Chapter 8 — The Company They Never Knew
Chapter 8 — The Company They Never Knew
For several seconds after the gunshot, nobody moved.
Victor Blackwell lay motionless on the concrete.
Sydney was on her knees.
Terrence stood frozen beside her.
The police shouted commands into the darkness.
“Everyone stay where you are!”
“Hands where we can see them!”
“Move away from the body!”
I couldn't hear anything clearly.
My eyes were fixed on the black envelope lying a few feet away.
MELINE HARPER
And beneath my name:
THE REAL FATHER KNOWS.
My attorney rushed toward me.
“Don't touch it.”
“I wasn't going to.”
But I couldn't stop looking at it.
Someone had followed us into the tunnel.
Someone had known exactly where we were going.
Someone had been waiting.
And whoever fired the gun hadn't killed Victor by accident.
They had wanted him silent.
The police secured the tunnel.
Victor was still alive.
Barely.
A paramedic knelt beside him.
“Pulse is weak.”
“Get him out.”
As they lifted him onto a stretcher, Victor's eyes opened.
For one brief second, he looked directly at me.
His lips moved.
I stepped closer.
“What?”
He whispered something.
I couldn't understand.
“Say it again.”
His eyes closed.
The paramedic pushed me back.
“Ma'am, please.”
I stepped away.
Terrence came toward me.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
He looked at the envelope.
“What does it say?”
I showed him.
His face tightened.
“Who wrote it?”
“I don't know.”
Sydney was sitting against the wall.
She looked terrified.
I walked toward her.
“You said the baby isn't Jason's.”
She nodded.
“Then whose is it?”
She looked at Terrence.
Then at me.
“I don't know.”
I stared at her.
“You don't know?”
She shook her head.
“Victor told me he was.”
“Who?”
She swallowed.
“I never saw the man.”
My attorney frowned.
“What?”
Sydney continued.
“Victor said the baby's father was someone connected to your company.”
My stomach dropped.
“My company?”
She nodded.
“He said the child was the key to everything.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
“You keep saying you don't know.”
“Because I don't!”
She started crying.
“I made mistakes, Meline. Terrible mistakes. But I didn't understand what they were doing.”
Terrence looked at her.
“You knew enough to lie to me.”
She lowered her head.
“I was afraid.”
I looked at the envelope again.
The real father knows.
Then I looked at Sydney.
“Who does?”
She whispered:
“Your father's old partner.”
The name was Elias Harper.
My uncle.
The man I had met only hours earlier.
The man who had told me my entire life was built on a lie.
We found him at the old house.
He was sitting in the same chair where we'd left him.
As though he had been waiting.
When I entered, he looked at me.
“You found Victor.”
“Yes.”
“You didn't find the truth.”
“No.”
He nodded.
“I expected that.”
I placed the black envelope on the table.
“Did you send this?”
He looked at it.
“No.”
“Do you know who did?”
“No.”
“Then tell me about the baby.”
His expression changed.
“What baby?”
I stared at him.
“Sydney's.”
“I know she is pregnant.”
“Who is the father?”
“I don't know.”
I placed my hands on the table.
“Everyone keeps saying they don't know.”
“Because they don't.”
“Then who does?”
Elias looked at me.
“Your father.”
My heart tightened.
“Dad is involved.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
Elias hesitated.
“I don't know.”
I stared at him.
“That's not good enough.”
“He disappeared.”
“When?”
“After the recording played at the wedding.”
I frowned.
“How?”
“He had a private exit.”
“Of course.”
Elias nodded.
“Your father prepared for this.”
“Did he know about Victor?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know Victor was going to be shot?”
“No.”
“Then who shot him?”
Elias looked toward the window.
“Someone who doesn't want the archive found.”
I sat down.
“The archive.”
“Yes.”
“What exactly is it?”
Elias took a deep breath.
“The archive contains every transaction your father made during the first fifteen years of his career.”
“Financial?”
“Financial.”
“Corporate?”
“Yes.”
“Personal?”
