The rose macaron was perfect—flaky shell melting on his tongue, filling with just the right balance of sweet and floral. Avery ate it slowly at Eric's desk, watching his friend sort through blueprints spread across every available surface.
"Okay, fine—no more pigeon talk," Eric said, sliding a second macaron across the desk anyway. "But you're gonna want to hear about this." He tapped one of the blueprints. "The Orion Project. Remember how we pitched it as the biggest launch in Stellar Crest history?"
Avery picked up the second macaron, pausing before he took a bite. "The smart city initiative. You've been working on it for eight months."
"Nine, actually. And we're scheduled to break ground next week." Eric leaned back in his chair, his usual easy grin replaced by a tight line around his mouth. "Got an email this morning from Legal. Someone filed an anonymous tip with the SEC—claims we've been inflating projected returns to secure investor funding. They say the project is riddled with kickbacks and cost overruns."
Avery set the macaron down. The sweet taste suddenly felt heavy in his mouth. "Who's making the claim?"
"No one knows. Tip came through a secure portal—all they'll say is the source has 'direct knowledge' of irregularities in our financials."
"Have you seen any evidence of this?"
"Of course not." Eric stood, pacing the small office. "I've gone over every single contract, every invoice, every transfer. We're running leaner than the board wanted—had to fight tooth and nail to keep costs down while still meeting our sustainability goals."
Avery stood too, his mind already shifting into audit mode. "Who else has access to your financial records?"
"Marcus Webb for one—he was handling marketing budget allocations for Orion before you… reassigned him. Plus the executive team, my project coordinators, and—"
"The CEO's office."
Eric stopped pacing. "Yeah. Richard Hayes has been breathing down my neck to get investors on board. Kept pushing for higher return projections, but I held firm to the numbers we actually had."
The elevator down the hall dinged. A moment later, the door to Eric's office swung open without knocking.
"Gentlemen." Richard Hayes stood in the doorway—silver-haired, immaculate in a custom Italian suit, his eyes sharp as glass. Even at sixty-five, he carried himself with the authority of a man who'd built Stellar Crest from a small startup to the nation's largest tech conglomerate.
"Mr. Hayes," Avery said, straightening his suit jacket automatically.
"Close the door, Eric." The CEO stepped into the room, his gaze moving between the two men. "I just got off the phone with the board. They've instructed me to put someone in charge of investigating the SEC tip." He paused, letting his eyes settle on Avery. "Cole—you're the best auditor we have. I want you to lead the investigation.
Avery felt the air go still in the room. "Sir—Eric is my best friend. There's a conflict of interest."
"Which is exactly why you're the right person for the job." Hayes moved to the window, looking out over the city. "No one else would be thorough enough to uncover the truth, whatever it may be. And no one else would be impartial enough to act on it."
"I'm not going to—"
"I know you won't," Hayes cut him off. "That's why I'm trusting you. The investigation starts immediately. You'll have full access to every record related to the Orion Project. No exceptions."
He turned back to them, his expression serious. "If these claims are true, Stellar Crest could face fines that would cripple us. If they're false… someone's trying to destroy this company from the inside. Either way, I need answers before we break ground next week."
With that, he left, closing the door softly behind him.
An hour later, Avery sat in his office surrounded by stacks of files—every single document related to the Orion Project. Maya stood in the doorway, watching him sort through them with a worried look on her face.
"Boss… are you really going to audit Eric?"
"I'm going to audit the Orion Project." He didn't look up from the spreadsheet in front of him. "The fact that my best friend is in charge of it is irrelevant."
"Right." She hesitated. "I found something you should see. In the vendor contracts—there's a company listed as 'Veridian Solutions' that's been providing materials for the project. I ran a background check—they're registered to a PO box in Delaware, no website, no public records of any employees."
Avery finally looked up. "How much have we paid them?"
"Twenty-seven million dollars over the past three months. All wired to an offshore account in the Caymans."
He stood, grabbing his suit jacket. "Where's Eric now?"
"On the twentieth floor—meeting with the design team to finalize the smart grid plans."
Avery was already heading for the door. "Call IT—have them pull every email, every message, every file related to Veridian Solutions. I want it all on my desk in thirty minutes."
The twentieth floor was chaos—architects huddled over models, engineers arguing over schematics, whiteboards covered in equations and diagrams. Avery spotted Eric across the room, talking intently with a woman in a hard hat who was gesturing wildly at a scale model of the Orion development.
She saw him first—dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, sharp green eyes that assessed him in an instant. "You must be the auditor everyone's talking about."
"Charlotte Reeves," Eric said, stepping away from the model to meet Avery halfway. "She's our lead civil engineer on Orion."
Charlotte offered her hand—calloused and strong from working on construction sites. "I've heard you're thorough. Good—we need that right now."
"Eric," Avery said, ignoring the handshake. "We need to talk. Privately."
The easy warmth in Eric's eyes cooled. "Now?"
"Now."
They stepped into a small conference room off the main floor. Avery closed the door behind them.
"Veridian Solutions. Where did they come from?"
Eric's jaw tightened. "They were recommended by Hayes. Said they could get us materials at half the market rate—needed to keep costs down so we could hit our sustainability targets."
"Did you verify their credentials?"
"Of course I did. Or… I tried to. Every time I asked for more information, Hayes said it was 'proprietary' and that he'd handled all the due diligence himself." He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "I should've pushed harder. I know I should've."
"Did you know the payments were going offshore?"
"No." Eric leaned against the table, his voice low. "Avery—you have to believe me. I'd never do anything to hurt this company. Or put you in a position like this."
Avery looked at his friend—saw the stress lines he'd never noticed before, the dark circles under his eyes from months of long nights. They'd been through everything together—failed exams, bad breakups, even a near-bankruptcy when Eric's first startup collapsed. He'd never known Eric to lie.
But the numbers didn't lie either. Twenty-seven million dollars to a company that didn't exist. Transfers approved by Eric's digital signature.
"I believe you," Avery said finally. "But belief doesn't change facts. I have to follow the trail wherever it leads."
"I know." Eric pushed off the table, straightening up. "Then let's follow it together. If Hayes is involved—if someone in the executive team is setting me up—we need to find out before they bury us both."
Before Avery could respond, his phone buzzed. Maya's name flashed on the screen.
"Boss," she said without preamble. "I found something else. The emails authorizing payments to Veridian—they look like they came from Eric's account, but our IT guy says they were spoofed. Someone used a deep fake to mimic his signature and email address."
Avery looked at Eric, who was watching him with a mix of hope and fear.
"Maya," he said, his voice steady. "Start digging into everyone who had access to Eric's system logs. And pull all communication between Hayes and any offshore accounts. We're not just auditing a project anymore—we're hunting a thief."
As they left the conference room, Charlotte Reeves was waiting for them, her hard hat tucked under her arm.
"I know who Veridian Solutions is," she said, her voice low. "Or at least, who's really behind them. Marcus Webb—your former marketing head? His brother owns a construction company that lost the Orion bid to us. I heard him bragging at an industry gala last month that he'd 'make sure we never broke ground.'"
Eric swore under his breath. "So he faked the tip, spoofed my emails, and set me up to take the fall."
"Maybe." Charlotte's green eyes were sharp. "Or maybe he's just a pawn. Someone with enough money and power could easily pull strings like that."
Avery pulled out his silver pen, twirling it between his fingers—a habit he had when he was putting pieces together. Marcus Webb. Richard Hayes. An offshore account. A project that could make or break the company.
And his best friend, standing beside him, with his entire career on the line.
"Okay," he said, looking from Eric to Charlotte. "Here's what we're going to do…"