The Billionaire in the Orange Vest
Chapter 4
Clara’s apartment was small enough that she could hear the refrigerator turn on from her bed.
She shared the place with her younger brother, Noah, who was finishing college.
That night, she came home exhausted.
Noah looked up from the kitchen table.
“Bad day?”
“Normal day.”
“Normal for you means terrible.”
She smiled.
“Probably.”
He pushed a bowl toward her.
“Eat.”
She sat down.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
You should stop asking questions about the hospital.
Clara stared at the message.
Noah noticed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
She deleted it.
But ten minutes later, another message arrived.
People who interfere get hurt.
She didn’t sleep well.
The next morning, she reported the messages to hospital security.
Nothing happened.
At lunch, she found Adrian waiting near the cafeteria.
“You look tired.”
“I received a threat.”
His expression immediately changed.
“What kind?”
She showed him.
He read both messages.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I don’t know you.”
“You know enough to know I can protect you.”
“No.”
He looked surprised.
“I know enough to know powerful people can make problems disappear. I don’t know whether they can make problems worse.”
Adrian nodded slowly.
“You’re right.”
He took out his phone.
“I’ll have security investigate without involving your name.”
“Thank you.”
He started walking away.
Clara called after him.
“Mr. Vale.”
He turned.
“Don’t make a big show of it.”
“I won’t.”
“Good.”
That evening, Adrian reviewed security footage.
Someone had followed Clara from the hospital.
The person was careful.
Baseball cap.
Mask.
No identifiable vehicle.
But the hospital cameras showed something else.
The person had entered through the staff parking area using an employee access card.
Adrian called security.
“Find out whose card was used.”
An hour later, he received the answer.
Martin Cole.
Chief financial officer.
Adrian confronted him privately.
“You’ve been accessing the staff parking area.”
Martin laughed.
“That’s normal.”
“You also approved payments to three companies connected to the same holding group.”
Martin’s smile disappeared.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You will.”
Martin leaned forward.
“You don’t understand how this hospital works.”
“I understand numbers.”
“You think money is everything.”
“No.”
Adrian’s voice hardened.
“I think people who steal from hospitals should be afraid.”
Martin stared at him.
Then he smiled.
“You should ask yourself why your father never bought this hospital.”
Adrian froze.
“My father?”
Martin walked away.
Adrian immediately called his legal team.
His father’s name had never appeared in the acquisition documents.
But now he wondered why.
That night, Adrian opened an old family archive.
His father had died twelve years earlier.
Among the documents was a letter.
It was addressed to Adrian.
He had never seen it.
The letter contained only one sentence:
If you ever buy St. Anne’s, look beneath the foundation before you trust anyone.
Adrian read it twice.
Then a third time.
The hospital had been built forty years earlier.
And suddenly, the renovation problem looked like something that had been waiting decades to be discovered.