“Some.”
“Criminal?”
His eyes met mine.
“Most.”
I felt sick.
“What did he steal?”
“Everything he could.”
“From whom?”
“Companies.”
“Clients.”
“Employees.”
“Investors.”
“Governments.”
I stared.
“How?”
“Data.”
He leaned back.
“Your father discovered that information was more valuable than money.”
“So he sold it.”
“Sometimes.”
“Other times he used it.”
“For what?”
“To manipulate markets.”
“To destroy competitors.”
“To force acquisitions.”
“To control people.”
My stomach tightened.
“And my company?”
“Was the machine.”
I frowned.
“What machine?”
“The company was never just a cybersecurity company.”
He looked directly at me.
“It was designed to collect information.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“That isn't possible.”
“You built the security platform.”
“I built it to protect data.”
“You thought you did.”
“What are you saying?”
Elias stood.
“Your father built the original architecture.”
He walked toward a cabinet.
“Then he gave it to you.”
He opened a drawer.
Inside was an old laptop.
He placed it on the table.
“This was the first prototype.”
I stared.
The casing was scratched.
The screen was cracked.
But I recognized the logo.
My company.
The logo I had designed myself.
Or thought I had.
I opened it.
The system booted.
A password prompt appeared.
I looked at Elias.
“What is the password?”
He smiled.
“Your mother's maiden name.”
I froze.
I typed it.
The system opened.
Thousands of files appeared.
I scrolled.
Client databases.
Payment records.
Internal communications.
Private identities.
I looked at Elias.
“This can't be real.”
“It is.”
“Where did you get this?”
“Your father gave it to me.”
“Why?”
“Because he thought I was dead.”
I stared at the screen.
Then I saw a folder.
MELINE — PROJECT 17.
My blood ran cold.
I opened it.
Inside was a single document.
My birth certificate.
Then medical records.
School records.
Bank records.
Everything.
Everything about me.
I scrolled further.
A file titled:
ORIGINAL COMPANY OWNERSHIP.
I opened it.
And saw something I never expected.
My name wasn't the first name listed.
It was the second.
The first belonged to Elias.
The third belonged to someone else.
Someone whose name I recognized.
Jason Reed.
I couldn't breathe.
Jason had been part of the company before I met him.
Not as an employee.
As an owner.
A hidden shareholder.
I stared at the document.
“Why?”
Elias shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“You said Jason learned about the plan three years into our relationship.”
“I was wrong.”
I looked at him.
“He knew from the beginning?”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“How?”
“His father.”
I stared at the name.
Jason's father had been standing beside mine in the photograph.
The same photograph from ten years ago.
The same year Jason entered my life.
I whispered:
“They planned the marriage.”
“Yes.”
“For the company.”
“Yes.”
“And the loan.”
“Yes.”
“And the trust.”
Elias nodded.
“Everything.”
I closed the laptop.
“I need air.”
Outside, the rain had stopped.
The sky was beginning to lighten.
It was almost morning.
The wedding day had lasted an eternity.
Yet the truth seemed to grow larger every hour.
Terrence came outside.
“How are you?”
I laughed quietly.
“I don't know.”
He stood beside me.
“Sydney is safe.”
“Good.”
“The police took her statement.”
“And Victor?”
“Alive.”
I nodded.
Terrence hesitated.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
He looked at me.
“Sydney's doctor called.”
My heart tightened.
“What happened?”
“They ran another blood test.”
I turned toward him.
“And?”
“The results don't match what Sydney told us.”
“What does that mean?”
“The pregnancy is not four months old.”
I stared.
“How old?”
“Seven months.”
I felt cold.
“That's impossible.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“It's possible.”
I understood.
Sydney had lied about when the pregnancy began.
Which meant the affair with Jason might never have happened.
“Then Jason isn't the father.”
Terrence nodded.
“He can't be.”
I closed my eyes.
The entire story had just changed.
Sydney had lied about the father.
Victor had lied about the father.
My family had lied about the pregnancy.
