The Corner Office
The Family Discount

Sealed

August 25, 2026 · Part 2 of 10 · 2 min

Naomi got executive-level access to the vendor file by noon, thanks to a terse phone call to IT and a reminder that she, in fact, ran the company now.

The file was thin. Too thin. Lindqvist Fabrication Ltd. had been incorporated eighteen months earlier — just four months before it was awarded a forty-million-dollar structural parts contract. No prior manufacturing history. No safety certifications on record. No other clients listed anywhere in the industry database Malik's team used for vendor screening.

"That's not a supplier," Naomi said, mostly to herself. "That's a mailbox."

She called Dahlia in. "I need the registered address on this company. Not the PO box on the contract — the actual county filing."

Dahlia was back within the hour, laptop open, face pale under her freckles.

"You're not going to like this."

"Try me."

"The registered address for Lindqvist Fabrication Ltd. is a private residence. Lakefront property, forty minutes north of here." Dahlia turned the laptop around. A property record, a deed, a name in the ownership field that made Naomi's stomach drop before she'd even finished reading it.

Held in trust. The Stennis Family Trust.

"That's Warrick's lake house," Naomi said quietly.

"It's Warrick's lake house," Dahlia confirmed. "Forty million dollars in structural contracts, awarded with no competitive bid, to a company that operates out of the former CEO's personal property."

Naomi sat back slowly, the printout trembling slightly in her hand, though her voice, when it came, didn't. "Get Malik Fenwick up here. Now."

Dahlia hesitated at the door. "Naomi — if this is what it looks like —"

"I know what it looks like." Naomi didn't look up from the page. "I want to know what it is."

She didn't get the chance to say anything else, because right then her phone buzzed with a message from an unknown internal extension: WELCOME TO THE COMPANY. ASK BEFORE YOU DIG FURTHER.

Continue the story Part 3: The Trust →

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