Part 3
Chapter 3
Nobody spoke.
Mark tried to explain that he had simply been checking a schedule. But the camera showed him opening the Benton project folder and connecting a small storage device to Daniel’s computer. Daniel stared at the screen, stunned. He had spent months wondering whether he was somehow failing at work, while someone had been quietly building a case against him.
Victoria turned toward Mark. “You told me Daniel was becoming unreliable.” Mark said nothing. “You told me he refused company responsibilities.” Still nothing. “And you told me he took confidential files home.” Mark finally whispered, “I made a mistake.”
Victoria’s expression hardened. “No. You made several decisions.” She ordered security to escort Mark from the office while legal counsel preserved every piece of evidence. Daniel remained seated, unable to process how quickly his entire life had changed.
Then Victoria sat beside him.
“I owe you an apology,” she said. “Not because I knew about this and ignored it, but because I should have known enough to ask questions before believing someone else’s version of you.” Daniel looked at her, remembering the single present beneath his daughter’s tree. For the first time, he allowed himself to believe that Christmas might not end with another loss.
His phone suddenly vibrated.
It was Emma’s school.
Daniel answered immediately, and his expression changed.
The secretary on the other end sounded frightened. “Mr. Carter, I think you need to come here right away. Someone has been asking questions about your daughter.”
Daniel pressed the phone tightly against his ear, his knuckles turning stark white as the school secretary’s nervous words echoed through the silent conference room.
The color vanished entirely from his face, and his breath caught painfully inside his chest, tearing him away from the corporate battlefield back to what truly mattered.
Victoria Hayes watched him closely, reading the immediate terror in his widened eyes, and instantly stepped toward his desk before he could even speak a word.
"What happened, Daniel?" she asked quietly, her command sharp yet laced with genuine concern as the legal team paused their sorting of confidential files behind them.
"It's Emma's holiday daycare program," Daniel whispered, his voice trembling violently as he gripped the desk edge to keep himself upright against the sudden wave of vertigo.
"Someone went to the school front office asking about her schedule and trying to claim they were sent to pick her up," he continued with shaking lips.
Victoria did not hesitate for even a single second, turning abruptly to Northstar's head of security with an authority that brooked no delay or argument whatsoever.
"Call the police precinct directly, dispatch our corporate security vehicle right now, and bring the sedan around front immediately," Victoria ordered without blinking an eye.
She looked straight into Daniel’s panicked eyes, her voice completely steady and reassuring. "We are going together right now. No one touches your daughter, Daniel."
Daniel ran toward the executive elevator alongside the chief executive officer, his heart hammering like a trapped bird against the fragile cage of his ribs.
Outside, the cold morning wind whipped heavy snowflakes across the gray pavement as Northstar’s private sedan pulled smoothly up to the icy front curb.
The driver accelerated instantly, cutting through the snowy avenues with flashing emergency lights, clearing a rapid path through the holiday traffic toward the municipal school.
Daniel stared blankly through the tinted glass, watching familiar street corners blur past while his mind raced with horrifying scenarios of what might have happened.
"Andrew Cole knew you lived alone with your daughter," Victoria said softly, breaking the tense silence inside the speeding vehicle as she reviewed messages.
"He knew Emma was your entire world and your only vulnerability," she continued, realizing the calculated cruelty behind the operation that had targeted Daniel's family.
Daniel bowed his head into his cold hands, his faded gray sweater suddenly feeling far too thin against the creeping winter chill inside his bones.
"I gave everything to this company," Daniel choked out softly, the accumulated exhaustion of endless unpaid overtime finally cracking through his remaining defensive pride.
"I missed dinners, I missed bedtime stories, and I nearly broke my own spirit just to keep food on our kitchen table," he said.
Victoria reached over, briefly touching his arm with firm solidarity. "You kept your soul intact, Daniel. The failure belongs entirely to us, not to you."
The sedan came to a sudden halt before the red-brick elementary school, its tires skidding slightly over the slush gathered along the yellow curb.
Daniel threw his door open before the wheels fully stopped turning, sprinting up the salted concrete steps without waiting for the security team behind him.
May you like
He burst through the double glass doors of the administrative foyer, his frantic gaze sweeping across the brightly decorated holiday lobby for his child.
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