Chapter 5 - The Man Daniel Trusted
Daniel wanted to leave for Singapore immediately.
I stopped him.
“You have a daughter you met three hours ago.”
He looked at Emma sleeping against my chest.
The anger disappeared from his face.
“You’re right.”
Charles sent investigators instead.
By morning, Maya had uncovered something worse.
Caleb had approved the acquisition that sent Daniel to Singapore three months earlier.
The acquisition had never actually been in danger.
Financial reports had been manipulated to make it appear as though Daniel’s presence was essential.
“You were sent away deliberately.”
Maya tapped the screen.
“Someone needed you outside the country before Emma was born.”
Daniel stared at the documents.
“Caleb knew Grace was pregnant.”
Charles frowned.
“How?”
I remembered something.
“Dad knew exactly when Daniel was flying.”
Everyone looked at me.
“He made dinner that night.”
“Dad never cooked.”
“But that night he opened champagne and said Daniel’s trip was ‘good timing.’”
Maya made a note.
Daniel’s expression turned cold.
“My uncle and your father were communicating.”
By noon, police released Dad after questioning.
There was not yet enough evidence for an arrest.
He returned home and immediately told neighbors Daniel’s family had staged the garage fire.
Then he called me seventeen times.
I blocked him.
The eighteenth call came from an unknown number.
I answered because Emma’s pediatrician had promised to call.
Dad’s voice came through instead.
“You need to come home.”
“I don’t have a home there anymore.”
“Grace, listen to me.”
“No.”
“You are in danger.”
I almost laughed.
“From you?”
“From people much worse than me.”
I went silent.
Dad lowered his voice.
“Daniel’s family does not want you because they care about you.”
“They want control of what is in your name.”
“What exactly is in my name?”
Silence.
“Dad?”
He breathed heavily.
“Ask Daniel why Caleb needed your identity.”
The line went dead.
I found Daniel in the nursery his mother had prepared overnight.
He was trying to change Emma’s diaper and losing badly.
For one second, the sight felt so normal that I wanted to forget everything else.
Then I repeated Dad’s words.
Daniel stopped.
“I don’t know what he meant.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
I believed him.
But Maya called ten minutes later.
“Grace.”
Her voice was tense.
“We found another asset registered through Carter Meridian.”
“What?”
“A forty-eight percent ownership stake in a Singapore development fund.”
Daniel slowly sat down.
Because the remaining fifty-two percent belonged to Whitmore Development.
May you like
And if my father had used my identity to acquire almost half the fund, I was no longer merely evidence.
On paper, I was Daniel’s family’s business partner.
