Chapter 11 - Decryption
The screen of the learning tablet flickered to life, bypassing the colorful interface and opening a complex green command terminal. Lines of code scrolled down the small display at blinding speed as the chip’s encryption keys began to unlock the hidden partitions within the memory drive.
As the data decrypted, files began to populate the screen—scanned documents, recorded audio files, and signed contracts dating back over a decade. Lily scrolled past the complex financial terminology, searching for specific names her mother had trained her to recognize. The primary name attached to the illegal offshore transfers was not Claire Carrington, nor was it Ethan.
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The master signature on the account documents belonged to Vance Holdings—the private firm owned by Julian Vance, her father’s most trusted advisor. But beneath Julian's signature was a secondary co-signer, a quiet partner who held forty percent of the equity and had authorized every single withdrawal since Catherine’s death.
The secondary signature was written in a stylish, flowing script: Claire Montgomery—Claire’s maiden name, signed two full years before she had ever met Ethan Carrington. The entire marriage, the meeting at the charity gala, and her entry into the family had not been a coincidence; it was a long-term corporate infiltration designed to liquidate the Carrington estate from the inside out.
