Chapter 5 - MY FATHER’S FILE
For a moment, I forgot about Grant.
Forgot my face.
Forgot the black cases.
All I saw was the name.
DAVID VALE.
My father.
I grabbed the folder.
“What is this?”
Richard sat behind his desk.
“Your father knew about us.”
I looked up.
“Knew what?”
“More than I wanted him to.”
Maya sat beside me.
“Start talking.”
Richard looked tired for the first time since I had met him.
Not old.
Not weak.
Just tired.
“Ten years ago, Whitmore Medical was smaller. We were trying to win state contracts. One of our suppliers was cutting corners on temperature controls.”
I opened the folder.
Emails.
Shipping logs.
Photos.
My father’s handwriting.
“He found this?”
Richard nodded.
“Northline transported some of our inventory. Your father reviewed the company because he owned shares.”
“He was a chemistry teacher.”
“He was also annoyingly thorough.”
I almost smiled.
That sounded like him.
Richard continued.
“He noticed temperature logs that didn’t make sense. Medication had been stored outside required ranges.”
My throat tightened.
“Was anyone hurt?”
Richard looked at me.
“Yes.”
The room became very quiet.
“How many?”
“Officially? None.”
My fingers tightened around the folder.
“Unofficially?”
“Two patients became seriously ill. One died.”
Maya whispered, “Jesus.”
I looked at Richard.
“And you covered it up.”
“I settled with the family through intermediaries.”
“You covered it up.”
“Yes.”
He said it like a man admitting he had parked illegally.
My chair scraped back.
Richard raised a hand.
“Sit down.”
“Don’t tell me to sit down.”
“Elena, your father came to me. He threatened to report us. I convinced him we would fix it.”
“Did you?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
He leaned back.
“Companies grow. People get ambitious. Systems get messy.”
“That’s your excuse?”
“No.”
He looked at the folder.
“It’s the explanation.”
I flipped through another stack.
Then I saw a letter.
My father had written it.
Richard,
If I discover another falsified report, I will go directly to the state and federal regulators. I don’t care what it costs me.
David.
My eyes burned.
My father died four years later from a heart attack.
All that time, he had carried this.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because he thought I fixed it.”
Richard looked at me carefully.
“And because I promised him I would.”
Maya asked, “Why keep the file?”
Richard gave a thin smile.
“Insurance.”
“Against whom?”
“My own family.”
That surprised me.
Richard leaned forward.
“Paige is reckless. Meredith believes money makes consequences negotiable. Grant wants to prove he’s stronger than me.”
“And you?”
“I know consequences are real.”
I almost laughed.
“You covered up a death.”
“Yes.”
“And now you want credit for self-awareness?”
“No.”
He pushed another envelope toward me.
“I want you to understand that the company you’re about to blow apart employs twelve thousand people.”
I didn’t touch it.
“What’s in there?”
“Proof Grant knew about your Northline shares eleven months before he proposed.”
My chest went cold.
Richard continued.
“I told him not to marry you for business.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
“Why tell me now?”
He looked toward the closed door.
“Because Grant thinks he can still control you.”
“And you don’t?”
Richard’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
He tapped the blue folder.
“I think your father raised someone much more dangerous than Grant realized.”
Then an alarm sounded in the hallway.
Maya stood.
“What is that?”
Richard went pale.
He grabbed his phone.
Security alerts filled the screen.
Someone had triggered an emergency data purge.
Maya looked at me.
“The archive.”
Richard swore.
“Grant.”
I ran for the door.
May you like
If the purge completed, half our evidence could disappear.
And according to the countdown on Maya’s laptop, we had six minutes to stop it.
