How store email path resolves

We have a model that retrieves the sender email address configured in the Magento Admin and uses it to send emails.

This model is being called in three different ways:

  • Cron
  • CLI
  • Admin

When we manually trigger the functionality from the Admin, it correctly picks the default store email configured at:

trans_email/ident_general/email

However, when the same functionality is executed through Cron, it is picking an email address from a different source.

While debugging in cron the path is stores/admin/trans_email/ident_general/email,
and while in the admin the path is stores/0/trans_email/ident_general/email

We would like to understand what all possible sources/configurations Magento can use to determine the sender email address, especially when the code is executed through Cron. Could you please help us identify where the Cron process might be getting this email address from and what configuration or scope differences we should check?