THE BILLIONAIRE TRIED TO FIRE HER—THEN DISCOVERED HER SHOCKING SECRET
Chapter 7
The media attack was immediate.
Emma’s photograph appeared everywhere.
Former employee accused of financial manipulation.
Secret family connection to billionaire CEO.
Possible insider fraud.
Her phone wouldn’t stop ringing.
Sophie came home from school crying.
“Mom, kids said you’re going to jail.”
Emma’s heart broke.
She knelt.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Are you a bad person?”
“No.”
“Then why are they saying that?”
Emma hugged her.
“Because some people lie.”
Adrian arrived that evening.
He stood at the door.
Sophie looked at him.
“Are you Mom’s boss?”
Adrian smiled.
“Used to be.”
“You fired her.”
He looked at Emma.
“Yes.”
Sophie frowned.
“That was mean.”
Emma almost laughed.
Adrian nodded.
“She was right about something.”
Sophie crossed her arms.
“She’s usually right.”
Adrian looked impressed.
“I’ve noticed.”
Sophie went upstairs.
Emma turned to him.
“You didn’t need to come.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my sister.”
The words landed softly.
Emma looked at him.
He seemed uncomfortable saying them.
But sincere.
She smiled.
“That’s going to take some getting used to.”
“For me too.”
They spent the night tracing the source of the leak.
Someone had accessed the internal audit before the article appeared.
The digital trail led to an executive account.
Adrian’s chief financial officer.
Emma’s original accuser.
He disappeared before investigators could question him.
Richard was still missing.
And then Emma found something in the leaked files.
A document that hadn’t come from Blackwell Holdings.
It was from her mother’s old records.
The document stated that Laura Carter had received a payment twenty-nine years earlier.
From Richard Blackwell.
Amount:
$2 million.
Emma stared.
“Why would he pay my mother?”
Adrian leaned over.
“Maybe to disappear.”
“Or to keep silent.”
“About you.”
Emma shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at the date.
One day before her birth.
Then she saw another name.
The payment had been approved by Adrian’s father.
Her stomach dropped.
“My father paid her too.”
Adrian read the document.
“He may have been trying to protect you.”
“But why two million dollars?”
“Maybe he wanted to make sure Richard couldn’t find you.”
Emma sat back.
She suddenly understood.
Her mother hadn’t simply disappeared.
She had been bought out of the family.
Hidden.
Protected.
Maybe both.
Then a new message appeared on Emma’s phone.
You were safer when you were nobody.
She showed Adrian.
His expression hardened.
“Call the police.”
“We need evidence.”
“We have enough.”
The phone buzzed again.
This time there was a photo.
Sophie outside school.
Emma’s blood ran cold.
Adrian immediately called security.
“This is no longer about money.”
“I know.”
“Who has access to her?”
“School staff.”
“Anyone else?”
Emma thought.
Her mother’s old records.
The leaked documents.
The family trust.
One person knew everything.
The CFO.
But the message had been sent from a secure account.
Then Adrian noticed the photo.
Taken from across the street.
“That’s not the school camera.”
“What?”
“Look at the angle.”
He zoomed in.
The photograph had been taken from inside a parked car.
Adrian stood.
“We’re moving Sophie tonight.”
Emma nodded.
An hour later, federal protection was arranged.
Sophie was safe.
But the person behind the threats had one final message.
You are looking in the wrong place.
Then a location appeared.
The old Blackwell estate.
Adrian stared at it.
His father’s house.
The place where they had found the letter.
Emma whispered,
“That’s where he wants us.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Exactly.”
