Page 100 of My Secret Snowflake
“Your mom told me to stop pushing you to do finance. And Annabelle told Neville that his son needed to grow up or get out, and Neville isn’t talking to me, so maybe I’ve been blinded by rose-colored glasses in my view of finance. You actually seem happier in your career than your sister,” my dad says. “She’s furious that she is going to have to spend her vacation here cleaning up Nathan’s mess. But at least we caught it in time—because you warned us that he can’t be trusted.”
They caught it in time. Again. At least my warnings helped.
“Oh, no,” I say. “I should call Annabelle. Is she okay?”
“I told her Neville and I would do it.”
“Can you handle that?”
“I can and I will,” my dad says. “Maybe I was hoping she would come back here. I should’ve stepped in earlier. She said that at least now she can attend some of the holiday parties in London before she flies home for Christmas.”
“I wish she would move back,” I say. Annabelle flies home frequently because of the New York office and New York deals, but it would be even better if she lived here.
We talk about the dog park renovation, and then my father says he knows I have to go back to work because I keep checking my phone.
“I’m sorry,” I say but don’t mention I keep scanning for updates from Iris.
“I’m sure I did it to you when you were a child, which is even worse,” he says.
“Can I ask you to do a huge favor for me?” I ask. “It’s a Christmas present for Iris.”
Chapter thirty
Iris
Mylawyer—oneofTessa’sfriends—and I meet Priya at a corner café in midtown across from Carnegie Hall. The windows have been spraypainted with snowflakes and green pine boughs. Inside it’s relatively empty at this hour. In the corner sits an older woman reading a newspaper; a family speaking French sits at another table. My lawyer reviews Priya’s agreement (signed by Kevin) with Dream Company to make sure they can’t proceed against her.
“The job was pretty straightforward, except for your traps. They were very sophisticated. I was bummed I got caught by them,” Priya says. “That’s when I thought—this team obviously has some serious cyber credentials. I did a search and saw that Raphael worked there. But I still wasn’t suspicious—until Kevin had no interest in how I got in. Absolutely none. He totally zoned out. He clearly just wanted the PowerPoint.”
She sips her coffee.
“I’m pretty good at reading people, because hacking involves so much social engineering. I called Raphael, and he was completely unaware that I’d been hired to do this, which makes sense if I’m pen testing, but once I told him they asked me to get the CEO’s PowerPoint, he was like,I don’t know, That doesn’t seem legit. Then I sent him copies of the two PowerPoints I’d exfiltrated.”
She hands those over. They’re the two documents I found in the file titled Zero Trust.
“He said you’d set up the traps and he was going to talk to you, that I shouldn’t do anything further, and that you guys would reach back out to me. That’s the last I heard before you emailed me. But he also emailed me last night, asking me to talk to you because he was no longer working at Dream and had signed an NDA.”
Thank you, Raphael. Raphael did intend to tell me. And he did get my message.
Priya then shows us a copy of the company check she received. She also agrees to join us at our meeting with Dream Company.
I am in the clear.
Theviewofmidtownfrom this law firm’s conference room is very different from the view we see from our offices in Chelsea.Ha. Our offices. Not so much anymore.
“They’re here,” my lawyer says. Priya, my lawyer, and I take our seats at the conference table in a row facing the door.
Bob and Xavier enter. We stand and shake hands across the table, but the atmosphere is still frosty—at least from our side. Xavier smiles and tries to make some small talk, but my lawyer shuts him down pretty quickly by saying we’re delighted they could join us on such short notice to discuss the false allegations against her client.
“Yes, we agree that they were false,” Xavier says hurriedly.
“Raphael will be here momentarily. He’s been released from his NDA,” Bob adds.
“Great. Then this should be relatively smooth,” my lawyer says.
Priya shows her agreement and the check to Bob and Xavier and explains that she was the one who did the hacking. Bob confirms that Colby authorized the check payment and then replaced the funds. “Sebastian and Aaron found these documents.”
My heart warms to hear Sebastian’s name.
