Chapter 7 - THE OWNER’S SON
Northstar was privately owned.
That mattered.
Thomas Grant and Evelyn Pierce founded it twenty-three years earlier.
They built the company from a four-person sales consultancy into a national services organization with nearly six hundred employees.
Thomas’s son, Andrew Grant, joined sales operations three years earlier.
Twenty-seven.
Quiet.
Analytical.
Generally disliked by managers because he asked why reports contained manual overrides.
Rachel had never spoken to him much.
Then Andrew appeared beside her desk one Friday morning.
“Do you have five minutes?”
Rachel’s stomach tightened.
“Sure.”
They went to an empty meeting room.
Andrew closed the door.
“Why did you request old incentive reports?”
Rachel studied him.
“Why do you know?”
“Because the request hit an exception log.”
“Does Bianca know?”
“Probably not.”
Good.
Andrew sat.
“I’ve been reviewing manual revenue adjustments.”
Rachel said nothing.
He continued.
“We have too many.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
“Under Bianca?”
Andrew looked at her.
“That’s what I’m trying to determine.”
Rachel made a decision.
Not full trust.
Enough.
She showed him three screenshots.
Andrew’s expression changed.
“Where did you get these?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Mia.”
He looked concerned.
“Keep her name out of this for now.”
Rachel nodded.
Andrew zoomed in.
“This is bad.”
“You think?”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“I mean technically bad.”
He explained.
Department heads could modify provisional attribution.
But once deals were booked, certain changes required sales-operations approval.
The screenshots showed changes made after finalization.
That should have been impossible through Bianca’s normal permissions.
“She has elevated access?”
“Or someone gave it to her.”
“Who can?”
“Operations administrator.”
“Who is that?”
Andrew did not answer immediately.
Rachel understood.
“Someone close to her.”
Andrew said:
“Mark Delaney.”
Director of Sales Operations.
Forty-five.
Married.
Two children.
Always sat beside Bianca at leadership dinners.
Rachel had never thought anything of it.
Andrew continued.
“Mark approved the access extension eleven months ago.”
Exactly when Rachel’s numbers began collapsing.
“Why?”
“Officially? Reporting efficiency.”
“Unofficially?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel did.
Or at least suspected.
Bianca needed system access to change closed results.
Mark gave it to her.
Then Rachel remembered something else.
Mark had personally rejected three of her commission disputes.
She opened old emails.
Same language every time.
Reviewed and validated. No adjustment required.
Validated by the man who granted Bianca the access.
Rachel looked at Andrew.
“You need to audit both of them.”
“I already started.”
Her heart quickened.
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Why?”
Andrew hesitated.
“Because money is missing.”
Rachel stared.
“From commissions?”
“No.”
“Where?”
“Client rebates.”
That was the first time anyone said the word fraud aloud.
Not manipulation.
May you like
Not bullying.
Fraud.
