Bound To The Broken Alpha (Amy and Daniel) novel Chapter 177

Chapter 177 More Fraudulent Acts

AMY

The board meeting later that afternoon focused on the withdrawals. Mrs. Carter laid out the audit findings and froze accounts tied to the shell companies. She instructed the legal team to prepare subpoenas in case the paper trails led to identifiable entities.

The language was careful, professional. It had to be. If the public smelled the pack’s tensions, Elias would have the advantage of chaos.

When I returned to my desk late in the day, my inbox held one new message. No signature, no header, just a single line.

“Stop searching for Marielle or Daniel will pay for it.”

I read it twice, then three times, as if the words would change. I felt the old, raw terror of fear, but it was distant and precise. Elias knew how to threaten. He knew how to place leverage where it hurt most.

I stood up, closed my laptop without replying, and walked to the window. The city was a grid of office lights. The threat was specific and immediate. It named Daniel, not me. That was deliberate. Whoever sent it wanted me to make a choice.

I had no intention of stopping. The only response I considered was the one that gave me more control, not less.

I turned back to the desk and typed a single line into a secure file: trace sender. Then I encrypted it and sent it to Brian with instructions: find the origin, whether southern relay or local operator. Find who made it possible, and nail them publicly if possible.

Elias wanted us to stop. That was either arrogance or fear. Either way, he had underestimated me.

Daniel didn’t waste a second after that email. By dawn, he had doubled the guards at the estate, locked down communication lines, and issued strict orders that I was not to step out alone, not even to the garden, Brian and Cole became my shadows, hovering close enough that I could hear them breathe. It felt suffocating, but after what happened, I couldn’t argue. Whoever sent that message knew too much.

Still, I hated the feeling of being handled. Every time I moved, one of them followed. Even in the office, their presence drew stares. Cole kept scanning corners like we were in enemy territory, Brian stood near the windows, arms crossed, eyes cold. I buried myself in Carter Holdings‘ files, pretending not to notice the way Daniel’s orders trailed behind me.

The deeper I dug, the more the numbers stopped making sense. Elias wasn’t just bleeding the company, he was twisting its arteries. Dozens of fake companies tied to legitimate Northern contractors, each one siphoning small amounts, just under audit thresholds. It was a quiet, methodical theft and the money always ended up in shell accounts linked to his network.

Mrs. Carter summoned me mid–morning. The tension in her office was heavy enough to taste. She stood by the window, her usual grace strained by fatigue.

“Amy,” she said without turning, “I’ve started reviewing the board’s communications. Some of them have ties I don’t like.”

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08:49 Mon, Jan 12

Chapter 177 More Fraudulent Acts

I closed the door–behind me. “You think someone inside is feeding information to Elias?”

FX Finished

Her silence was enough. When she finally turned, her expression was hard. “One of our board members has been in contact with someone using the alias ‘C.L. The messages are encrypted, but the initials alone…”

“Clara,” Isaid before she could finish. My stomach twisted. “It has to be her. She’s too careful to use her full name, but not careful enough to hide her hand completely.”

Mrs. Carter nodded grimly. “That’s what I fear. If she’s inside our network, the leak isn’t new, it’s been ongoing.”

I felt the room tilt slightly. “Then Elias isn’t the only one coming for us. Clara’s playing her own game.”

“She always has,” Mrs. Carter murmured. “Be cautious whom you trust. The rot may already be at our table.”

That warning stuck with me long after I left her office.

By afternoon, chaos struck. Clara moved first. Half our internal communications were hit with a data breach, selected files released to the press. Not everything, just enough to paint a picture. Fake invoices. Misleading transfers. The headlines came fast: Carter Holdings under fire for Southern manipulation.

It didn’t take long for the board to panic. By evening, an emergency meeting was called, and the tension was so thick it was almost physical. Voices clashed across the conference room table. Words like “conflict of interest,” “breach of ethics,” and “leadership crisis” filled the air.

Daniel sat at the head of the table, calm but unreadable. When someone suggested I step down pending investigation, he slammed his hand against the table hard enough to make everyone jump.

“She’s not the problem,” he said. “She’s the reason we even know about this.”

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