“Marry Me and I’ll Help Raise Your Daughters” — Billionaire to Single Dad, His Daughter Said…
Chapter 6
We didn’t tell the girls.
Not yet.
We needed facts.
Victoria spent two days searching every record connected to Rachel.
I did too.
Then we discovered the connection.
Rachel had been helping Margaret expose a financial fraud inside Sterling Global.
Margaret had discovered that her husband wasn’t the mastermind.
Someone else was using his company to move money.
Rachel had become her investigator.
And Margaret’s disappearance had been staged to keep her alive.
But then Rachel found something neither woman expected.
Money was being moved through a charitable trust.
A trust created in Victoria’s name.
I stared at the records.
“Victoria had no idea.”
“No,” she said.
“Who controlled it?”
“My father.”
“What was it for?”
Children’s services.
Healthcare.
Scholarships.
The same programs the foundation still funded today.
Except millions had been diverted.
Rachel had discovered the missing money.
That was why she was investigating.
And now we knew why her old files had been stolen.
Someone was trying to erase the connection.
Then we found Rachel’s final note.
The money can be traced through one account.
The account belonged to a private foundation.
And the authorized signer was Victoria’s uncle, Richard Sterling.
Her father’s brother.
I looked at Victoria.
“He’s still on the board.”
“Yes.”
“He’s the person who wants your position.”
“Yes.”
“Then he has the motive.”
She nodded.
But something still bothered me.
“What about your mother?”
Victoria looked at the photograph.
“My mother survived.”
Rachel knew.
Maybe she had helped her.
Maybe she hid her.
Maybe she had promised to protect her.
We needed to know.
Then the phone rang.
An unknown number.
A woman’s voice.
“Victoria?”
Victoria stood.
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then:
“It’s your mother.”
Victoria couldn’t speak.
Margaret gave an address.
She was alive.
And she wanted to meet.
We drove there that night.
A small apartment overlooking Central Park.
When the door opened, Victoria froze.
Margaret looked older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably her mother.
They held each other for a long time.
I stood back.
Rachel had somehow connected all these lives.
Margaret looked at me.
“You’re Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“Rachel chose well.”
I swallowed.
“You knew my wife?”
“She saved my life.”
Victoria wiped her eyes.
“Why did you let me believe you were dead?”
“Because Richard was willing to kill you.”
Victoria looked shocked.
“Why didn’t Dad stop him?”
“He tried.”
“Then why?”
Margaret lowered her eyes.
“Your father was afraid.”
“Of Richard?”
“No.”
“Of whom?”
“Of what I discovered.”
The room became quiet.
Margaret explained.
Richard had been stealing money.
But he wasn’t acting alone.
The CFO had created the network.
Richard used it for personal gain.
But the person controlling the entire operation was someone else.
Someone Margaret had trusted.
Someone Rachel had trusted.
Someone they never suspected.
Victoria asked,
“Who?”
Margaret looked at me.
Then at Victoria.
“Your father.”
Victoria froze.
I felt the floor disappear.
“Jonathan Sterling created the first accounts.”
“He started the network?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“To hide money from your grandfather.”
Victoria couldn’t process it.
Her father had created the system as a protective fund.
Then people corrupted it.
Richard exploited it.
The CFO expanded it.
And eventually Jonathan lost control.
Margaret had discovered the truth.
Rachel helped her.
Jonathan tried to protect them.
But someone panicked.
Someone ordered the cover-up.
Margaret said,
“Jonathan didn’t kill Rachel.”
Victoria looked relieved.
“Then who?”
Margaret’s answer was quiet.
“Richard.”
Silence.
I stared at her.
“My wife…”
“Rachel found proof.”
“She was killed because of it.”
Margaret nodded.
“And before she died, she hid the final evidence.”
“Where?”
Margaret looked at my daughters’ names in my phone.
“With Sophie.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Rachel trusted your younger daughter.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“She didn’t trust her with documents.”
Margaret smiled sadly.
“She trusted what Rachel had placed inside her favorite toy.”
