that employees facing financial trouble would not complain. Nkiru documented the cases and recommended changes that placed responsibility on the people designing the systems, not only on the workers forced to enforce them. She had not forgotten that Sola's suspension of her began with a fear created years before she worked at Meridian.
One afternoon Tunde called her to headquarters and explained that the review of Kunle's archived emails had expanded beyond the missing vendor funds. Investigators had found references to the positive paternity report, to payments that silenced complaints, and to conversations between Kunle and Chairman Folarin. Tunde looked exhausted, and Nkiru could see that he had spent the morning being asked to protect the family in ways that would compromise the investigation. He told her he had already arranged for the records to be preserved independently, but there was a new difficulty. Someone besides the auditors had been accessing material from the old archive.
"Who?" she asked.
"We don't know yet. The accesses appear to come through credentials that should no longer be active."
"I have had messages from an unknown number. Some contain files nobody outside your company should possess."
Tunde sat straighter. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because your family's first response to every secret has been to decide what should be done with it. I was trying to find out what I could trust."
He accepted the criticism and asked whether she would share the files with an independent investigator rather than the group's communications office. She agreed on the condition that evidence relevant to the fraud case would not be mixed casually with private medical information about Korede. Tunde promised that the child's information would be handled separately and that nobody would use it to force a public confession. It was the first time he had spoken to her about an obligation without suggesting the company's interests should come first. Nkiru recognized the difference but remained cautious.
Tunde also admitted something she did not expect. Two days after her suspension, he had discovered an access log suggesting Kunle had altered the original payment, but before he could act, Kunle confronted him with copies of the real DNA report. The threat was plain even when dressed as a request for a private conversation: expose the financial manipulation, and the hidden history of Temi, Tobi, and Korede would reach the newspapers. Tunde had delayed the report because he feared what would happen to his sister and nephew, telling himself that the audit would eventually collapse for lack of evidence. Instead, outside accountants kept working, and the documents began speaking more clearly than the men who wanted them buried.
"You knew Kunle changed the payment?" Nkiru asked.
"Not immediately. I knew two days after your suspension that the access records raised serious doubts about the original accusation."
"And you said nothing."
"Kunle threatened to expose the child. I thought I was protecting my nephew."
"Korede didn't ask you to frame his father with your silence."
Tunde lowered his eyes. "I know that now."