Chapter 4 - SOMEONE USED AALIYAH’S OWN LOGIN TO MAKE HER LOOK GUILTY
The first sign that someone knew Northline was looking came on Thursday morning.
Aaliyah’s badge stopped working.
She stood outside the seventh-floor doors and tapped again.
Red.
Again.
Red.
A security officer approached.
“Ms. Carter?”
“Yes.”
“Come with me.”
Her stomach dropped.
She had been employed nine days.
This was how EastPoint ended.
A conference room waited.
Janine.
Naomi Fields.
Victor Chen.
And a man from cybersecurity.
No Darius.
Again.
Good and terrible.
Naomi spoke first.
“At 2:14 this morning, your account accessed the vendor-master system.”
Aaliyah stared.
“I was asleep.”
“From your laptop.”
“My laptop is here.”
“Yes.”
“It remained docked overnight.”
“Correct.”
She looked at Janine.
“Then somebody used it.”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
Naomi’s voice stayed calm.
“We have to investigate without assuming.”
Aaliyah felt anger rise.
“I have worked here nine days.”
“I flagged payments.”
“Now my account accesses vendor records at two in morning.”
“I know how this looks.”
Janine nodded.
“So do we.”
“Am I fired?”
“No.”
“Suspended?”
“Paid administrative leave until we confirm.”
Aaliyah closed eyes.
Daycare.
Rent.
Formula.
Paid.
Good.
Still humiliation.
“Can I see what was accessed?”
Cybersecurity analyst answered:
“Three vendor profiles.”
“Changes?”
“One bank-routing attempt.”
“Blocked by secondary controls.”
“Which vendor?”
“Horizon Mile Services.”
One of suspicious ones.
Aaliyah laughed once.
No humor.
“That is convenient.”
“Yes.”
Naomi said.
“Very.”
Aaliyah leaned back.
“Do you believe I did it?”
Janine answered before legal.
“No.”
Naomi looked toward her.
Janine continued:
“But belief is not process.”
Aaliyah held her gaze.
That was right.
Painful.
Right.
“Okay.”
She handed badge.
“No.”
Janine said.
“Keep it.”
“Access temporarily disabled.”
Aaliyah slipped badge into bag.
On the way out, elevator opened.
Darius stood inside.
He saw her face.
Then Janine behind.
“What happened?”
Janine said:
“Her account was compromised.”
Darius’s expression hardened.
“Compromised or used?”
“Under investigation.”
Aaliyah stepped into elevator.
“Don’t.”
Darius looked at her.
“What?”
“Do not go upstairs and order everyone to believe me.”
His jaw tightened.
“I wasn’t.”
“You were thinking it.”
He almost smiled despite situation.
“Yes.”
Aaliyah looked toward doors.
“If I’m innocent, the system should prove it.”
“And if it can’t?”
“Then your system is worse than I thought.”
Elevator doors closed.
Darius stood beside her.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
She answered.
“Good.”
“What?”
“I’m tired of saying yes.”
Fair.
He nodded.
When lobby doors opened, he asked:
“Do you have ride?”
Aaliyah laughed.
“No.”
“Bus.”
“Can I—”
“No.”
He stopped.
Then:
“Okay.”
That mattered.
She walked toward bus stop.
Darius watched from glass doors.
Not following.
Learning.
The investigation took forty-eight hours.
Cybersecurity found Aaliyah’s account credentials had not been used normally.
A service-admin token cloned her session after she left work.
The token originated from a procurement-floor workstation.
Then the activity tunneled through her docked laptop.
Someone wanted logs to show Aaliyah.
The specific workstation belonged to a shared executive assistant pool supporting Calvin Ross and Celeste Ward.
No individual yet.
Aaliyah was cleared.
Janine called personally.
“You can return Monday.”
Aaliyah exhaled.
“Thank you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For investigating?”
“No.”
“For the fact someone tried to use you as cover.”
Aaliyah became quiet.
Then:
“I’ve had practice.”
EastPoint.
Exactly.
Monday morning Darius asked for ten minutes.
Aaliyah agreed only with Janine present.
Good.
He sat across conference table.
“I want to apologize.”
“For what?”
“Not the leave.”
“That was correct.”
“Then?”
“For something from bus stop.”
Aaliyah frowned.
“The stroller.”
Her expression changed.
“You noticed.”
“Yes.”
“You said it broke.”
“It didn’t.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“You looked afraid.”
She stared.
Then looked at Janine.
“Do I have to explain?”
“No.”
Darius said immediately.
“Then why ask?”
“Because it has bothered me.”
Aaliyah breathed.
“It’s embarrassing.”
“Then don’t.”
She almost laughed.
“That is irritating.”
“I’ve been told.”
She looked down.
“I sold it.”
Darius stopped.
“What?”
“Four days before Harper’s.”
“For forty-five dollars.”
Her face burned even now.
“Maya needed reflux medication that insurance didn’t cover yet.”
“Then daycare fee hit.”
“I needed cash.”
“So I sold stroller online.”
“To a woman in Decatur.”
Darius said nothing.
Aaliyah continued because now that truth began, she wanted it finished.
“I told you it broke because I didn’t want a stranger standing under a bus shelter knowing I sold my baby’s stroller to buy medicine.”
“And the limp?”
“I carried Maya from two bus stops away for three days.”
“I twisted my ankle on curb.”
Darius looked sick.
Aaliyah immediately hardened.
“Do not look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re mentally buying twelve strollers.”
He almost smiled.
“I was thinking one.”
“No.”
“I know.”
Janine hid a smile.
Aaliyah continued:
“I bought a used one after first Northline paycheck.”
“Good.”
“Not from you.”
“I noticed.”
Silence.
Then Darius asked:
“Did your old employer know you were struggling financially when they fired you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Benefits paperwork.”
“Payroll.”
“I was pregnant.”
“Everyone knew.”
His jaw tightened.
“They used that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t invent.”
Aaliyah nodded.
Good.
Janine slid folder.
“We found EastPoint termination record.”
Aaliyah froze.
“What does it say?”
“Data-integrity violation.”
Her face went white.
“That is not what letter they gave me.”
“We know.”
“They changed it after?”
“Metadata says updated eleven days later.”
“By Devon Price.”
Aaliyah stared.
“Why?”
Janine opened another page.
EastPoint’s internal email:
Carter continues insisting EMR-17 duplicates are material. Remove access Friday. If client ever asks, make sure file reflects control issue, not invoice disagreement.
Aaliyah stopped breathing.
Someone had not simply fired her.
They had prepared her credibility to fail later.
Darius looked at her.
She did not cry.
Not yet.
Then Janine turned another page.
Three shell vendors.
Horizon Mile Services.
SouthArc Recovery.
Peachtree Emergency Transit.
Common P.O. box.
Common accountant.
Beneficial ownership trail:
Devon Price.
And one silent investor.
Calvin Ross.
Potential suspicious payments:
$18.6 million.
Darius’s face became hard.
Aaliyah stared at number.
All those invoices.
She had been fired for refusing to ignore them.
May you like
And the man who brought EastPoint into Northline was not merely friends with its owner.
He secretly owned part of the company that Northline paid to certify Northline’s own invoices.
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