Chapter 6 - The Foundation Office Lobby
The morning sun filtered through the tinted glass facade of the Hale Foundation tower, casting long, sharp shadows across the polished marble lobby. I stood near the directory board, my fingers tucked firmly into the pockets of my trench coat to hide their trembling. Adrian had dropped me two blocks away, wanting to avoid drawing the attention of the private security guards who manned the rotating glass doors. Every instinct I had developed working service jobs told me to keep my head down, to blend into the background and let the rich fight their own battles. But as I thought of Isabella sleeping soundly in Adrian's guest room, surrounded by locked deadbolts and quiet vigilance, I forced myself to walk toward the reception desk.
Maya, one of the junior administrative assistants I had befriended during the charity gala setup, was stationed behind the curved walnut counter. She looked up as my footsteps clicked against the floor, her eyes widening in immediate alarm. She glanced around the cavernous lobby before waving me toward a quiet alcove near the elevator banks.
"Lena? What are you doing here?" Maya whispered, her hands fluttering nervously over a stack of visitor badges. "Building security has been ordered to flag your name. Preston Hale called down here himself about an hour ago. He said you were a terminated vendor and barred from the premises."
"I just need the digital archive logs from the night of the gala, Maya," I said, keeping my voice low and steady. "Just the entrance and exit server logs from the catering prep room. It's the only way to prove he threw that bottle deliberately."
"I shouldn't even be talking to you," she said, biting her lower lip so hard it turned white. Yet she didn't walk away. Instead, she reached into her oversized leather handbag, pulled out a small black flash drive, and slipped it across the marble ledge. "The IT department wiped the main server logs at midnight, but I kept a local backup on my terminal before they locked me out of the system. It's all on there—the camera angles, the catering dispatch logs, everything. Get out of here before security sees you on the lobby cameras."
May you like
I grabbed the flash drive, feeling its cold plastic surface like a lifeline. "Thank you, Maya. If this causes trouble for you—"
"Just make sure it destroys him," she interrupted, turning sharply back toward her desk as a security guard rounded the corner. I didn't wait to see if the guard looked twice; I turned on my heel and walked briskly toward the side exit, my heart hammering against my ribs.
