Chapter 5 - Deleted at 2:13 A.M.
Michael did something foolish the next morning.
He confronted Daniel.
Rachel had told him not to.
Eleanor had told him not to.
Even Helen, after learning about the home security logs, had said, “Get proof first.”
Michael went anyway.
Daniel was alone in his office overlooking the hangars.
He did not look surprised when Michael entered.
“I wondered how long you’d last.”
Michael closed the door.
“You were in my house at two thirteen in the morning last March.”
Daniel leaned back.
“Was I?”
“Vanessa disarmed the alarm.”
“That does not prove I was there.”
“Grace saw you.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Grace is sixty years old.”
“Fifty-five.”
“How fortunate.”
Michael stepped closer.
“You disabled my office cameras.”
“No.”
“My administrator account did.”
“Then perhaps you should have protected your password.”
Michael stared at him.
Daniel smiled.
There it was.
Not a confession.
Something uglier.
Confidence.
“You signed Blue Alder payments using my credentials.”
Daniel’s expression cooled.
“You should be careful saying that aloud.”
“Why?”
“Because if your signature appears on fraudulent transfers, accusing the CFO of forging it is exactly what a guilty CEO would do.”
Michael hated that he was right.
Daniel stood.
“You made this easy.”
“What?”
“You never read what you signed.”
“I read everything.”
Daniel gave him a look.
“No. Laura read everything.”
The name landed like a blow.
Michael grabbed the edge of Daniel’s desk instead of Daniel’s throat.
“What did Laura know?”
Daniel’s face became blank.
“Ask your mother.”
Michael stepped around the desk.
Daniel did not move.
“Did you hurt my sister?”
For the first time, real emotion appeared.
Not fear.
Anger.
“You think every tragedy is about you.”
Michael’s hand tightened.
Daniel leaned closer.
“Laura died because Laura believed she was indestructible.”
Michael heard Rachel’s voice in his head.
Do not touch him.
He stepped back.
Daniel smiled again.
“Good choice.”
Michael left.
He had barely reached the parking garage when his phone rang.
Rachel.
“I know.”
“How?”
“Daniel’s attorney called me.”
Michael closed his eyes.
“He says you threatened him.”
“I asked him a question.”
“You entered his office after being suspended.”
“I’m still a shareholder.”
“That does not give you the right to interrogate executives.”
Michael rubbed his forehead.
“I screwed up.”
“Yes.”
The bluntness helped.
“What now?”
“Now you stop helping him.”
When Michael returned home, Sophie was sitting with a court-appointed guardian ad litem named Dr. Nina Patel.
Michael stayed outside the room as required.
Forty minutes later, Nina joined him.
“She loves you.”
Michael waited.
“But?”
“She is afraid of losing you.”
“That isn’t because of me.”
Nina held his gaze.
“Some of it is.”
Michael bristled.
“She watched her mother die from her life. Then you became her guardian. You work constantly. She has heard adults discussing courts, money, and whether you’re fit to care for her.”
“I never said those things in front of her.”
“Children hear closed doors.”
He had no answer.
Nina continued.
“She also told me Vanessa repeatedly asked her to say you frightened her.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“She told you that?”
“Yes.”
“Then Vanessa manipulated her.”
“Yes.”
Nina surprised him.
“But Sophie also said you frightened her sometimes.”
Michael looked away.
“That matters too.”
He swallowed.
“What do you recommend?”
“That every adult stop treating Sophie like evidence.”
The sentence followed him all afternoon.
At five, Rachel arrived with a private forensic accountant.
Priya Shah was forty-one, soft-spoken, and unimpressed by Reed money.
She placed three spreadsheets on the table.
“Blue Alder received four point eight million.”
Michael nodded.
“Daniel approved it.”
“Yes. But there is more.”
Priya pointed to another set of transactions.
“Six hundred and twelve thousand dollars moved from Blue Alder to a Colorado property company.”
Michael read the name.
VCR Holdings LLC.
“Vanessa Claire Reed,” he said.
Priya nodded.
The money had paid off the mortgage on a house in Boulder.
Michael knew the address.
Vanessa’s mother lived there.
He sat back.
Not greed alone, then.
Something personal.
His phone buzzed.
A message from Vanessa.
You should stop digging.
A second arrived.
You think Daniel is the worst thing you’re going to find. He isn’t.
Then a photograph.
Laura.
Standing in Michael’s home office.
Alive.
The date stamp showed three days before her fatal crash.
Daniel stood beside her.
Vanessa stood on the other side.
On the desk between them lay a Blue Alder folder.
Michael zoomed in.
Laura’s face was furious.
May you like
Vanessa looked terrified.
Daniel was smiling.
