Single Dad Turned Down His CEO Boss Twice—Then She Proposed in Front of the Board
Chapter 7
The investigation moved quickly.
Security traced the recorder’s serial number to a company contractor.
That contractor disappeared before he could be questioned.
Victoria ordered a full internal audit.
Daniel worked beside the investigators late into the night.
One file kept appearing.
Thomas Hale.
His employment record had been altered.
His financial records had been partially erased.
Even his photograph was missing from the company’s archive.
“There,” Daniel said.
Victoria looked over his shoulder.
“What?”
“A payment.”
He pointed at an old transaction.
“Three million dollars.”
“Where did it go?”
“A shell company.”
“Whose?”
Daniel opened another file.
The company had been dissolved fifteen years ago.
But the registered attorney was still active.
His name was Martin Sloan.
Richard Sloan’s older brother.
Victoria went silent.
“My father trusted Martin.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Maybe too much.”
Victoria stared at the screen.
“I need to know whether my father knew.”
“Then we find out.”
They searched old legal archives.
At 2:17 a.m., Daniel found an encrypted document.
It contained one sentence.
Thomas Hale did not steal the money.
Victoria closed her eyes.
“What else?”
“There isn’t enough.”
Then Daniel noticed something.
A second file was hidden inside the archive.
It contained an audio recording.
A man’s voice.
Old.
Tired.
Terrified.
Thomas Hale.
“If this reaches Victoria, tell her the truth. Her father wasn’t the thief. But he wasn’t innocent either.”
Victoria stared at the speaker.
Thomas continued.
“The money was used to buy silence after the warehouse fire.”
Daniel frowned.
“What warehouse fire?”
Victoria whispered,
“I remember one.”
Her father had told her it was an accident.
Twelve workers had died.
The company had paid compensation.
The case had disappeared.
Thomas’s voice continued.
“Someone ordered the fire to destroy financial records. I found the documents before they were burned.”
Then came static.
“If anything happens to me, the person responsible is—”
The recording cut out.
Victoria slammed her hand on the table.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What’s wrong?”
“I recognize this.”
“What?”
“The warehouse.”
She stood.
“My father took me there the week before it burned.”
Daniel followed.
“Why?”
“He wanted me to understand what it meant to run Sterling.”
“Did he say anything?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“He told me some people would do anything for money.”
Daniel watched her.
“Do you remember who was with him?”
She hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Richard Sloan.”
Silence.
They returned to the office.
Victoria called an emergency board meeting for the next morning.
Daniel asked,
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have enough evidence.”
“I have enough to ask questions.”
“And if Richard knows?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Then he’ll make a mistake.”
The next morning, the board assembled.
Richard entered confidently.
Until he saw Daniel.
Then Victoria.
Then the folder on the table.
His confidence disappeared.
Victoria opened the meeting.
“Fifteen years ago, someone inside this company covered up the truth about the warehouse fire.”
Richard leaned back.
“This is absurd.”
Victoria looked directly at him.
“Is it?”
And then she played Thomas Hale’s recording.
Richard’s face went white.
For the first time in fifteen years, the truth was no longer buried.
And someone in that room was about to lose everything.
