Single Dad Applied as a Janitor — Then the Billionaire CEO Recognized His Name
Chapter 3
The recording lasted nineteen seconds.
Evelyn listened twice.
Robert Sterling’s voice was unmistakable.
“Do not trust Victor.”
Then static.
Daniel looked at her.
“Victor Shaw?”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
The recording continued.
“Thomas was right.”
A second of silence.
“If you found Daniel, keep him away from the company.”
Then the recording ended.
Evelyn stared at the phone.
Daniel felt something cold move through him.
“Why would your father say that?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked toward the window.
“My father spent his last six months investigating something.”
“What?”
“I never found out.”
“Could it be connected to mine?”
“Probably.”
Daniel stood.
“I should leave.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because I came for a janitor’s job.”
“And now you’re sitting in the CEO’s office discussing a dead man’s warning.”
“Exactly.”
She walked toward him.
“Daniel.”
He stopped.
“Your father may have saved my life.”
“And someone may have killed him.”
“Yes.”
“Then why would you want me here?”
“Because I think he left something behind.”
Daniel frowned.
“For you?”
“For me.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
She handed him a key.
It was old.
Brass.
With the number 17 engraved on it.
“My father gave this to me when I was nineteen.”
Daniel looked at it.
“What’s it open?”
“I never found out.”
“Why give it to you?”
“He told me to find Thomas Brooks if anything happened to him.”
Daniel’s breath caught.
“What happened after?”
“My father disappeared.”
“Thomas died.”
“I assumed the key meant nothing.”
Daniel turned it over.
There was a small engraving on the back.
B-17.
He knew that marking.
“What’s wrong?” Evelyn asked.
“My father had a storage unit.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
He remembered an old box in the garage.
After his father’s death, his mother had packed everything.
Daniel had never looked through it.
He called her.
The answer came quickly.
“Mom?”
“Daniel?”
“Do you still have Dad’s things?”
Silence.
“Why?”
“I need to ask you something.”
“Daniel…”
“Did Dad ever mention Sterling Global?”
Another silence.
Then his mother whispered,
“Who told you?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“You know.”
“I know enough.”
“Mom.”
She sighed.
“Come over.”
Daniel drove to her house after work.
Lily stayed with a neighbor.
His mother sat him down at the kitchen table.
She looked older than he remembered.
“Your father didn’t trust the company.”
“Why?”
“Because people there wanted him dead.”
Daniel stared.
“Did he tell you that?”
“Not directly.”
“Then how do you know?”
She reached into a cabinet.
Pulled out an old envelope.
“Your father gave me this two days before he died.”
Daniel opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Thomas Brooks standing beside Robert Sterling.
And behind them stood a much younger Victor Shaw.
His father had written one sentence on the back:
If anything happens to me, never trust the man standing behind us.
Daniel looked up.
“Why didn’t you show me this?”
“Because your father made me promise.”
“Did he know he was going to die?”
His mother nodded.
“Yes.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“And you never told me?”
“You were twenty-four.”
“I deserved to know.”
“You deserved to live.”
He stared at the photograph.
The truth was getting bigger.
And more dangerous.
He returned to Sterling Global the next morning.
Evelyn was waiting.
“I found something.”
She looked at the photograph.
Her face changed.
“I know this picture.”
“Who is Victor?”
“My father’s most trusted adviser.”
“Was.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“He’s still here.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Where?”
“Forty-second floor.”
He frowned.
“What’s there?”
“My father’s old executive office.”
Evelyn walked toward the elevator.
“Come with me.”
The doors opened.
They stepped inside.
As they rose, Evelyn said quietly,
“Daniel, I need you to understand something.”
“What?”
“If Victor knows you’ve found this photograph…”
She stopped.
The elevator doors opened.
A man stood waiting.
Silver-haired.
Elegant.
Smiling.
Victor Shaw.
He looked at Daniel.
Then at the photograph in his hand.
And smiled.
“I wondered when Thomas’s son would come looking.”
