“That Car Is Worthless” the CEO Said — Then a Single Dad Did the Impossible
Chapter 5
The explosion shook the laboratory.
Engineers jumped back.
Ethan ran toward the test chamber.
“Kill the power!”
A technician hit the emergency switch.
Smoke filled the room.
Victoria appeared seconds later.
“What happened?”
Ethan pulled open the chamber.
“Cooling failure.”
“Can we repair it?”
“Not yet.”
Victoria looked at the damaged prototype.
“How long?”
Ethan didn’t answer.
“Ethan.”
“We lost the motor.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
After nine months of work, they were back at the beginning.
The board reacted immediately.
Some directors demanded Ethan be removed.
Others argued that Victoria had wasted too much money.
One board member said:
“We hired a mechanic to solve an engineering problem. This was inevitable.”
Victoria slammed her hand on the table.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“He didn’t cause this failure.”
The board member continued.
“Then who did?”
Victoria stared at the failure report.
“Someone changed the cooling parameters.”
Silence.
“What?”
Victoria pointed at the logs.
“These weren’t Ethan’s settings.”
Security began reviewing access records.
The changes had been made from an internal terminal.
Someone inside Sterling had sabotaged the prototype.
Victoria ordered an investigation.
Ethan stayed late rebuilding the motor.
Near midnight, Victoria found him alone.
“You should go home.”
“So should you.”
She looked at him.
“You knew about the parameter change.”
Ethan nodded.
“I suspected.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I wanted proof.”
Victoria sat beside him.
“You always work alone.”
“Usually.”
“Not anymore.”
He looked at her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Victoria said:
“I was wrong about your car.”
Ethan smiled.
“That’s a difficult admission for a CEO.”
“It is.”
“What changed your mind?”
She looked at him.
“You did.”
He lowered his eyes.
Victoria suddenly became aware of how close they were.
She stood.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Victoria.”
She stopped.
“Thank you.”
She turned around.
“For what?”
“For believing me.”
Her expression softened.
“I believe the numbers.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
She understood.
The next morning, the investigation identified the first suspect.
Graham Pierce.
Sterling’s chief operating officer.
He had opposed the project from the beginning.
But when questioned, Graham denied everything.
Victoria didn’t fire him.
Not yet.
She wanted proof.
Meanwhile, Ethan found something strange inside the damaged prototype.
A modified component.
Someone had inserted a tiny device into the control board.
A tracker.
Ethan stared at it.
“That’s impossible.”
Victoria walked over.
“What?”
He held it up.
“This wasn’t installed by us.”
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“Then someone wanted to know what we were building.”
“Or someone wanted to steal it.”
That night, Ethan received an anonymous message.
One sentence.
Stop working on the project, or your daughter will pay the price.
Ethan’s blood turned cold.
He immediately called Victoria.
She answered on the first ring.
“What happened?”
Ethan sent her the photograph.
There was a long silence.
Then Victoria said:
“Bring Lily to my house.”
Ethan hesitated.
“Why?”
“Because whoever sent this knows where you live.”
And for the first time, Victoria wasn’t thinking like a CEO.
She was thinking like someone willing to protect the man she had begun to love.
