Chapter 146: Someone Changed the Records

Chapter 146: Chapter 146: Someone Changed the Records

The numbers were completely wrong.

Audrey stared at the glowing laptop screen until her eyes physically burned. She scrolled back to the top of the preliminary investigation list for the tenth time today.

Mason Calloway. Principal Executive.

It bothered her all weekend. It made absolutely no logical sense. The investigation was strictly about the 2019 financial shell companies. Mason was just a university football captain back then. Why would a senior finance audit pull a student athlete into the principal executive category?

She grabbed her phone and dialed the newsroom records department. A junior researcher picked up on the third ring.

"Hey, it is Audrey," she said. "I have a quick question about the Calloway file. How exactly did we compile the preliminary investigation list?"

"We didn’t compile it," the researcher answered over the sound of loud typing. "That list was pulled directly from a batch of internal records supplied to the newspaper by an anonymous source inside the club."

Audrey went completely still. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Internal records," Audrey repeated slowly.

"Yeah. The source handed over an archived attendance sheet and a few financial memos. We just extracted the names that overlapped."

Audrey hung up the phone. Her heart started beating entirely too fast.

If the newspaper had not built the list, and it came directly from inside the football club, someone had specifically packaged those names together. Someone had handed the press a curated list.

Her immediate instinct was to call Mason. She wanted to tell him that he was being set up. She wanted to warn him that the investigation was actively being manipulated.

She looked at her phone. She stopped herself.

If she told him now without any actual proof, he would tear the corporate office apart looking for a traitor. She needed concrete facts first. She needed to know exactly what paper trail connected him to the financial side of the club in 2019.

Audrey opened a new search window. She started quietly pulling up archived club schedules. She was going to find the invisible string tying him to the scandal.

The basement archive room smelled heavily like dust and stale coffee.

Ben was sitting on the floor surrounded by five different stacks of manila folders. Daisy was sitting cross-legged next to him. She was happily eating a bag of pretzels and squinting at a digital scan on her laptop.

They had spent the last four hours doing a brutal side-by-side comparison. They had original internal records, revised public records, attendance sheets, financial documents, and archived club schedules scattered across the floor.

"Okay, look at this," Daisy said. She pointed a pretzel directly at her screen. "The dates are literally fighting each other."

Ben crawled over and looked at the laptop monitor.

"This is the official public record from November 2019," Daisy explained. "It says there was a private training session in the east wing. Mason’s name was added as one of the people present."

Ben grabbed a physical folder from his stack. He pulled out an older, faded piece of paper.

"But this is the raw draft we got from the city archives," Ben said quietly. "It explicitly says there was an unscheduled club activity. Mason’s name isn’t mentioned."

"Right," Daisy nodded. "But look at the player and visitor attendance log for that exact same day."

She opened another tab. She scrolled down the alphabetical list to the letter C.

"His name isn’t there," Daisy pointed out.

Ben stared at the screen. He stopped moving completely. He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"His name is on the revised record," Ben stated, pointing his pen at the document.

Daisy frowned deeply. "But not the original."

Ben looked back at the document. The realization hit him like a physical blow.

"Then someone added him," Ben said.

"Why?" Daisy asked.

Ben didn’t answer. He just stared at the mismatched papers.

It could be a deliberate cover-up. If Mason had never actually been in that room during the unscheduled activity, someone had gone to considerable trouble to make it look like he had. Whoever was behind the altered records might have wanted Mason Calloway to take the fall.

The waiting room of the fertility clinic was painted a calm, meaningless beige.

Chloe hated beige. She hated the soft elevator music playing from the ceiling speakers. She hated the stack of outdated magazines sitting on the glass table.

She woke up before the sun even rose this morning. Her stomach was tied into a million painful knots. Today was the day she would finally find out if the treatment had worked.

She did not wake Leo up. She quietly slipped out of the apartment while he was still sleeping. She simply could not handle his nervous, hopeful energy on top of her own absolute panic. If the doctor gave her bad news, she wanted to process the heartbreak entirely alone first.

The clinic doors suddenly swung open.

Leo practically ran into the waiting room. He was wearing gray sweatpants and a backwards baseball cap. He was breathing heavily, looking around frantically until his dark eyes locked onto her.

He marched straight over to her chair. He tried very hard to look calm. He was absolutely failing.

"You could’ve told me," Leo said. He dropped heavily into the empty plastic chair next to her.

"I didn’t want you worrying," Chloe whispered. She looked down at her hands tightly clutched in her lap.

"Chloe, I’ve been worrying since you said you had an appointment," Leo replied. His voice was a mixture of frustration and pure, unfiltered love.

She gave him a very sharp, unamused look.

"You’re making this worse," Chloe said.

Leo rubbed the back of his neck. He let out a long, heavy sigh.

"I’m aware," Leo mumbled.

Before Chloe could scold him again, the wooden door to the back hallway opened. Dr. Evans walked out holding a white medical file. She offered a small, polite smile and gestured for them to follow her into the private examination room.

They walked inside and sat down. The room felt incredibly small.

Leo reached over and grabbed Chloe’s hand. He held it so tightly his knuckles turned white.

Dr. Evans opened the file. She did not drag the moment out. She did not use complicated medical jargon.

"The treatment worked," Dr. Evans announced warmly.

Chloe froze.

She stared at the doctor. Her brain completely stopped working. She had spent so many years bracing herself for disappointment that she did not know how to process good news.

"You’re sure?" Chloe asked.

Dr. Evans smiled and nodded firmly. "Your pregnancy test is positive. Your hormone levels are exactly where we want them to be."

Leo looked at his wife. He did not say a single word. He just stared at the side of her face.

Neither of them spoke for a few incredibly heavy seconds. The silence in the small room was thick with years of silent prayers and hidden fears finally breaking open.

Leo gently squeezed her hand.

Chloe looked at their joined hands. A hot tear finally slipped out of the corner of her eye. She let out a sudden, watery laugh through her overwhelming nerves.

"We’re actually having a baby," Chloe whispered.

Leo looked at her.

"Yeah," Leo said softly.

"We’re having a baby."