A Man Saved a Female CEO’s Life One Night—Then Walked Into Her Company for an Interview the Very Next Morning
Chapter 9
The police arrived within minutes.
The building was locked down.
Victoria came running.
She found Ethan kneeling beside Thomas.
“What happened?”
“He was shot.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Victoria looked around.
Security cameras had gone offline again.
Ethan stood.
“He knew something.”
“What?”
“About my father.”
Victoria stared.
“What did he say?”
“He told me to find my real father.”
Victoria went silent.
Ethan’s entire understanding of his childhood had collapsed.
His father had supposedly died when he was nineteen.
Now Thomas claimed that wasn’t true.
Victoria took Ethan to a private room.
“We need to slow down.”
“I can’t.”
“You’ve been attacked twice.”
“So have you.”
She stepped closer.
“Then let me help.”
Ethan looked at her.
He nodded.
Together, they investigated the death records.
The man listed as Ethan’s father was indeed buried in Chicago.
But DNA records had never been performed.
Ethan’s mother had died years earlier.
There was nobody left to ask.
Then Victoria found something.
A life-insurance policy.
The beneficiary was not Ethan.
It was a woman named Sarah Cole.
Ethan recognized the name.
His mother.
The policy had been purchased six months before the reported death.
And the signature didn’t match his father’s handwriting.
Someone had created the policy shortly before his death.
Ethan felt sick.
Then a message appeared on Victoria’s phone.
YOU’RE GETTING CLOSER.
Another followed.
ASK ETHAN WHO HE REALLY IS.
Victoria looked at him.
Ethan frowned.
“What?”
She showed him.
He shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Minutes later, Marcus brought new information.
A fingerprint recovered from the old Project Phoenix files belonged to Ethan’s father.
But the records also contained a second fingerprint.
It matched Daniel Halston.
Victoria’s face tightened.
“My brother and your father were working together.”
“Maybe at first.”
“Then something happened.”
They found an old video.
Daniel and Ethan’s father were arguing.
Daniel shouted,
“You don’t understand what this company can become.”
Ethan’s father answered,
“It was never meant to be used this way.”
The recording ended.
A second file revealed a secret transfer.
Project Phoenix had been sold to a private intelligence company.
The buyer had no public identity.
But the account belonged to Halston Legacy Trust.
Victoria stared at the screen.
“My father.”
Ethan shook his head.
“Maybe someone used his name.”
Then Victoria noticed something else.
The trust had been active for years after her father’s death.
Someone had been accessing it recently.
Someone with executive-level authorization.
They traced the login.
The location appeared.
Halston Tower.
Executive floor.
Victoria’s office.
Someone was using her credentials.
They rushed upstairs.
The office door was open.
The safe had been opened.
Inside, nothing was missing.
Except one item.
A photograph of Victoria’s father.
On the desk lay a note.
YOUR FATHER DIDN’T DIE FOR THE COMPANY.
Below it was another sentence.
HE DIED TO PROTECT YOU.
Victoria’s hands trembled.
Ethan looked at her.
“We need to find Daniel.”
She nodded.
But neither noticed the security monitor behind them.
A camera feed showed a man entering the building.
He looked exactly like Daniel Halston.
And he was carrying a gun.
