chapter 8

Sophia

I closed the file carefully, almost afraid it would fall apart in my hands. The silence between us stretched, but this time it felt different.

When I'd walked into Damien Hart's office an hour earlier, I'd been convinced he was another ruthless billionaire looking to profit from my family's misfortune.

Now… I wasn't so sure.

"I still don't understand one thing," I said, lifting my eyes to his. "If you believe those missing pages are important, why bring them to me? Why not hand everything over to the police?"

Damien let out a quiet breath. "The police investigate crimes."

"And this isn't a crime?"

"It is." His gaze hardened. "But they don't investigate motives that are twenty years old."

I frowned. "You think this started long before the missing money."

"I know it did."

The certainty in his voice sent a ripple of unease through me.

He walked back to the window, slipping one hand into the pocket of his tailored trousers.

"When my father died, I spent months going through his personal records. Most of it was exactly what I expected… contracts, acquisitions, investment portfolios."

He paused, his eyes fixed on the rain-speckled skyline. "But there was one thing he never stopped writing about."

"My father?"

He nodded. "David Bennett."

I felt my heartbeat slow. "My father wasn't his enemy."

"I know."

The answer came so quickly that I looked up in surprise. "You know?"

"I know my father believed he was." He turned to face me. "But belief and truth aren't always the same thing."

For the first time since meeting Damien Hart, I caught a glimpse of the man beneath the billionaire everyone feared. He wasn't speaking with bitterness. He wasn't trying to settle an old score.

He sounded... tired, as though he'd spent years chasing answers that always stayed just beyond his reach.

"I don't understand," I admitted quietly. "If you don't think my father betrayed yours, then why has Hart Global been trying to acquire Bennett Accounting?"

A faint smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. "I wasn't trying to destroy your company."

"Then what were you trying to do?"

"Protect it."

The words hung between us.

I stared at him, thinking I had misheard. "Protect it?"

"If Bennett Accounting collapsed before I found the truth, everything connected to that agreement would disappear with it."

I shook my head. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't have to." He picked up another folder from his desk and placed it beside the first one. "I didn't ask you here to convince you." He slid the folder toward me. "I asked you here because someone inside your father's company is searching for the same thing I'm searching for."

I looked down but didn't open it. "I'm tired of finding documents that raise more questions than answers."

"Me too."

For a brief moment, our eyes met. There was no hostility, no challenge. Just two people standing on opposite side of the same mystery.

The shrill sound of my phone shattered the silence. I glanced at the screen, it was Ethan calling.

"Excuse me." I said as I answered the call.

"Hey. Has Dad finally accepted that the doctors know what they're doing?"

There was no reply, only hurried breathing.

“Ethan?”

"Sophia..."

Just then I knew something was very wrong. I tightened my grip around the phone “what happened?”

“Dad's gone.”

The words didn't register “what?”

“He's gone”

I stood so abruptly that my chair toppled backwards. “What do you mean he's gone?”

“I came back from the cafeteria and his room was empty”.

A cold wave swept through me. “What about the nurses?”

“They thought he was with me”

“Have they checked the security cameras?”

“They are checking them now”.

I could hear voices in the background, someone calling instructions down the corridor.

My heart pounded so hard. "He couldn't have gone far."

"They can't find him, Sophia."

Every ounce of colour drained from my face. "I'll be there." I ended the call before he could say another word.

My hands were shaking as I reached for my bag.

Damien picked up his car keys. "What happened?"

"My father's missing."

His expression changed instantly, just enough for me to realise he understood the seriousness of those words. "Let's go."

We hurried through the executive floor toward the private lift, neither of us spoke.

The doors slid open almost immediately.

As we stepped inside, I pressed the button for the ground floor again and again, as if it would somehow make the lift move faster, but it didn't.

My thoughts spiralled. Dad was recovering, he could barely walk without assistance. He wouldn't simply leave the hospital without telling Ethan, without even calling me.

Unless…. Unless someone had convinced or made him leave.

The lift doors opened. Damien led the way through the lobby with long, purposeful strides. His driver was already waiting outside. Within seconds we were pulling away from Hart Global.

Rain lashed against the windscreen, traffic crawled. Every red light felt like an insult.

I stared out of the window, silently willing the car to move faster.

Beside me, Damien made a phone call. "Increase security at Bennett Accounting." He paused, then continued "No one enters the archives until I say so." Another pause. “And find out whether David Bennett left the hospital voluntarily”. He said, then ended the call.

"You have people everywhere, don't you?"

"I have people where they're needed."

I wanted to ask another question. Instead, my phone buzzed. A message from Ethan. He sent a photograph. My fingers trembled as I opened it.

It was a still image taken from one of the hospital’s security cameras. The timestamp showed it had been recorded just eleven minutes earlier.

In the photograph, I saw my father leaving the hospital. He wasn't alone, someone was walking beside him.

The figure wore a dark overcoat and a cap pulled low over their face. Most of their features were hidden.

But one detail was impossible to miss, the silver walking cane in their right hand. I have seen it before, not once, countless times. My breath caught. “No…”

Damien glanced at the screen. "You recognise them."

I couldn't take my eyes off the photograph. “I know that cane” the words barely escaped my lips.

My pulse thundered in my ears. Because there was only one person connected to Bennett Accounting who carried a silver cane everywhere he went.

And if I was right… Then everything I thought I knew about my father's closest friend was about to be turned upside down.