The Silent Benefactor

High-Risk Alert

By late afternoon the office looked like a crisis war room.

The air-conditioning couldn’t even fight the heat of panic; every screen showed new numbers, all sliding red.

Petrina stood by the glass wall, phone pressed to her ear again.

“No, listen,” she said into it, trying to sound steady. “Reed Innovations has never defaulted. The system error will be fixed by morning.”

The line went dead before she finished. She lowered the phone slowly.

Charlotte hurried in. “Two more contracts were canceled. The suppliers want advance payment before they ship a single component.”

Petrina turned. “Advance? But we’ve….we’ve never paid in advance.”

“I know,” Charlotte said. “But they’re spooked. Something’s poisoning our credibility.”

Petrina’s voice wavered. “They must have heard lies, from Derick’s side.”

Charlotte frowned. “You really think he’d go that far? Are you really going to take Brian’s word for it?”

“He’s vindictive,” Petrina snapped. “You saw what he did at the gala, acting like a victim so people would pity him. And you heard what he said.”

“You need to stop and think for a minute here Petrina, you can’t just—“

Brian walked in, cutting her off abruptly.

“I think all she’s been doing is thinking.” He walked closer to Petrina.

“Cut her some slack.”

Before Charlotte could reply, Brian spoke again. “I just spoke to an investor group. They’re nervous but still open to negotiations. I need full authority to offer temporary share incentives.”

Charlotte crossed her arms. “More authorizations? The last time we did that, two accounts vanished.”

Brian smiled. “Relocated, not vanished. The funds will be back once the transfers clear.”

Petrina rubbed her temples.

“Do it. Just do whatever you can, that’s why you have authority.”

Charlotte shot her a look. “You’re signing these documents without reading?!.”

“I don’t have time to read,” Petrina said.

Brian slid a digital tablet toward her. “Just your initials here.”

She signed.

Charlotte exhaled through her nose, frustration plain. “At least copy me on the documents.”

“Of course,” Brian said smoothly, but the glint in his eyes was unreadable.

Just then Mr. Duck dashed in, sweat dropping from every single corner of his body.

“Petrina what am I hearing? Tell me it’s just another scandal….a–a rumor?”

Petrina groaned in frustration.

“Dad please, I don’t need your dramatics right now.”

His head reclined back, offended by her tone.

“Dramatics?! You call your company plummeting in under 48 hours, dramatic?”

A commotion outside Petrina’s office drew their attention and Charlotte went to check it out.

Mr. Duck continued.

“The global business conference is in two days! Is this what you plan on showing them there—“

“Dad please!” Petrina yelled.

“I know it’s in two days time! I have reminders and clients blowing up my phone. So please…..”

Charlotte came back with a face paler than yesterday’s.

“This is bad,” she said. “Dankey enterprises just posted an internal bulletin naming Reed Innovations as a high-risk client.”

“What does that mean?” Petrina asked.

“It means other institutions will see it within hours.”

Petrina grabbed the page. “They can’t do that without proof.”

“They just did.”

The lights above flickered. Somewhere, a printer jammed and started beeping.

Brian’s voice broke the silence.

“We’ll counter the bulletin with a press release first thing tomorrow. Confidence is perception.”

“Confidence?” Charlotte scoffs.

Confidence won’t unfreeze our accounts,” Charlotte shot back.

He kept his composure, even though Charlotte was already getting on his last nerve. “Then we’ll find someone with access. I have contacts who can help.”

Petrina looked between them. “Enough arguing. Brian, handle the communication. Charlotte, focus on the operations team. We’re not done.”

Charlotte nodded but her jaw was tight. “You’re trusting the wrong man, Petrina,” she said quietly.

“Wrong man? He’s our best shot right now!.” Petrina’s father barked.

“Graduated from the best school of business and traveled abroad to expand, now he’s back and extremely successful.”

“If he’s so successful, why does it feel like he’s trying to leech off this company?”

Charlotte narrowed her eyes at Brian.

Petrina’s hand froze on the desk. “What did you say?”

“You heard me. He’s too smooth, too confident. Problems follow him in and somehow multiply.”

Mr. Duck let out a breath of laughter but there was nothing humorous about it.

“I’m too old for all this rubbish. Please, Brian, help us.” He walked over to Brian and held his hands.

“I’ll do my best sir.” Brian said, holding Mr. Duck’s hand as tight as possible.

Mr. Duck nodded and smiled.

“Then I’ll leave you both to it.”

He walked to the door but not before eyeing Charlotte angrily.

Once he was out the door Brian then turned to Charlotte, giving a small smile that somehow didn’t reach his eyes.

“If I wanted to sabotage the company, I wouldn’t be spending nights here fixing it.”

“Maybe you’re fixing it so it’d be easy for you to—,” Charlotte muttered.

“Charlotte,” Petrina cut her off, voice low. “Stop. I can’t handle suspicion on top of everything else.”

Charlotte sighed, defeated. “Then at least go through every single file he sends you before putting your signature.” She turned and walked out, leaving the tension hanging.

When the door closed, Petrina slumped into her chair. “She doesn’t understand,” she whispered.

Brian pulled another chair beside hers. “She’s scared. Everyone is. That’s why you need to stay steady. Let me carry the weight for a while.”

He reached for her tablet, showing neat graphs and fake progress lines. “Look. I’ve already rerouted pending payments through an alternate channel. By morning we’ll have new liquidity.”

Petrina stared at the screen, wanting desperately to believe him. “You think this will actually work?”

“It will,” he said softly. “You’ve worked too hard for this company to fail. I won’t let it happen.”

She exhaled shakily. “Thank you, Brian.”

“Get some sleep tonight,” he said. “Tomorrow we start winning again.”