CHAPTER 5: YOU HID MY DAUGHTER

SERA’S POV

Monday morning arrived with a quiet insistence, the city outside buzzing like it always did. I stepped into Venus Industries, my heels clicking against the polished floors, my nerves buried beneath a thin bundle of composure.

“Good morning, Ms Thompson,” Margo greeted, with his clipboard in hand, his and his expression neutral. “Your desk is ready, follow me”

I followed him, my bag swinging gently at my side. The office smelled faintly of polished wood and espresso. My desk was neat…papers stacked in precise lines, my computer blinking softly.

“Mr. Blackwood prefers that you be at your desk by seven o’clock,” he said, gesturing to the chair, the computer, the neat stack of files already waiting for me.

“He arrives at seven-thirty. His coffee should be on his desk by seven-forty-five, black with one sugar. He does not like to wait for it.”

I set my bag down. “Understood.”

“The schedule for the month is in the top drawer.” He pulled it open, revealing a thick binder. “All meetings, calls, and travel arrangements are listed there. You will confirm everything twenty-four hours in advance. If there is a conflict, you will resolve it before bringing it to him.”

I opened the binder. The pages were filled with dates and times and names, each entry marked with a small check or a note in handwriting that clearly was not Margo’s.

“His assistant before you was very organized,” Margo said, watching me flip through the pages. “She lasted eight months. The one before her lasted six. The one before that lasted three.”

I looked up. “And you?”

“I have been here for three years.” He replied

“Why have you lasted for so long?”

He studied me for a moment. “Because I do my job and I do not ask questions.” He picked up his clip-board. “If you need anything, my desk is by the elevator.”

He walked away, leaving me with the binder and the silence and the closed door at the end of the hall.

At 8:30, his voice came through the intercom. “Come to my office, Ms Thompson.”

I walked in. He was on the phone, leaning back in his chair, watching me as I entered. He held up one finger. Wait.

I stood in front of his desk. “No,” he said into the phone. “I don’t care how long he’s been with the company, you have the proof. Use it.”

There was a pause, and he replied. “Yes. Effective immediately, I’ll handle the announcement myself.”

He hung up and tossed the phone on his desk. “Sit.” He ordered.

I sat, staring at him. “There’s a situation in the accounting department, a man named Delgado has been moving money for three years.”

“He has been taking small amounts that were hard to trace. He thought I wouldn’t notice.” He picked up a pen, twirled it. “But I noticed.”

“What does this have to do with me?” I asked irritatedly.

“You’re going to sit here and watch what i do to people who steal, and hide what belongs to me. Especially those who betray my trust.”

He pressed a button on his desk. “Send him in.”

The door opened. A man walked in, he looked mid-forties, he wore a rumpled suit, sweat already forming on his forehead. He stopped when he saw me. Damon gestured to the chair beside me. “Sit.”

Delgado sat. His hands were shaking. “You know why you’re here?” Damon said.

“Mr. Blackwood, I can explain….”

“You can try.” Damon leaned forward. “You’ve been with us for four years, you had good reviews. No one suspected you.” He paused. “How much?”

Delgado swallowed. “it’s Fifty thousand, over three years sir.”

“Fifty thousand.” Damon nodded slowly. “And where did it go?”

“My daughter's health….she needed surgery. The insurance…”

“I don’t care what she needs.” Damon’s voice was flat. “You stole from me.”

“I was going to pay it back. I had a plan.”

“You had a plan.” Damon looked at me. “What do you think? Should I believe him?”

I didn’t answer. “I asked you a question Ms Thompson”

“It’s not my place to have an opinion.” I snapped.

He gave a cold smile. “You’re learning, i like that.”

He turned back to Delgado. “You’re fired. Your severance is void. I’m pressing charges. You’ll hear from my lawyers by the end of the week.”

Delgado’s face went gray. “Please, sir please, my daughter, she's only twelve. Without the insurance she might die.”

“You should have thought about that before you stole from me.” Damon pressed another button. Security appeared. “Show him out.”

Delgado stood. He looked at me, desperate. “Please, tell him my daughter…..”

The guards took him out. The door closed behind us. Damon looked at me. “You feel sorry for him.”

“He stole from you.” I replied.

“But his daughter needed surgery.” He pressed.

“That’s between him and his conscience.” I replied.

“Very well this should be between you and your conscience.” He turned. He walked to his desk and picked up a manila envelope. He held it in his hands, looking at it, not at me.

“I have something to show you.” He said.

He set the envelope on the desk. He did not open it. He just stood there, his eyes fixed on the brown paper.

“I had a suspicion,” he said. “I have had it since the day you walked into this building and I saw your daughter's picture on your screenlock.”

“I told myself I was wrong, that I was seeing things that were not there.” He looked at me. “But I was not wrong.”

“I do not know what you are talking about.” I denied.

“Really?” He opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper and set it on the desk, facedown. “I had her tested with a strand of hair from her pillow, it was not difficult to get.”

My blood turned to ice, my hands went cold. and my entire room tilted. “You had no right Damon.” I snapped losing all politely

“I had every right.” He countered.

“She is my daughter. You had no right to touch her. You had no right to go near her.” I yelled and he flipped the paper over. I saw the words. Paternity test. 99.99% probability Father & Daughter. I saw the names. Mia Thompson. Damon Blackwood.

He picked up the paper, and he held it out to me. “Look at it.”

I did not look at the paper.“Look at it, Sera.” I stared at the paper in his hand. I could not move., nor could I breathe.

He set it on the desk in front of me and stepped closer. His voice was low, quiet and controlled.

“You hid my daughter from me,” he said. “For four years. You disappeared. You changed your name. You let me search for you, let me think you were dead or gone or married to someone else.”

He stepped closer. His face was inches from mine. “You let me spend five years wondering what I did wrong, what I could have done differently, why I was not enough.” He picked up the paper again. “And all that time, you had my

child. My daughter, you raised her without me.” You let her grow up not knowing who her father was.”

I opened my mouth to defend myself and actions, but no words came. He held the paper between us, his eyes burning into mine.

“So you hid my daughter,” he said. His voice was quiet, but it cut through me like a blade. “For four years. You kept her away from me.”

He set the paper down, his hands were flat on the desk, his knuckles white. When he looked at me again, his eyes were different and colder.

“I'm going to file for custody,” he said. “I'm taking her away from you.” The words hit me like a physical blow. I stared at him, waiting for him to take it back, to laugh and show me this was some cruel joke. But he did not, rather the temperature dropped heavily in the room

“You wouldn't dare.” My voice came out hoarse, barely a whisper. “You have no right. She is my daughter.”

“She has been mine since the day she was born. You were not there. You did not hold her. You did not stay up with her when she was sick. You did not…..”

“Because you did not tell me!” His voice rose for the first time. “You took that choice away from me. You took every choice away from me. You left, Sera.”

“You disappeared. And now I find out I have a daughter, a daughter who asked me to be her father, and you expect me to do nothing?”

I was about to reply him, when my phone buzzed. I ignored it at first…but it buzzed again. “Answer it.” Damon ordered staring at me.

I pulled the phone out from my hip pocket and opened the messages, it was from the same threat number, but this time the messages were different.

*Five years was a long time to hide. I almost thought you had learned your lesson. But you are still stubborn as ever. Stay in line Sera and do exactly what you’re told. Don’t test me. Because if you do…i can't promise, the next time you will see her.*

YOURS TRULY

M.A

I was still reading the messages, when my phone rang with a call from Ms Patel. Hurriedly I picked, ignoring Damon who was still staring at me with a fiery intensity.

“Sera Mia has been kidnapped.” She cried immediately i swiped green.