary information, identify potential risks to reputation—things like that.”

“No,” I stood. “I don’t want strangers sniffing around. What if the story leaks? It’ll do more damage than good.”

“With all due respect, Adrien, I don’t see another option,” Richard said calmly.

“Do you know any?” Matt asked.

“No. But I can find someone.”

“I don’t like it.”

“They’re professionals,” Richard said. “They handle this kind of thing all the time. You won’t even know they’re in the building.”

“How does it work?”

“They usually go undercover, act as regular employees while they watch and trace activities.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ridiculous. This isn’t a fucking MacGyver episode.”

I looked at my brothers, knowing I’d been cornered. There was no way around it. I had to concede. “Fine.”