Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO WANTED MY DAUGHTER FOR LEVERAGE
Lydia cried.
I did not.
Maybe that made me cruel.
Or maybe I had already spent all my sympathy on women who believed Daniel Mercer’s promises.
“How much did you tell him?” Adrian asked.
“Nothing about the Kane acquisition.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
Good.
One disaster avoided.
“What did you tell him about Astor?”
“Only that Claire was leading the final campaign.”
“What about internal budgets?”
“Some.”
“Client research?”
She looked away.
“Some.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“You gave a competitor confidential information.”
“He said Voss wasn’t bidding.”
“They are.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You’re managing director.”
His voice remained quiet.
That was worse.
“You are paid to know.”
Lydia’s eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrian called security.
She left without looking at me.
By two-thirty, legal had frozen her access and notified Astor Crown that a potential confidentiality breach was under investigation.
By three, Daniel filed an emergency petition for temporary visitation.
Not custody.
Yet.
My attorney, Rachel Stein, called me.
“He’s claiming you obstructed contact.”
“He never asked for contact.”
“He attached phone records.”
I sat straighter.
“What phone records?”
“Calls to your mother.”
The calls to Mia.
He was using the harassment as evidence that he had tried to build a relationship.
I wanted to scream.
Rachel continued.
“He also attached employment records showing extensive travel and late hours.”
Lydia’s gift.
“And?”
“There’s a declaration from an unnamed colleague suggesting Mia has recently been brought into an unsafe, high-pressure workplace environment.”
My blood chilled.
“The hallway.”
“Yes.”
“Someone is using what happened this morning against me already.”
“Looks that way.”
“Can he win?”
“Temporary visitation?”
She paused.
“Possibly supervised.”
My chest tightened.
“He hasn’t seen her since she was a baby.”
“I know.”
“He threatened to use her to steal client information.”
“That recording helps enormously.”
“Then why are we worried?”
“Because family court does not always move as quickly as criminal or corporate investigations.”
I closed my eyes.
Rachel softened.
“Claire, we’ll fight it.”
I looked through the glass wall of Adrian’s office.
Mia sat on the floor inside, building a city out of wooden blocks.
Adrian was taking a conference call several feet away.
At some point, my daughter had migrated into the billionaire’s private office.
Apparently nobody had the courage to stop her.
“What if the judge orders visitation?”
“Then we make it safe.”
Safe.
I hated that word.
It meant the danger still existed.
After I hung up, I walked into Adrian’s office.
Mia had built three towers.
“This one is Mommy’s.”
Tall.
Crooked.
“This one is mine.”
Small and covered in stickers.
“And this one is Mr. Adrian’s.”
The tallest.
Adrian muted his phone.
“Why is mine bigger?”
“Money.”
He stared.
I burst out laughing before I could stop myself.
He looked offended.
“Mia.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
He ended the call.
“You spoke to your attorney.”
“Yes.”
His expression changed.
“What happened?”
“Daniel filed.”
“For custody?”
“Visitation first.”
Adrian stood.
“What does he want?”
“To look like a father long enough to become one legally.”
Mia looked up.
I immediately lowered my voice.
Adrian noticed.
“Caleb can take Mia to the executive kitchen.”
“No.”
“I was going to suggest cookies, not interrogation.”
Mia jumped up.
“Cookies?”
Traitor.
Ten minutes later, she was baking something with Adrian’s private chef.
I stood near the window.
“I can’t lose her.”
“You won’t.”
“Don’t say things you can’t guarantee.”
He stopped.
“You’re right.”
That mattered.
“I’m sorry.”
I turned.
Adrian Kane had apologized twice in one day.
Corporate history was being made.
“What do you need?”
I almost said nothing.
My usual answer.
Instead:
“I need proof Daniel doesn’t actually want to be her father.”
Adrian nodded.
“Then we prove it.”
“How?”
“Follow the money.”
Of course a billionaire would say that.
But he was right.
Why had Daniel returned now?
Why threaten me over Astor Crown?
Why work with Voss?
Why use Lydia?
Adrian’s security team began digging.
What they found by midnight made Daniel’s sudden interest in fatherhood look even uglier.
He was broke.
Not technically.
On paper, Daniel earned almost four hundred thousand dollars at Voss.
But he owed nearly seven hundred thousand in private gambling debts.
Three credit cards were maxed.
His Tribeca apartment was financed beyond reason.
And six weeks earlier, he had accepted a one-million-dollar “performance advance” from Voss Creative.
Payment conditional on winning Astor Crown.
“If they lose?” I asked.
“He owes most of it back,” Caleb said.
Daniel needed our campaign.
But that still did not explain Mia.
Then Rachel found it.
Daniel’s original termination-of-parental-rights agreement had a clause I had forgotten.
Mia was beneficiary to a trust created by my late father.
Not accessible until she turned twenty-one.
Unless I died or became legally incapacitated.
Then the child’s legal guardian could access distributions for housing, education, and care.
The trust held eight million dollars.
Adrian stared at me.
“You never mentioned this.”
“Because it’s Mia’s. Not mine.”
“Does Daniel know?”
“He knew when he signed the agreement.”
Caleb looked grim.
“And if he becomes legal guardian?”
“He could request distributions.”
My stomach turned.
Daniel did not merely need leverage over me.
He saw my daughter as potential money.
The next morning, I received a message.
MEET ME. ALONE. 9 P.M. THE LANCASTER BAR.
Daniel.
I showed Adrian.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You don’t get to say no.”
“I’m learning slowly.”
“Very.”
He exhaled.
“Then you don’t go alone.”
“He asked me to.”
“That is precisely why.”
We compromised.
I went inside.
Caleb sat in another room.
Adrian waited across the street.
He did not like that either.
Daniel arrived eleven minutes late.
Same blond hair.
Same charming smile.
More expensive suit.
I felt nothing.
That surprised me.
“Claire.”
“Daniel.”
“You look good.”
“You look indebted.”
His smile vanished.
Good.
“You’ve been investigating me.”
“You threatened our daughter.”
“Our daughter.”
“You lost the right to emphasize that noun six years ago.”
He sat.
“I made mistakes.”
“You disappeared.”
“I was twenty-eight.”
“I was twenty-seven and somehow managed not to abandon a newborn.”
He leaned closer.
“I want a second chance.”
“With Mia?”
“Yes.”
“Then why ask for Astor Crown files?”
His face hardened.
“I was angry.”
“You offered to trade your daughter for advertising.”
“I never said that.”
“My office recorded you.”
That rattled him.
Only slightly.
“Then you know I never threatened Mia physically.”
“You threatened her stability.”
He leaned back.
“Here’s what happens.”
There it was.
The real Daniel.
“I get supervised visitation.”
“No.”
“Eventually unsupervised.”
“No.”
“Then shared custody.”
“Never.”
“You think your billionaire boss changes the law?”
I went still.
Daniel smiled.
“Adrian Kane has been awfully interested in you for a long time.”
“What does that mean?”
“He bought Blackwell & Reed six months after you joined.”
“He bought it because it was profitable.”
Daniel laughed.
“You really don’t know.”
Cold moved through me.
“Know what?”
“He knew who you were before he bought the company.”
I stared.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Ask him.”
“About what?”
Daniel’s smile became cruel.
“Ask Adrian Kane why his father paid my father seventy-five thousand dollars the year Mia was born.”
My heart stopped.
“Our families didn’t know each other.”
“That’s what you think.”
He leaned closer.
May you like
“And while you’re asking questions, ask why Adrian has been watching you since before your first interview.”
---
