Part 6: A Daughter's Warning
I didn't sleep that Saturday night. I sat in the dark of my study, staring at the glowing monitor as the rain began to drum against the glass windows once more, echoing the storm from earlier in the week.
My phone buzzed on the mahogany desk at precisely 3:14 AM.
An incoming call from an unknown, restricted number.
I hesitated for a heartbeat before swiping the screen. “Hello?”
Silence hung on the other end for a long, agonizing moment. Then, a soft, unsteady intake of breath.
“Dad?”
The word shattered the silence like a dropped glass. My entire body went rigid.
“Julia?” My voice cracked, sounding older and more fragile than I had ever intended.
“I heard about the audit,” she said, her voice shaking with a mixture of fear and suppressed grief. “One of the forensic accountants... a friend of a friend... leaked that you're digging into Apex Services and the subsidiary trusts.”
“Julia, where are you?” I demanded, standing up so fast my office chair rolled backward and slammed into the bookshelf. “Talk to me. Please.”
“It doesn't matter where I am,” she whispered urgently. “Dad, you don't understand what you're walking into. Marcus and... and my husband are backed into a corner. They've looted millions. If you push forward with federal charges on Monday morning, they aren't going down quietly. They have leverage. They have documentation linking the corporate restructuring accounts directly to your personal signature.”
“Let them try,” I growled, anger flaring hot in my chest. “I built this company from the ground up. I won't let thieves destroy it—or destroy you.”
“You already lost me once, Dad,” Julia cried out softly before the line went dead with a sharp click.
