CEO Made Her Nephew Lead Mechanic Over a Single Dad—Then the Whole Crew Walked Out
Chapter 6
The company began losing money immediately.
Customers went elsewhere.
Fleet contracts were delayed.
Insurance claims were piling up.
Claire canceled vacations.
Board members called every morning.
Her CFO warned her the garage could become insolvent within months.
Tyler kept insisting he could fix things.
He couldn’t.
Three cars came back with the same problem.
A fourth had a serious brake issue.
The insurance company demanded an explanation.
Claire found herself working until midnight.
Then one evening, she discovered an old folder in the archive.
It was a service report from six years earlier.
A customer had brought in a luxury SUV involved in a highway accident.
The report was signed by Mason.
Underneath was a handwritten note.
Brake failure began before impact.
Claire frowned.
The report stated that the customer’s brakes had failed.
But the official company conclusion blamed the driver.
The claim had been settled quickly.
Claire kept reading.
Mason had recommended an independent examination.
The company rejected it.
The customer’s family had sued.
The case had disappeared.
Claire searched the records.
The same customer name appeared in a confidential legal file.
Then she found something unexpected.
The lawyer who had represented Bennett Automotive had been paid by a consulting company owned by Claire’s uncle.
Claire felt sick.
Why had Mason been the only person who questioned the accident?
She found another note.
Mason Cole warned that the failure pattern was consistent with deliberate tampering.
Her heart raced.
She called the old service manager.
“Do you remember this?”
He hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t Mason’s report included?”
Silence.
“Because we were told not to.”
“By whom?”
The manager whispered,
“Tyler’s father.”
Claire froze.
Tyler’s father had died before Tyler joined the company.
Why would he have been involved?
She looked at the old accident report.
The customer’s name.
The vehicle.
The date.
Six years earlier.
Then she remembered something.
Her own father had been driving a Bennett company vehicle that same week.
Her father had suffered a minor accident.
Claire had always been told it was unrelated.
She suddenly wasn’t sure.
The next morning, she called Mason.
He answered.
“What?”
“I found the report.”
Silence.
“You remember it?”
“Yes.”
“The brake failure.”
“Yes.”
“You thought it was deliberate.”
“I still do.”
“Why?”
“Because someone altered the vehicle before the accident.”
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
Claire lowered her voice.
“My uncle’s company lawyer handled the case.”
Mason went quiet.
“And Tyler’s father ordered the report changed.”
“I know.”
Claire stared.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“You never did.”
“I did.”
“When?”
Mason’s voice became quiet.
“The week before your father’s accident.”
Claire froze.
Her father’s accident.
Six years ago.
Mason continued.
“I told you in the meeting.”
“I don’t remember.”
“I know.”
There was pain in his voice.
“You were busy.”
Claire closed her eyes.
She remembered.
A crowded conference room.
Mason standing near the door.
She had barely looked at him.
She had told him to send the report to legal.
She had forgotten.
She whispered,
“I’m sorry.”
Mason said nothing.
Then Claire asked,
“Did you think my father was the target?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the brakes failed on a route nobody knew he was taking.”
Claire’s chest tightened.
“Who else knew?”
Mason hesitated.
“One person.”
“Who?”
“Tyler’s father.”
Claire sat down.
For six years, she had believed her father’s accident was bad luck.
Now she was beginning to wonder whether someone had tried to kill him.
And if that was true, the nepotism fight inside her garage was only the surface of something much darker.
Because Tyler had inherited more than a job.
He may have inherited a secret.