Someone wanted us to believe Jason was responsible.
Why?
Then I remembered the message.
THE REAL FATHER KNOWS.
I looked at Terrence.
“Who was Sydney with seven months ago?”
He frowned.
“I don't know.”
I did.
One person.
One man who had disappeared from the family around that time.
My father's business partner.
Elias.
I turned toward the house.
“Where's my uncle?”
Elias was gone.
The chair was empty.
The laptop was still there.
But he had disappeared.
I searched the house.
Nothing.
Then I found a note on the desk.
Three words.
YOU'RE GETTING CLOSE.
I turned it over.
Another sentence:
ASK ABOUT HELIX.
I stared.
Helix.
That name meant something.
I had seen it before.
In the company's oldest files.
A research project.
A project my father had supposedly shut down before I joined the company.
I opened the laptop again.
I searched for HELIX.
One result appeared.
HELIX CORPORATION.
Founded twenty-two years ago.
I opened the ownership record.
My breath caught.
The company had one controlling shareholder.
Meline Harper.
But I had never heard of Helix Corporation.
I searched the financial records.
The company had billions in assets.
Real estate.
Technology patents.
Investment funds.
Private equity.
And one line that made my blood run cold:
Beneficial owner: Meline Harper.
I stared at the screen.
“My company…”
Terrence stepped beside me.
“What?”
“It's not my company.”
“What do you mean?”
I pointed at the screen.
“I don't own one company.”
He stared.
“How many?”
I scrolled.
The list continued.
Helix Corporation.
Harper Data Systems.
Northstar Security.
Blackwell Holdings.
Several international companies.
All linked to the same trust.
All controlled by me.
I felt dizzy.
“My father didn't build an empire.”
Terrence looked at me.
“He built it for you.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
I looked at the screen.
“He built it around me.”
At 5:13 a.m., my attorney arrived.
She looked exhausted.
“Meline.”
I turned the laptop toward her.
“Did you know?”
She stared at the screen.
Her face changed.
“What is this?”
“Helix.”
She sat down.
“Where did you find it?”
“My father's files.”
She read the ownership records.
Then looked at me.
“This can't be correct.”
“Why?”
“Because Helix is privately held.”
“I know.”
“It has no public ownership record.”
“I know.”
“Then how—”
I interrupted.
“It's mine.”
She stared at me.
“What?”
“Every company on this list.”
I pointed at the screen.
“Mine.”
She looked again.
Then whispered:
“This changes everything.”
“What does it change?”
She looked at me.
“The loan.”
“What about it?”
“They weren't trying to steal your cybersecurity company.”
She pointed toward the screen.
“They were trying to gain access to the holding company above it.”
“Helix.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Helix controls the assets.”
I felt cold.
“What assets?”
She looked at me.
“Everything.”
The sun began rising.
My wedding day was ending.
But the story had barely begun.
My family had planned a loan.
My fiancé had planned a marriage.
My sister had hidden a pregnancy.
Victor Blackwell had built a network.
My father had buried an archive.
And behind all of it was a company I had never known existed.
A company worth more than everything I had ever believed my family owned.
Helix.
My name was on every document.
But I had never signed them.
I looked at my attorney.
“Who created it?”
She shook her head.
“We'll find out.”
“No.”
I closed the laptop.
“I already know.”
She frowned.
“Who?”
I looked toward the empty chair where Elias had been sitting.
“My father.”
Then my phone buzzed.
One new message.
From the same unknown number.
HELIX WAS CREATED FOR ONE PURPOSE.
I stared.
Another message arrived.
TO FUND YOUR FUTURE.
Then the final message.
BUT YOUR FATHER NEVER TOLD YOU WHAT THE MONEY CAME FROM.
I looked at the sunrise through the window.
For the first time, I wasn't afraid of losing my family.
I was afraid of discovering what my family had built.
Because if Helix really controlled everything...
then the question wasn't whether my father had stolen from me.
May you like
The question was:
What had he stolen to make me rich?
