CEO Asked a Single Dad for a Ride—Then Froze at What Hung From His Mirror
Chapter 6
The lighthouse stood against the ocean like a black silhouette.
Daniel parked behind an abandoned maintenance building.
The storm was getting worse.
Rain hammered the windshield.
Marcus approached.
“The entrance is beneath the tower.”
Victoria looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“My father showed me.”
Daniel frowned.
“Your father?”
Marcus nodded.
“He helped build this place.”
They entered through a rusted metal door.
Inside was a narrow staircase.
At the bottom, they found a concrete wall.
Marcus searched the stones.
Then he pressed one.
A section shifted.
A hidden passage opened.
Victoria stared.
“My father built this?”
“Yes.”
They entered.
The tunnel led beneath the lighthouse.
After several minutes, they reached a steel door.
Daniel noticed three slots.
One was shaped like the lighthouse charm.
One looked like a small key.
The third was shaped like something else.
Victoria looked confused.
“What’s missing?”
Marcus said:
“Your brother’s charm.”
Victoria froze.
“My brother?”
She had never known she had one.
Marcus looked at her.
“You did.”
“What happened to him?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Thomas had a son.”
Victoria’s face went pale.
“My father had another child?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Marcus didn’t answer.
Then Daniel heard a noise behind them.
Footsteps.
Someone had followed them.
Marcus turned.
“Run.”
The steel door opened just as another group entered the tunnel.
Marcus pushed Daniel and Victoria through.
The door slammed shut.
Daniel heard gunshots outside.
Victoria screamed.
Marcus shouted:
“Go!”
Daniel grabbed Victoria.
They ran.
The tunnel opened into a hidden chamber.
Inside was a desk.
A chair.
A safe.
And on the wall was a photograph.
Daniel stopped.
The photograph showed Emily.
Standing beside Thomas.
And a young boy.
Victoria stared at the boy.
She whispered:
“That’s my brother.”
Daniel looked closer.
The boy looked strangely familiar.
Then Victoria saw the name beneath the photograph.
Michael Carter.
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“Carter?”
Victoria turned toward him.
Daniel couldn’t speak.
Michael Carter was his father’s name.
His own father’s name.
Victoria looked at Daniel.
“No.”
Daniel stared at the photograph.
His father had always told him he was an only child.
But the dates matched.
Michael had disappeared from the Sterling family’s records years before Daniel was born.
Daniel felt dizzy.
“That’s my father.”
Victoria stared.
“What?”
“My father.”
The mystery suddenly became much larger.
Emily hadn’t merely known Thomas Sterling.
She had been protecting Victoria’s family.
And Daniel’s father might have been connected to the entire secret.
A metallic click sounded behind them.
The safe had opened.
Inside was a thick black ledger.
And a letter addressed to Daniel.
His hands shook as he opened it.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
But the first sentence made his blood run cold.
Daniel, if you are reading this, then Emily is gone and you have finally found the truth.
Daniel looked at Victoria.
Someone had known he would eventually find the lighthouse.
Someone had expected him.
The letter continued.
Your father was not who you believed he was.
