Chapter 162: The Money Never Stopped

Chapter 162: Chapter 162: The Money Never Stopped

"Miles Calloway equals the cover-up." Ben tapped the whiteboard with his marker.

"Kessler Sports Consulting equals the money trail." Daisy read the next line aloud.

The newsroom was empty except for the two of them.

"We know Miles approved the changes," Daisy pointed out. "We proved that yesterday."

"The missing piece is the destination," Ben said. "Where did the money go?"

Ben sat down at his desk and pulled up the old Kessler transaction logs. He traced the lines of data they had salvaged.

"Calloway Football Group routed the funds to Kessler," Ben noted. "Kessler routed them to a secondary corporate entity."

"The second company was dissolved years ago," Daisy reminded him.

"Look at the banking data." Ben tapped his screen.

Daisy leaned over his shoulder. Her eyes scanned the routing numbers. She froze.

"The company disappeared. The account didn’t."

Ben nodded. "It stayed active."

"Can we pull the historical banking documentation?" Daisy asked.

Ben submitted a request through the old records portal. The screen loaded a fractured page of data.

"Transfer authorization," Daisy read.

She scanned the approval line. It did not list Miles by name. It showed the transfer was approved through a senior executive authorization channel.

"Executive Administration," Daisy concluded. "That’s Miles."

"It’s a connection." Ben kept his eyes on the screen. "Not proof."

Daisy let out a frustrated sigh. "I know."

She moved back to her own laptop. She pulled up the timeline they built the day before. She cross-referenced the bank authorization date with the internal Calloway changes.

"Ben, look at this."

He rolled his chair over.

"The suspicious transfer happened right before the records were altered to implicate Mason," Daisy explained.

Ben stared at the dates.

"The money wasn’t moved after Miles discovered Mercer’s complaint," Daisy said. "The financial movement and the cover-up happened in the same narrow period."

"Miles wasn’t just cleaning up an old scandal," Ben realized. "He was protecting an active financial operation."

He looked back at the whiteboard.

"Mercer found the money," Ben listed. "Miles buried Mercer’s complaint. Then Mason’s name appeared in the records."

"And the money kept moving," Daisy finished.

"Track the dissolved company’s registration history," Ben instructed.

Daisy typed rapidly. "They used a registered contact service. An administrative hub." She ran the address. "Another company shares the same hub."

"Are they active?"

"Yes." Daisy read the screen. "And they hold a current vendor contract with a firm tied to Miles’s executive network."

It wasn’t enough to expose Miles publicly. But they had a target.

Ben stood up. He uncapped his marker and wrote on the whiteboard.

WHO RECEIVED MERCER’S MONEY?

He drew a thick circle around it.

The clock on the wall read two in the morning.

Daisy watched Ben reach toward the bottom drawer of his desk. She knew the gesture perfectly.

"Don’t," Daisy warned.

Ben paused. His hand hovered over the metal handle. "I wasn’t doing anything."

Daisy reached over and pulled the drawer open. Three red lollipops sat next to a stack of sticky notes. She raised an eyebrow.

"You were looking for one."

Ben took a lollipop. He unwrapped it and put it in his mouth. "They’re working."

She smiled. "Good."

The quiet settled between them. The frantic energy of the investigation faded into a comfortable, familiar silence.

Daisy gathered the printed files to put them away. A faded sheet near the bottom of the stack caught her eye.

"Wait," Daisy said. "Look at this payment authorization."

Most of the ink was damaged by poor scanning. One field remained legible.

AUTHORIZED BY: M.C.

Daisy stared at the initials.

"Don’t assume it’s Mason," Ben said immediately.

They checked the date printed in the top corner. It predated the Mason cover-up by six months.

Ben pulled up the archived executive records. "Mason was still playing university football."

"Miles was the executive with the authority to approve this tier of transaction during this period," Daisy noted.

They had a financial authorization tied to the same operation Miles later covered up.

Ben closed the digital file. "We need the original authorization."

"Where?" Daisy asked.

Ben looked at the archive records on the screen. "Wherever Miles thought nobody would look."

Daisy’s phone vibrated on the desk.

She picked it up. A text message from an unknown number glowed on the screen.

Stop digging into Kessler.

She showed the phone to Ben.

He didn’t make a sarcastic joke this time. He just looked at the glowing text. Then he looked at the whiteboard. His eyes stopped on the name..

MILES CALLOWAY.

Miles sat across from Vanessa in the private dining room of an upscale downtown restaurant.

They were discussing their upcoming marriage. Vanessa’s family brought wealth and political influence. The union reinforced the social and corporate alliance between their families. It was an arrangement of power.

Vanessa took a sip of her wine. She brought up the topic Miles had been ignoring all evening.

"I still don’t understand what Mason sees in her."

Miles glanced at her. "Audrey?"

"Who else?" Vanessa said. "She’s a sports journalist. She doesn’t come from our world. And Mason is supposed to be running one of the largest divisions in the company. He needs someone who understands what that position requires, not someone who creates complications."

Miles did not immediately defend Audrey. He did not particularly care about Audrey herself.

"Why would Mason choose someone like that?" Vanessa pressed.

Miles took a slow sip of his water.

"He always has been stubborn," Miles replied.

"Stubborn is fine for a teenager," Vanessa argued. "It is reckless for an executive. I do not intend to simply sit back and watch her interfere with Mason. Not when it reflects on all of us."

Miles picked up his fork. "You can deal with her however you please."

A small smile touched Vanessa’s lips.

Miles looked down at his plate. His thoughts drifted away from the dinner conversation and landed on the structural reality of his family.

Richard Calloway was his father.

Miles’s mother had been Richard’s first wife. After their marriage ended, Richard married Victoria, and Victoria became Mason’s mother.

Mason was his half-brother.

The distinction had never mattered to Miles when they were children. It mattered now.

That distinction changed the family hierarchy forever. Miles had been part of the company long before Mason even graduated university. He had put in the hours. He had done the grueling, invisible work required to keep Calloway Football Group functioning.

Then Richard and Victoria positioned Mason for the top.

Miles remained inside the company, working in Executive Administration. But Mason had become the family’s chosen successor. Everyone treated him like the golden child preparing to take the throne.

"Do you think Mason will actually marry her?" Vanessa asked, breaking into his thoughts.

Miles looked at her.

"Mason can marry whoever he wants," Miles said.

A pause stretched between them.

"It doesn’t change what belongs to this family."

His phone vibrated in his suit pocket.

Miles pulled it out.

’The journalists are still digging.’

His expression hardened.

"Then they’re getting closer than they should."