The Day I Walked Away My Empire Began novel Chapter 307

Lucie froze. Cold sweat prickled down her back. Sixteen fakes, nine missing…

She whispered the numbers, each word heavy as a hammer against her heart.

Just these two branches alone—twenty-five treasures either gone or swapped for forgeries. Any one of them could have made headlines at auction. Now, they were replaced with counterfeits, the real pieces vanished.

“The nine missing items—who’s listed as the borrower in the records?” she asked, her voice sharp and icy.

Her assistant quickly handed over a copy of the log. “Ms. Anderson, it says ‘New Amberton Cultural Exchange Center.’ But I checked. They never received anything. There’s not even a loan record on their end.”

“Fake loan paperwork…” Lucie’s finger hovered over the bogus signature, her expression darkening.

“They planned their escape route from the start. Even the cover-up was thorough.”

Thank god she was an appraiser herself. She’d caught on early, moved fast, and had the directors and staff involved locked down before they could react.

Now, all she could do was scramble to fix what was broken and track down the missing artifacts.

The head of security rushed over, worry written all over his face. “Ms. Anderson, Jose and Nathan aren’t talking. They keep saying it was just a lapse in judgment, refuse to say where the real pieces are, and won’t admit anyone else was involved.”

“A lapse in judgment?”

Lucie let out a cold laugh. “They hired a master forger, swapped out priceless items without anyone noticing, and faked a whole set of loan documents. Does anyone actually believe they pulled this off alone?”

“Pull up their families’ info. I want their bank transactions and phone records from the past three years. There’s got to be a weak point somewhere.”

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