Miles smiled. “Come here. I will show you.” He scanned the printed code with his phone. A donation page opened, displaying the familiar blue logo, photographs of smiling children, and a message thanking visitors for supporting literacy. Everything looked normal. Then Miles selected the option to review the payment details without completing a transaction. Beneath the amount field appeared a business name he did not recognize. Westridge Event Services. Miles stopped scrolling.
“What is it?” Owen asked.
“Probably nothing. Let me check something.”
Miles opened the original donation instructions approved by Bright Pages Foundation. The authorized page directed contributions through the foundation’s designated payment provider. The replacement page used a different web address and identified Westridge Event Services as the recipient. He checked both addresses again. A legitimate payment processor could appear under a different business name. But no document in his possession mentioned Westridge. He photographed the card, saved the page address, and recorded the time.
“Is the money going to the wrong place?” Owen asked.
“I do not know yet,” Miles answered. “That is why we check before telling people everything is fine.”
He asked Owen to return to the children’s coordinator, then found Blake near the ballroom entrance. “Blake, I need to verify something in the new donation materials.”
Blake glanced at his watch. “Guests are arriving.”
Miles showed him the two payment pages. “The approved link identifies Bright Pages Foundation. The replacement identifies Westridge Event Services. Who authorized that change?”
Blake barely looked at the screen. “Westridge handles event payments. It is part of the updated process.”
“Do you have confirmation from Rachel Foster?”
“Rachel knows about it.”
“Then I need that confirmation before we display the new code.”
Blake’s smile disappeared. “Miles, your responsibility is the presentation. Mine is the marketing.”
“And the people donating need to know where their money is going.”
Blake lowered his voice. “You are making a simple update unnecessarily complicated.”
Miles kept his phone steady. “I am asking for approval of a different payment destination.”
Blake glanced toward the guests. “You are here to run a projector, Miles. Not investigate the foundation. If you keep interfering, I will recommend terminating your contract tonight.”
Miles looked toward the children’s waiting area, where Owen was rehearsing with the coordinator. He needed that paycheck. Blake knew it. But Miles also remembered what Owen had asked him. Where does the money actually go? For the first time that evening, he could not give an answer he trusted.
At 7:40, Owen stepped onto the ballroom stage carrying a folded sheet of paper. Miles watched from behind the projection station, one hand resting near the microphone controls. Owen searched the audience, then found him. Miles raised his thumb. Owen smiled and began.
“After my mom died, my dad and I had a lot of quiet evenings.” The room settled. “Sometimes we did not know what to talk about. Then someone gave me a book about the stars. We started reading together, and suddenly we had a whole universe to talk about.”
Miles lowered his eyes. Hannah would have loved hearing that. Owen continued, explaining how Bright Pages Foundation helped children discover stories they might otherwise never find. When he finished, applause filled the ballroom. For thirty seconds, the evening felt exactly as it should.
Then Miles noticed a guest scanning one of the blue donation cards. Another guest followed. At 7:45, he sent a message to the event coordinator requesting urgent confirmation of the replacement donation link. He included both addresses and explained that the new page identified Westridge rather than Bright Pages Foundation. He asked that the new code be withheld until Rachel Foster approved it. Minutes passed. The coordinator acknowledged his message but could not confirm the payment arrangements.
Miles approached Rachel between conversations. She studied the two names and frowned. “I cannot authorize that without checking our records.”
“Then can we use the original approved code?” Miles asked.
“That would be safer until we know,” Rachel replied. “I need to verify it with our finance contact.”
Rachel asked the coordinator to pause the new payment materials. But Claire was preparing for the closing appeal, and the message did not reach her.
Miles returned to Blake. “The foundation has not confirmed the new recipient.”
“We are not changing the presentation during the event,” Blake replied.
“Then tell Claire the problem.”
Blake finally looked up. “I already told her you were causing delays over your contract.”
Miles felt the words settle. The contract paid for the following month’s rent. He thought of Owen’s school lunches, the kitchen calendar, and the overdue bills waiting at home. “This is not about my fee,” he said.
Blake walked away.
