My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 57

“I… I just wanted to make sure I understood everything,” I murmured.

That wasn’t exactly a lie. Understanding the system was the easy part. It was the talking that felt like walking across ice. Aileen nodded slightly, like she understood more than I had actually said.

“The Midland Trust team arrived about ten minutes ago,” she explained, “They’re setting up in Conference Room Three. Mr. Capone will be there in a moment.”

My stomach flipped again, “Okay.”

Aileen studied me quietly for a second, “You’ll do fine,” she said gently.

I nodded once, “I hope so.”

She stepped aside slightly and gestured toward the hallway, “Come on. We shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

My shoes clicked softly against the polished floor as we walked. Aileen stopped beside the door and turned to me.

Her voice lowered slightly, “They’re a little intense,” she admitted quietly. “Bank executives usually are, just explain the model the way you showed it in the internal briefing,” she said, “You know it better than anyone. Ready?"

Was I ready?

No.

Not even a little.

My stepbrother probably wanted to strangle me.

My professor expected me to survive this internship.

And a room full of bank executives were about to judge a system I had built.

My stomach churned but I straightened my shoulders slightly and nodded.

“Yes.”

Aileen opened the door. The conference room smelled faintly like coffee and polished wood.

A long glass table stretched across the center of the room. Screens glowed softly on the wall, waiting for the presentation to begin. Three men and a woman sat on the far side of the table, their laptops open, folders spread neatly in front of them.

Bank people.

Aileen stepped aside so I could walk in first. I placed my laptop on the table near the screen and opened it with fingers that tried very hard not to shake. The presentation file blinked to life. Blue graphs. Clean charts.

Numbers I understood, I forced myself to breathe slowly.

The door opened again behind me. I didn’t have to turn to know who it was.

The quiet conversations stopped when Raphael Capone entered a room.

My eyes flicked to the notes on my laptop.

“The system monitors long-term customer behavior patterns,” I continued, forcing the words out slowly. “Spending habits, travel locations, and device login history.”

My voice steadied a little as I spoke.

“When behavior suddenly changes from the user’s normal pattern, the system increases the risk score.”

One of the men nodded slightly. I clicked to the next slide.

“This model focuses on predicting risk before the transaction happens,” I said.

My finger pointed lightly toward the graph.

“It detects deviations earlier than traditional fraud systems, which usually react after suspicious activity already occurs.”

So far so good.

The numbers made sense in my head. I could see the logic clearly. The woman across the table leaned forward slightly.

“How early are we talking about?” she asked.