From A Producer To A Global Superstar

The room felt smaller with the IRS officers sitting across from Michael.

A recorder rested on the table between them, its red light staying on while one of the officers turned another page in the file. Michael had been answering questions for more than an hour, yet his attention kept drifting away from the figures in front of him.

"Can you confirm the transfer made from the account ending in 4812?"

Michael looked down at the document. "Yes."

"What was the purpose of that transfer?"

"Business expenses."

The officer looked at him for a moment. "What kind of business expenses?"

Michael paused. He knew the answer. He had known it before they even asked. His mind simply wasn’t interested in the question anymore.

"Consulting."

"Which consultant?"

Michael gave the name.

The officer wrote something down and moved to another page. "And the company that received the payment, what was your relationship with that company?"

Michael answered again, but his thoughts were somewhere else.

The altered evidence.

That was what kept returning.

Every time he tried to push it aside, another question brought him back to the same problem. Somebody had taken material connected to him and changed it before it reached the public. He had expected the evidence to expose Silas and leave himself with enough distance to deal with whatever followed.

Instead, the damage had reached him too.

The IRS questioning was proof of that.

"Mr. Michael."

He looked up.

The officer had stopped writing. "Are you listening to me?"

"Yes."

"I asked whether you had any undisclosed financial interest in the company."

"No."

The officer checked another page. "You’re sure?"

"I’m sure."

A few seconds passed before the questioning continued.

Michael tried to focus. He answered what he could, corrected figures when necessary, and admitted when he could not remember a particular transaction. He understood enough about the IRS to know that pretending not to understand a question would not help him.

Eventually, the officer placed his pen down.

"You seem distracted."

"I’m tired."

"That’s understandable. But this isn’t a conversation where you can afford to be careless."

Michael looked directly at him.

The officer continued in the same steady voice. "We’re asking you about financial records because we’re trying to establish what happened. If you stop cooperating, we don’t simply stop the investigation. We look harder."

Michael knew that.

The officer leaned back slightly. "You can make this easier for yourself by answering the questions properly, or you can make it harder. Those are the choices in front of you."

Michael remained quiet for a moment.

He had already lost control of too much. His original plan had been simple. He would expose Silas without taking any damage himself. That was the point of everything he had done, every piece of information he had gathered and every person he had used.

The damage had come anyway.

Now he was sitting across from the IRS, answering questions he had never expected to face.

"Continue," Michael said.

The officer picked up the pen again.

The questioning lasted another forty minutes before they finally stopped. Michael was escorted back toward the holding area, where his lawyer was waiting.

His lawyer stood as soon as Michael entered.

"How did it go?"

Michael took the chair opposite him. "They asked about the accounts."

"Did you answer?"

"Most of them."

The lawyer sat back down and opened his notebook. "That’s what you should have done. The IRS isn’t something you play games with."

Michael gave him a tired look. "I know."

"Do you?"

The question was not meant as an insult. The lawyer had been tense since he arrived, and the reason was obvious. He had represented Michael through the earlier case, but the financial investigation was different. There were documents, transactions and records that could continue speaking long after a witness stopped talking.

Michael leaned forward.

"I need you to do something."

The lawyer immediately stopped writing. "If you’re about to ask me to get involved in something outside your case, the answer is no."

"I haven’t asked yet."

"You don’t have to."

Michael stared at him for a moment, then reached into the folder beside him and pulled out a bank document. He placed it on the table.

"I need help locating an old communication."

The lawyer did not touch the paper.

"What communication?"

"Something from before all this."

"Why?"

Michael looked toward the closed door before lowering his voice. "Because I need to know whether Silas ever took control of the evidence."

The lawyer remained silent.

Michael continued before he could answer. "I’m not asking you to touch the evidence. I’m not asking you to move anything. I just need confirmation about what happened to it."

The lawyer shook his head. "I told you already. I’m not touching anything connected to that material."

"I’m not asking you to."

"You are asking me to locate something connected to it."

Michael reached across the table and placed another document beside the first one.

The lawyer looked down.

Five hundred thousand dollars.

His eyes stayed on the number for a few seconds before returning to Michael.

"You came prepared."

"I need the communication."

"And if I say no?"

