Victor Used Sebastianās Voice to Keep Me Away From the Money
Chapter 06 - Victor Used Sebastianās Voice to Keep Me Away From the Money
The message that bruised my wrist came from Victor.
That became clear three days later.
Not because he confessed.
Because Miriam reconstructed the draft history.
Shadow Mode did not normally preserve text after audio generation.
But Victorās laptop backed up temporary files to an enterprise recovery server.
The punishment order existed there.
Typed at 10:08 p.m.
Revised twice.
First draft:
Tessa has been in files she is not authorized to see. Keep her in the service office until I decide what to do.
Second:
Take her phone.
Final:
āTessa has ignored a direct restriction twice. Take her phone, keep her in the service office until the dinner-prep audit is complete, and dock the hours if she refuses. Iām done discussing it.ā
Victor wrote every word.
The second messageā
āIf she resists, do not make a scene. Keep her off the guest floor until I return.ā
āwas assembled from old Sebastian recordings.
Victor chose clips.
Not Sebastian.
Why me?
Because when I opened the archive room, one gray box was on the floor.
I picked up a document.
STAFF SERVICE CHARGE APPEAL ā MIDWEST REGION.
At the top was a name:
LENA ORTIZ.
The same banquet supervisor Sebastian had authentically ordered moved off flagship events.
Her complaint alleged Vale properties had retained employee-designated service distributions after telling staff the change was temporary.
Attached were twenty-eight signatures.
I read only the first page before Daphne came in.
Victor later learned I had seen it because a hallway camera showed me holding the file.
He panicked.
Not about me going to police.
I did not even understand the issue.
He panicked that I might mention the box to Maria or Sebastian before the investor diligence team finished reviewing ācleanā materials.
So he used Sebastianās voice.
Why not his own?
Victor answered that during interview.
āBecause staff argued with me.ā
Then:
āThey didnāt argue with him.ā
That sentence made Colin cry.
He was sitting outside the interview room when he heard.
Colin had grabbed me because he believed disobeying Sebastian could cost both of us our jobs.
Victor knew that.
Used it.
Did Victor intend me physically hurt?
No evidence.
He intended obedience.
Physical force arrived because the culture gave Colin no safe script for what to do when I said no.
Colin apologized again.
This time through HR with my representative present.
He did not ask me to protect his job.
Good.
The household investigation suspended him for using physical restraint outside policy.
Later, he returned after training and a written disciplinary record.
I did not object.
I also did not erase the bruise.
Both could be true.
Then Victorās money.
The $620,000 routed through vendors was not all stolen.
That mattered.
About $310,000 paid for actual temporary event labor and logistics.
$190,000 went to inflated consulting contracts tied to his brother-in-law.
$120,000 remained under investigation.
Victor denied personal kickbacks.
Bank records later showed his wife received a āfamily loanā from the brother-in-law.
Two hundred thousand dollars.
That became prosecutor territory.
Wire fraud.
Conspiracy.
Potential theft from company funds.
Separate from employee wage claims.
Then Daphne.
Her fake orders came under review too.
Six messages.
Four routine.
One kept me out of the archive.
One instructed Maria to move two older banquet workers off the engagement guest list because they had previously complained about service charges.
Daphne claimed it was to prevent confrontation.
That did not make it better.
The two workers were not invited guests.
They were staff assigned to the dinner.
She replaced them.
One lost premium pay.
Daphne reimbursed that lost pay through a formal settlement later.
Not personally slipping cash.
Documented.
She also paid a civil penalty under the household employment resolution for unauthorized impersonation and improper access.
No criminal charge from those facts.
Her engagement with Sebastian remained over.
Then the service-charge review.
Independent wage counsel examined seven hotels.
At four, written policies clearly promised employees a defined share.
At three, language allowed management discretion.
The company had over-retained money at the four.
Estimated wages plus statutory damages and interest:
$5.8 million.
Not three-point-four.
Because delayed wages had consequences.
The board approved repayment through a court-supervised settlement process.
Sebastian did not set the number.
He had approved the original ninety-day measure.
He would face whatever executive responsibility followed.
Then Lena Ortiz.
The banquet supervisor.
Alive.
Forty-nine.
Working at a convention center in Indiana.
Independent counsel contacted her.
She agreed to speak.
Not to Sebastian.
To the investigator.
She had kept screenshots.
Emails.
Her own copy of the complaint.
She also kept one voice message.
Sebastianās real voice.
āMove her out of flagship events until finance closes the review.ā
She played it for investigators.
No forgery.
No Victor excuse.
Then she said something worse.
After she was moved, she emailed Sebastian directly from her personal account.
Subject:
PLEASE LISTEN BEFORE YOU DECIDE I AM THE PROBLEM.
He forwarded it to Victor without reading the attachment.
Message:
Handle this. Iām done with Ortiz.
Real email.
Sebastian remembered.
He had been boarding a plane.
He was tired of the issue.
That did not erase the choice.
Then federal labor investigators requested the Daniel Ross file.
The laundry contract.
The delayed organizing vote.
Shadow Mode logs proved Sebastian intentionally kept the order off normal email.
His lawyers told him:
This is a real problem.
Not the voice theft.
Not Victor.
His.
Then Victor was arrested at OāHare trying to board another international flight after outside counsel informed him prosecutors wanted a second interview.
Was he fleeing?
His lawyer said no.
He had scheduled business travel.
Prosecutors disagreed.
The judge imposed travel restrictions.
No cinematic chase.
No guns.
A man in a suit missing a flight.
Then Miriam showed me the final reconstruction of my incident.
Time stamps.
Tokens.
Audio creation.
Colinās receipt.
My payroll docking.
Every step.
I expected relief.
Instead I felt tired.
Because proving Sebastian had not ordered my punishment did not mean the house had been safe.
May you like
It meant someone else had learned his authority was easy to wear.
And the next question was whether Sebastian would dismantle that authority or simply demand better locks around it.
