Billionaire CEO Goes Undercover—And Finds His Company’s Biggest Secret
Chapter 4
Nathan spent that night searching old company archives.
His father had died four years earlier.
Nathan had taken over as CEO six months after his death.
At the time, he’d believed he understood his father’s business.
But now he wasn’t sure he had understood his father at all.
He searched board minutes from two years earlier.
Production targets.
Budget cuts.
Safety expenditures.
Every questionable decision had been approved by the same group.
Victor Lang.
Three board members.
And Nathan’s father.
But one line stood out.
Special Operations Reserve.
No amount listed.
No description.
Just a reference to a private account.
Nathan called Daniel again.
“Find every account connected to Special Operations Reserve.”
Daniel was quiet.
“That sounds illegal.”
“Just find it.”
Three hours later, he called back.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“A private account registered through a Swiss bank.”
Nathan sat upright.
“Whose name?”
“Not a person’s.”
“A trust?”
“Yes.”
“What trust?”
“The Cole Family Trust.”
Nathan stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because that trust was closed before my father died.”
Daniel paused.
“Well…”
“What?”
“It wasn’t.”
Nathan felt his chest tighten.
The trust was still active.
And money had moved through it every month.
For twelve years.
Millions.
Nathan asked,
“Where did the money go?”
Daniel sent the records.
The payments were divided between several shell corporations.
One was Meridian Logistics.
Another was a private security company.
The third was a consulting firm.
All connected to Victor Lang.
Nathan stared at the screen.
His father had been moving money through a hidden trust.
Victor was involved.
And the company had been hiding it.
But why?
Nathan returned to the warehouse.
He found the old maintenance reports.
The machine accident.
The safety budget.
The terminated employees.
One thing connected all of them.
Production pressure.
The company had been deliberately pushing factories beyond recommended limits to increase quarterly profit.
But that alone didn’t explain the hidden trust.
Then Nathan found a sealed board packet.
It contained minutes from a secret meeting.
The topic:
Project Northstar.
Nathan opened the first page.
The project involved acquiring a competing manufacturing company.
But the acquisition required Cole Industries to show unusually high short-term profits.
That explained the pressure.
They needed inflated numbers to secure financing.
So they cut safety costs.
Forced overtime.
Moved expenses.
And hid liabilities.
Employees were paying the price.
But who had ordered it?
Nathan kept reading.
His father’s name appeared.
Then Victor’s.
Then another.
Margaret Cole.
Nathan’s mother.
He froze.
His mother had died ten years earlier.
She had never been involved in the company.
Or so he thought.
The packet included one line:
Family authorization required.
Nathan closed his eyes.
His mother had signed something.
But what?
He found the original authorization.
It was not for Project Northstar.
It was for a separate account.
The account beneficiary was a child.
Nathan.
The money had been placed there twenty years earlier.
A trust for Nathan.
But the account had never belonged to him.
Someone else had controlled it.
Who?
Victor Lang.
Nathan was stunned.
His own family had created a fortune for him.
Victor had controlled it.
And money from that trust had been used to finance the company’s secret operations.
Why would his parents allow that?
Then Nathan found a note.
Handwritten.
His mother’s writing.
Nathan,
If you ever find this, it means something has gone terribly wrong.
Trust no one who tells you the company must come first.
Especially Victor.
Nathan read the sentence twice.
Then a second note appeared.
Your father tried to stop him.
Nathan’s heart sank.
His father hadn’t been the mastermind.
He had been trying to undo something.
Something Victor had started.
Before Nathan could read more, the warehouse lights went out.
His phone signal disappeared.
The door locked automatically.
Nathan was trapped.
Then a voice came through the intercom.
“You should have stayed upstairs.”
Nathan looked around.
Someone had been waiting for him.