Michael leaned back. "Then I find another way."

The lawyer picked up the document at last. He did not look pleased.

"You understand that if this creates a problem for me, money won’t fix it."

"I understand."

The lawyer studied him again Michael was stingy by nature and for him to give 500K meant that he was desperate to get it done and unlike last time where he had to go to field even if Michael had offered times five of what he offered now he wouldn’t go, So Michael knew him and that include his strength and weaknesses.

And he used it well against him which he didn’t mind

Michael waited.

Finally, the lawyer closed the document and put it back on the table. "I’ll see what I can find."

Michael gave a small nod.

"I didn’t say I’d touch the file," the lawyer added. "I won’t."

"I know."

"I’ll only look for the communication you described. If I find something, I’ll tell you. Nothing more."

"That’s all I need."

The lawyer packed his papers slowly. "And Michael, if this is connected to something you’re not telling me, I don’t want to find out after the fact."

Michael said nothing.

That answer was enough.

The lawyer stood and left.

Michael remained seated.

For the first time since the IRS questioning began, his attention settled completely on the problem he had been trying to understand.

The evidence had changed.

That much was certain.

The question was who had changed it.

He began rebuilding the chain in his head.

M had been the person he trusted to receive the material and get it into the hands of someone willing to publish it. Michael had been careful with that arrangement. He had not given the lawyer the file. He had not allowed him near it. The lawyer had stayed outside that part of the plan from the beginning.

Silas was the next possibility.

If Silas had somehow taken control of the material, then the altered version could have come from him. It would explain why parts of the evidence had changed.

But it didn’t explain everything.

most of the additions had damaged Silas far more than Michael expected.

Other parts had created problems for Michael that he had never planned to accept.

It felt deliberate.

That was what bothered him meaning it can never be Silas as he deals in shadow.

A random alteration would have been easier to understand. Somebody making mistakes, adding something carelessly, removing something important, or changing a document for their own reasons could happen.

This was different.

The material had been changed in a way that created pressure on both men while making Silas’s position much worse.

Michael rubbed his forehead and looked at the clock.

He thought about Victor.

Victor had known enough to understand the situation, but Michael could not see how he could have accessed everything.

M was still the strongest possibility.

If M had changed the material herself, why?

The question had no answer.

Michael remembered the way M had handled the arrangement. She had not asked unnecessary questions. She had agreed to do the work and had made it clear that once the favour was repaid, they were finished.

And Michael was almost sure that M wasn’t behind this but he couldn’t help but question as people chabge.

Michael had accepted that.

He had no reason to believe she would betray him.

Then again, he had once believed Silas would remain useful.

That belief had not survived.

The following day, Michael’s lawyer returned with a small folder.

He placed it on the table and took a seat.

"I found something."

Michael reached for it immediately.

"Where?"

"An old communication archive. I had someone search the records using the details you gave me. I didn’t ask them to look at the material itself."

Michael opened the folder.

There were several printed pages.

The first few were ordinary. Dates. Times. Short exchanges.

He turned another page.

Then another.

His attention stopped.

The lawyer noticed.

"That’s the one?"

Michael read the message again.

It was an old communication connected to M.

He knew the date.

He knew what he had sent.

More importantly, he knew what he had not sent.

The message on the page contained an instruction telling M to meet someone outside and hand over the material after identifying the person by a specific description.

Michael stared at the wording.

"I didn’t send this."

The lawyer looked at him.

"You said you didn’t know whether Silas had taken over the evidence."

"I didn’t."

Michael turned the page over as if something might be written on the back.

Nothing.

The lawyer watched him carefully. "What does it mean?"

Michael didn’t answer.

He went back to the first page and checked the date.

The communication had been sent after the original exchange he remembered having with M.

Someone had contacted her later.

Someone had given her an instruction.

Someone had done it while making it look as if the message came from Michael.

Michael’s grip tightened around the paper.

"Who had access to this?"

The lawyer shook his head. "I don’t know."

Michael looked down again.

The message was real.

The instruction had reached M.

But he had never written it.

For the first time, Michael stopped wondering whether someone had tampered with the evidence.

He knew they had.

What he didn’t know was who had been close enough to do it.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!