Page 211 of The Rebel Billionaire

“Fuck.” I run a hand down my face.

It’s looking more like an inside job, but who?

“If I had to hazard a guess, the designs have been stolen the old-fashioned way. Photographs on a burner phone, sketches of the individual designs and flats that have then been reproduced.”

“What about a timeline reconstruction, anomalous behaviour detection?” I say, knowing I’m grasping at straws. “Aren’t those things you can investigate?”

Kris shakes his head. “Believe me, we’ve tried. However, your team are a close-knit bunch, and we don’t know at what stage these designs were taken. Everyone within the department has access to all the designs…”

“Not for much longer,” I say, dropping back and expelling my breath with a huff.

“What do you know about the stolen designs? Maybe we can start there.”

“The designs weren’t patented yet, so we have no recourse under the garment silhouette protection. And as they haven’t been released by us, we can’t prove secondary meaning. The only recourse we’ve got is to find out which bastard leaked this. Every member of this company signs an NDA. I need to know who and get them out of my company.”

“Then I suggest you look for someone with an axe to grind, a disgruntled employee, maybe a new member of staff who may have had access to the designs and could be a plant.”

“Thanks, Kris, I appreciate it.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t be more help. I’ll send over the timeline reconstruction and anomalous behaviour detection reports. Maybe you, Elise, and Teresa will see something out of the ordinary.”

I nod.

* * *

The smaller fashion houses involved deny all knowledge of the breach, but the date and timestamps on our original design sketches and records speak volumes. They may have entered the designs into their own CAD systems, but ours have earlier timestamps, so the cease-and-desist letters are working. No one wants to go up against us. The fashion houses involved have apologised profusely, insisting they received the designs in good faith and will not be proceeding with any of them. The frustrating part is that we’re no closer to working out who is responsible for the breach.

Elise sits opposite me, dark circles under her eyes, her shoulders drooping.

“Could it be someone within your department?” I ask.

“In all honesty, I don’t know anymore.” She releases an audible breath. After another long day, her pained expression is impossible to miss. “I’ve spent so much time looking at everyone, the access logs and reports Lansdown’s team produced, wondering who it could be. But Alex, these are my friends, people I’ve worked with for years. We all have access to the designs. We’re a team. You remember what it was like. We support each other. Everyone chips in. It’s why our designs are so strong. I just don’t see how it can be one of them.”

I grip the back of my neck and massage the tight muscles, not wanting to disparage her idealistic notion, but these people aren’t her friends. They’re her colleagues, acquaintances at best, and one of them is potentially selling us out.

There’s a knock on the door. My mother enters, not waiting for an invitation. Brooke is hot on her heels.

She shoots me an apologetic look.

“Mother?”

“This is bad. Why wasn’t I informed earlier?” she says. “Morning, Elise,” she adds, almost as an afterthought.

“Morning, Mrs Bianchi,” Elise replies, shooting me a questioning look.

I shake my head. No, I don’t want her to leave. We still have things to discuss.

I draw in a breath.

“Because there’s nothing you can or could have done. Kris had his best people on it,” I say, trying to keep a lid on my temper, already regretting how much I shared with her after she confronted me. “As I told you last night. We’re following the necessary protocols. The lawyers are on it, and an internal investigation is underway. The designs themselves have been frozen.”

I should probably have told her when I first found out, but the last thing I need is her sticking her nose in, trying to help.

“An extra pair of hands,” she says. “I don’t take kindly to hearing that the company is under attack from a client; I expect to hear that kind of news from my son.”

“As I said, it’s been a little crazy around here. And extra hands are unnecessary. We’re limiting the investigation to a need-to-know basis until we find out who is behind this. I’m working closely with Elise and Teresa to…”

“But what if it’s one of them?” she asks, firing a look of apology at Elise. “It’s better to keep this in the family. Enzo can come. He can help.”