Chapter 4: The Missing File

For several seconds, I stared at Damon.

“My father had a file in your office?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

He looked away.

I grabbed his arm again. “Why did you have a file on my dead father?”

“Maya, I need to find out what was taken first.”

“No.”

My voice shook.

“You don’t get to do this. You tell me you knew my father, then someone steals his file from your office on my wedding day, and now you expect me to sit quietly?”

“I don’t expect you to sit quietly.”

“Then answer me.”

Damon’s jaw tightened.

“Your father worked for Bennett Global.”

I stared at him.

“No, he didn’t.”

“He did.”

“My father worked for Morrison and Cole for almost twenty years.”

“Publicly.”

A chill crawled over my skin.

“What does that mean?”

Damon leaned back.

“Daniel was hired privately by my father to examine financial irregularities within Bennett Global.”

I shook my head.

“You’re mistaken.”

“I’m not.”

“My father would have told me.”

“He couldn’t.”

“Why?”

“He signed a confidentiality agreement.”

I laughed bitterly.

“Convenient.”

Damon accepted the accusation without reacting.

The car turned onto a wide avenue.

Bennett Tower rose ahead of us, a massive glass building dominating the skyline.

I had visited twice with Ethan.

I had never known a piece of my father was hidden somewhere inside.

“What did he find?”

Damon remained silent.

I felt anger rising again.

“Damon.”

“Money was disappearing.”

“How much?”

“Millions.”

My mouth went dry.

“Did he find out who was taking it?”

“I don’t know.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Your father disappeared from the investigation before submitting his final report.”

I froze.

“Disappeared?”

“He stopped answering calls. Two weeks later, he was admitted to St. Matthew’s.”

My chest tightened.

That hospital stay.

The beginning of everything.

Dad had collapsed at work. At least, that was what I had always believed.

“Why were you at the hospital?”

Damon looked at me.

“I went to see him.”

The answer hit me hard.

“You visited my father?”

“I tried.”

“Tried?”

“He refused to see me.”

The car stopped beneath Bennett Tower.

Damon opened his door.

I didn’t move.

He looked back.

“Maya.”

“My father died eight months later.”

“I know.”

“Did his death have anything to do with Bennett Global?”

His expression became unreadable.

That was enough.

My stomach dropped.

“Oh God.”

“I don’t know what happened to your father.”

“But you suspect something.”

“I suspect enough to have kept his records.”

The driver opened my door.

I stepped out on shaking legs.

My wedding gown felt absurd now.

Less than an hour ago, my life had been about Ethan.

Now I was wondering whether I knew anything about my own father.

Damon led me through a private entrance.

Employees stared as we crossed the lobby.

Of course they did.

Their CEO had arrived with his son’s bride.

Still wearing her wedding dress.

Damon ignored every curious glance.

The elevator opened directly into his executive floor.

A tall man in a dark suit waited outside Damon’s office.

“Mr. Bennett.”

“Marcus.”

The man looked at me, then quickly away.

“What happened?”

“No forced entry,” Marcus said. “Whoever entered used authorized access.”

Damon stopped.

“Whose?”

“We’re checking.”

He pushed open his office door.

The room was enormous, but I barely noticed.

A drawer behind his desk hung open.

Marcus pointed toward it.

“Nothing else appears disturbed.”

Damon crossed the room.

I followed.

“Where was the file?”

He indicated the open drawer.

“Here.”

I stared at the empty space.

“What was inside?”

“Your father’s contracts. Copies of financial records. Correspondence.”

“Anything else?”

Damon hesitated.

My pulse quickened.

“What else?”

“A photograph.”

“Of my father?”

“No.”

“Then who?”

His eyes met mine.

“You.”

My breath caught.

“Why did you have my photograph?”

Before Damon answered, Marcus cleared his throat.

“Sir, there’s something else.”

Damon turned.

“We checked the security footage.”

“And?”

“The cameras on this floor were disabled for eleven minutes.”

Damon’s expression hardened.

“Whoever did this knew the system.”

“Yes.”

Marcus held out a tablet.

“But the elevator camera stayed online.”

Damon took it.

I stepped closer.

A grainy image filled the screen.

A man wearing a cap entered the executive elevator carrying nothing.

The next clip showed him leaving eleven minutes later.

A thick brown folder was tucked beneath his arm.

My heart pounded.

“Do you know him?”

Damon enlarged the image.

The man's face became clearer.

I stopped breathing.

No.

That was impossible.

I grabbed the tablet.

“Maya?”

My hands began trembling.

I knew that face.

Older now.

Thinner.

But I knew him.

Damon watched me.

“Who is he?”

I looked up at him.

“My father’s brother.”

Damon went still.

I stared at the screen again.

Uncle Richard.

The man my family had buried five years ago.