Single Dad Resigned in Silence…Then His CEO Arrived at Midnight With a Shocking Offer
Chapter 5
Victoria returned to the city alone.
Daniel stayed with Lily.
He wanted his daughter away from the investigation.
Three days passed.
Then Victoria called.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“My father’s private records.”
Daniel sat down.
“What did they show?”
“Payments.”
“To whom?”
Michael.
A former police officer.
A private investigator.
And one other person.
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“Who?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Robert Hale.”
His former manager.
Daniel clenched his fists.
“He was there.”
“Yes.”
“On the night Sarah died?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“We’re not sure.”
Daniel stared at the wall.
He thought about all the years he had worked beside Robert.
All the times Robert had told him to stop asking questions.
All the times his reports disappeared.
It had never been random.
Robert had been protecting something.
Victoria continued:
“There is more.”
“What?”
“My father paid him for six years.”
“For what?”
“Silence.”
Daniel felt sick.
“About Sarah?”
“Possibly.”
“What happened to Robert?”
“He’s missing.”
Daniel stood.
“Of course he is.”
Then Lily entered the room.
“Dad?”
Daniel turned quickly.
“Hey.”
“Are we going home?”
Daniel smiled.
“Soon.”
“Can I ask something?”
“Anything.”
“Why is that lady helping us?”
Daniel looked at Victoria through the phone.
“Because she thinks it’s the right thing.”
Lily considered that.
“Is she your boss?”
“She was.”
“Was?”
Daniel smiled.
“Complicated.”
Lily nodded.
“Adults always make things complicated.”
Victoria laughed softly through the phone.
Lily looked around.
“Can she hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Hi.”
“Hi, Lily.”
“You sound nice.”
Victoria smiled.
“Thank you.”
Lily disappeared.
Daniel looked at the phone.
“She’s never like that with strangers.”
“She’s not a stranger to me anymore.”
Daniel paused.
Neither said anything.
Then Victoria asked:
“Can you come back tomorrow?”
“Why?”
“I found a recording.”
“What kind?”
“My father talking to Robert.”
Daniel’s heart accelerated.
“What did they say?”
“I haven’t listened to it.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you there.”
The next day, they sat in Victoria’s office.
She played the recording.
Her father’s voice came through.
“You were supposed to scare him.”
Robert answered:
“He didn’t scare.”
“Then make him leave.”
“What about the woman?”
Silence.
Then Victoria’s father said:
“She saw too much.”
Daniel’s blood went cold.
The recording continued.
“Does Daniel know?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Are we going to stop?”
“No.”
The recording ended.
Daniel stared at Victoria.
She looked devastated.
“My father ordered someone to frighten me.”
“And Sarah?”
“We don’t know.”
“But the woman saw too much.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“They were talking about my wife.”
Victoria nodded.
Then another file appeared.
A payment made three days before Sarah’s accident.
Signed by Robert.
Approved by Victoria’s father.
And deposited into an account belonging to someone named Ethan Reed.
Daniel froze.
“Who is Ethan Reed?”
Victoria looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel felt something inside him collapse.
Because his own last name was Reed.
And the account had been opened twenty-seven years earlier.
The same year he was born.
