Chapter 2 - The Accounts Were Empty, and My Family Had Sold My Name
By sunrise, every person in the mansion was awake.
I had the security footage displayed across the library screens.
Thomas stood beside me.
Emma sat quietly near the fireplace.
My mother entered first.
She wore a silk robe and looked offended rather than frightened.
“You caused quite a scene last night.”
I didn't look at her.
“Sit.”
She stared at me.
“I am your mother.”
“And this is my house.”
Silence.
She sat.
Jennifer entered next.
Michael followed.
I placed the first bank statement on the desk.
“Explain this.”
Michael looked down.
“I don't know what that is.”
“Three million dollars transferred to an account in Miami.”
“Business expense.”
“You don't own a business.”
Jennifer jumped in.
“It was for family investments.”
“Whose family?”
She frowned.
“Ours.”
I looked at her.
“You spent my money.”
“Your money is the family's money.”
I laughed softly.
“No.”
I pulled another document forward.
“Seven million transferred to a company in Nevada.”
Another.
“Two million to a luxury car dealership.”
Another.
“Eight hundred thousand in cash withdrawals.”
Emma looked stunned.
“I didn't know it was this much.”
I glanced at her.
“Because they hid it from you.”
My mother became angry.
“You were gone.”
“So?”
“You abandoned your responsibilities.”
“I worked every day to grow this family.”
“We maintained your home.”
“You threw parties.”
“We protected Emma.”
“You humiliated her.”
My mother slammed her hand onto the table.
“She was weak!”
The room froze.
Emma lowered her eyes.
I stood.
My mother suddenly looked nervous.
“You think kindness keeps a woman alive in this world?”
“No.”
“Then what does?”
“Loyalty.”
She laughed.
“Your father was killed because he trusted people.”
My expression changed.
“My father was killed because someone betrayed him.”
She looked away.
I saw it.
Fear.
I had seen that expression on hardened criminals.
Not on my mother.
I walked around the desk.
“Where is the original financial ledger?”
She said nothing.
“Mother.”
Still nothing.
“Where is it?”
Jennifer looked at her.
My mother finally whispered, “I don't know.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“We searched the office.”
“And?”
“It's gone.”
I turned toward the family.
“Who had access?”
Everyone looked at everyone else.
Then Michael spoke.
“Uncle Victor.”
I froze.
Victor was my father's older brother.
He had disappeared ten years ago.
Or so I had believed.
“Why would Uncle Victor have the ledger?”
Michael hesitated.
“He visited.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
I looked at my mother.
“You told me nobody from the old organization came here.”
She didn't answer.
I understood.
The family wasn't merely stealing from me.
They were working with someone.
Someone who knew the empire from the inside.
Someone who knew exactly where my weaknesses were.
That night, I moved Emma into the private wing and doubled security.
Then I asked her to tell me everything she had endured while I was gone.
She hesitated.
“You don't want to know.”
“I do.”
“I was locked out of the office.”
“Why?”
“Your mother said family finances were none of my business.”
“What else?”
“They stopped inviting me to meals.”
“Why?”
“They said I wasn't part of the family.”
My chest tightened.
“You are my family.”
She cried.
“I know.”
I took her hand.
“And I should have made everyone know it.”
She looked at me.
“You came home different.”
“How?”
“You don't seem angry.”
I smiled slightly.
“I'm furious.”
“That's what frightens me.”
I touched her cheek.
“I won't become a man you need protection from.”
That night, I discovered something else.
A hidden camera behind the painting in our bedroom.
Thomas removed it.
The footage showed my mother entering our room while Emma slept.
Another recording showed Jennifer searching through Emma's drawers.
Then another.
Michael meeting Victor.
My jaw tightened.
The final recording showed Victor handing Michael a thick folder.
I paused the video.
“Enhance.”
Thomas did.
A document appeared.
My company seal.
My signature.
A contract.
My empire was being sold.
Without my knowledge.
I stared at the screen.
“They've been selling your assets,” Thomas said.
“How much?”
“Almost forty percent.”
Emma covered her mouth.
“And the buyers?”
Thomas handed me another document.
I read the name.
Bellmont Holdings.
A company I knew well.
A company controlled by the one man my father had warned me never to trust.
Sebastian Vale.
The only businessman powerful enough to challenge my organization without firing a shot.
I looked at Thomas.
“Contact every division.”
“Already doing it.”
“Freeze all family-controlled accounts.”
“Done.”
“Cancel every authorization.”
“Done.”
“And find Victor.”
Thomas nodded.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A man's voice came through.
“Welcome home, Daniel.”
I knew the voice.
Sebastian Vale.
“You've been busy.”
“So have you.”
“You have no idea how much your family's cooperation helped me.”
I stood.
“Did you really think I'd let you keep what you stole?”
He laughed.
“I don't need to keep it.”
“What?”
“I only needed access.”
“To what?”
“To your family's loyalty.”
The call ended.
I looked at Emma.
She whispered, “What does he want?”
I didn't know.
But a minute later, every light in the mansion went out.
A red emergency lamp flickered on.
Thomas drew his weapon.
“Boss.”
“Stay with Emma.”
A single message appeared on my phone.
Your wife knows where your father's hidden fortune is.
I looked at Emma.
She looked terrified.
“I don't know anything.”
I believed her.
But someone had convinced Sebastian otherwise.
And now I realized he wasn't after my money.
May you like
He was after the one thing my father had hidden from everyone.
A secret worth more than the empire itself.
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