Single Dad Resigned in Silence…Then His CEO Arrived at Midnight With a Shocking Offer
Chapter 6
Daniel spent the night searching records.
Ethan Reed was listed as a distant relative.
His father’s older brother.
Daniel had never met him.
He had died twelve years earlier.
Why had money moved into his account?
Victoria’s investigators found the answer.
Ethan Reed had once worked for Carrington Systems.
As a financial auditor.
He had discovered the original theft.
Then he disappeared.
Daniel’s father had been his brother.
That meant Daniel’s family had been connected to the company long before he joined.
He called his father.
No answer.
Then remembered.
His father had died six years earlier.
Daniel sat back.
He had spent years thinking his father was simply a mechanic.
But now there was an entire history he didn’t know.
Victoria came to his apartment.
“I found your uncle’s files.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Who was he?”
“He was one of my father’s best auditors.”
“And?”
“He found the fraud.”
“Then why was he paid?”
“He wasn’t.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“Someone used his account.”
“To hide the money.”
Daniel understood.
His uncle had been framed.
Someone had stolen his identity.
“Who had access?”
“Your father’s office.”
Daniel stared.
“Then this goes back decades.”
Victoria nodded.
“And I think I know why.”
She handed him a document.
It was an old partnership agreement.
Carrington Systems had secretly acquired another company twenty-seven years earlier.
That company belonged to Daniel’s grandfather.
The deal had been controversial.
Money disappeared.
Ownership changed.
And one clause transferred certain assets into a family trust.
The beneficiary?
Daniel’s father.
The successor beneficiary?
Daniel.
He stared at the document.
“I own something?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Intellectual property.”
“What kind?”
A software patent.
Worth millions.
Daniel shook his head.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Because it was hidden.”
“Why?”
“Because someone has been trying to gain control of it for decades.”
Everything suddenly made sense.
The corporate fraud.
His father’s silence.
His uncle’s disappearance.
Sarah’s death.
The pressure at work.
Someone thought Daniel knew where the patent was.
But he didn’t.
Victoria looked at him.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The patent isn’t in your father’s name anymore.”
“Whose is it?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Lily’s.”
Daniel stared.
“My daughter?”
“She inherited it through an old trust.”
He felt dizzy.
“Why would my father do that?”
“To protect it.”
Daniel looked toward his daughter’s bedroom.
Someone hadn’t been threatening him because of his job.
They had been threatening him because of Lily.
That night, he moved Lily to Victoria’s secure property.
He hated needing protection.
But he hated risking his daughter more.
Victoria walked beside him.
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“I need to tell you something.”
He waited.
“I didn’t come to your house because you were the best employee.”
“What then?”
“I came because I knew the name Reed.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You knew?”
“My father mentioned your family years ago.”
“And you hired me anyway?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought the person who inherited that trust would eventually come looking.”
Daniel frowned.
“I didn’t even know it existed.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you protect me?”
Victoria looked toward Lily.
“Because I realized someone else was protecting you too.”
“Who?”
“Your wife.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
Victoria gave him a photograph.
Sarah.
Standing beside a hidden file cabinet.
The photograph had been taken at Carrington’s warehouse.
On the back was written:
She found the patent.
Daniel felt his knees weaken.
Sarah had known.
And she had been killed because she found it.
