Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3 — The Broken Engineer
The Nevada heat was suffocating.
It felt like walking into an oven.
The apartment complex where David Aris lived was a stark contrast to the mansions he used to help build.
Paint was peeling off the stucco walls.
A broken vending machine buzzed loudly in the breezeway.
The air smelled like old cigarettes and despair.
I knocked on door 2B.
No answer.
I knocked again, louder this time.
“Go away!” a muffled voice yelled from inside.
“David Aris?” I called out. “My name is Sienna. I have the Scottsdale soil reports.”
Complete silence.
I waited. I could hear the faint sound of footsteps approaching the door.
The deadbolt clicked.
The door opened an inch, held back by a security chain.
A pair of tired, bloodshot eyes stared back at me.
David looked like a ghost.
He was painfully thin, his hair unkempt, his shoulders slumped as if carrying an invisible boulder.
“Who are you?” he rasped.
“I’m Caleb Whitmore’s wife,” I said calmly.
He slammed the door in my face.
I didn't flinch. I just leaned closer to the wood.
“Ex-wife,” I corrected loudly. “And I’m here to put him in prison.”
The door slowly opened again.
He unhooked the chain and let me in.
The apartment was a mess.
Fast food wrappers covered the coffee table. The blinds were drawn tight, blocking out the desert sun.
David collapsed onto a faded sofa, rubbing his temples.
“If Caleb sent you to test me, tell him I haven't said a word,” David muttered. “I kept the NDA. I kept my mouth shut.”
“Caleb didn't send me, David.”
I sat down in the armchair across from him.
I opened my bag and pulled out a printed copy of his original soil report.
I placed it on the coffee table.
David stared at the paper as if it were a venomous snake.
“Where did you get that?” he whispered.
“I took his entire server when I left,” I said.
David let out a dry, humorless laugh.
“You’re crazy. You know that? You are playing with people who will literally erase you from the earth.”
“They already tried,” I said flatly. “It didn't work.”
I leaned forward.
“I know what he did, David. I know he falsified your signature to push the Scottsdale development through.”
David closed his eyes. A single tear escaped, cutting a clean line through the grime on his cheek.
“It ruined me,” he said, his voice cracking.
“No firm will hire me. My reputation is ash. Caleb blacklisted me across the entire industry.”
“He told me if I ever tried to blow the whistle, he would ensure I never worked again. And he kept his promise.”
“I have no money to fight him. I have no power.”
“I do,” I said softly.
David looked up at me.
“I have the evidence,” I continued. “But I need you to testify. I need you to confirm that he ordered the cover-up.”
David shook his head violently.
“No. No way. The NDA—”
“Is null and void if it covers up a felony,” I interrupted, using my sharpest compliance-officer voice.
“You know the law, David. If those families in Scottsdale start getting sick from the water, you are the engineer on record.”
“When the EPA investigates, Caleb will throw you to the wolves.”
“He will claim you hid the contamination from him.”
David’s face went pale. He knew I was right.
“But if you come forward now,” I pressed, “with me as your shield, you become the whistleblower.”
“You get federal protection. You clear your name.”
I reached into my bag and pulled out a cashier's check.
Fifty thousand dollars.
I slid it across the table next to the report.
“This is for your legal retainer. I hired the best corporate litigator in New York to represent you.”
David stared at the check.
His hands began to shake.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked, looking at me with pure disbelief.
“Because,” I said, my voice hardening into steel.
“He thought I was just a naive girl who would drink his poison and quietly disappear.”
“I’m going to make him choke on his own arrogance.”
David stared at the check for a long time.
May you like
Then, he reached out.
And he took it.
