Chapter 91
Emily
Julian knocked once on the edge of the open door before stepping to my office, already smiling like we were old friends rather than colleagues with entirely different agendas.
“You’ve been busy,” he said lightly, nodding toward the half–open folders scattered across my desk. “Press tours, sanctuary visits… You’re practically Titanfang’s new favorite figurehead.”
I didn’t look up from the page I was reviewing. “Careful, Julian. That sounds dangerously close to flattery.”
He laughed, stepping further in without being invited. “I’m not buttering you up. I’m just impressed. After everything with the press, you handled the optics well. Even the Luna’s are talking about it.”
That made me look at him. “Are they?”
He hesitated just long enough to confirm it wasn’t a casual comment. “Unofficially. But yes. Your Sanctuary appearance did more than just smooth over bad headlines.”
I didn’t answer, letting the silence stretch between us while I capped my pen and slid the open folder aside.
Julian shifted on his feet. “That’s actually part of why I stopped by I wanted to… give you a heads–up.”
“About what?”
He pulled a folded printout from his back pocket and placed it on the edge of my desk like it might explode.
“I overheard that the internal auditors are moving up their quarterly sweep. Logistics, finance, the whole kitchen sink. A few of your reports are part of the sample pull.”
My jaw stayed set. “That’s standard.”
“It is.” He scratched the back of his neck, glancing toward the hallway like he was about to be caught. “But I’ve seen how these things get framed. A single discrepancy in a line item becomes a scandal if the timing’s bad enough.”
My stomach tightened.
Julian leaned in slightly, voice dropping. “You’ve already had a target on your back for weeks. You don’t need someone turning an error into a weapon.”
I nodded slowly. “I’ve triple–checked every outgoing report.”
“I’m sure you have,” he said, his tone oddly warm. “You’re meticulous. But not everyone playing this game wants to play fair.”
There it was again, that over–rehearsed quality to his voice. Too smooth. It wasn’t the words that put me on edge. It wa he said them, just a little too perfectly.
“Thank you for the warning,” I said carefully. “I’ll keep it in mind.
eway
He hesitated a moment longer, as if waiting for something. Maybe gratitude. Instead, I turned back to my work. He took the hint
and started to leave.
At the door, he paused again. “I mean it, Emily. You deserve better than this constant scrutiny.”
He left before I could respond. The silence that followed had my questioning why he was warning me about this.
I stared at the printout he’d left. My name circled on the audit notice like a target. He was right: the timing was suspicious.
And the more I thought about it, the more I realized: Julian shouldn’t have had access to this document at all.
I opened my laptop and pulled up the access logs for the finance system. My fingers moved without hesitation, typing in my clearance credentials and filtering for Julian’s activity.
Chapter 91
Nothing Jumped out immediately. But that didn’t mean much.
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Tclicked open a blank document. Begani noting times. Files. Logins Just a shadow trail, but enough to tell me if I was imagining things or not.
Part of me still wanted to believe he was being kind. That he was just another assistant trying to make his way in a palace full of predators.
But I’d been wrong before. About Iris and where that could have gone. This time, I would keep receipts. Every single one.
As it turned out, Julian wasn’t wrong. The audit came faster than expected.
By the end of the week, internal memos were circulating, document requests were being submitted, and staff had begun walking on metaphorical eggshells.
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