Victoria stared at him like he'd said something profound instead of obvious. Then she kissed his cheek. Brief, chased, completely different from the desperate kiss that had started this entire situation and left for the board meeting that would determine whether their gambit had worked. Ethan stood in the empty penthouse for a long moment after Victoria left. Lily was still watching cartoons in the living room.
Oblivious to the adult drama unfolding around her, he walked to the kitchen and started making breakfast. Pancakes, because that was what Lily always wanted. The familiar routine grounding him while his mind processed everything that had happened. His phone buzzed with text from Mrs. Rodriguez. Saw the interview last night.
You did good, Mijo. Sarah would be proud of how you're handling this. Ethan stared at the message for a long time. Would Sarah be proud? He wasn't sure.
She'd always been the one who could see through complicated situations to the simple truth underneath. She would have known whether helping Victoria was genuine kindness or elaborate self-deception. She would have known whether the feelings developing between them were real or just proximity and shared trauma creating illusion of connection. But Sarah was gone and Ethan had to figure this out alone. Lily appeared in the kitchen doorway, clutching her elephant.
"Daddy, where did Miss Victoria go?" "She had to go to work, Lilybug." But she'll be back tonight. Will she read me a story when she comes back? I'm sure she will.
Lily nodded, satisfied, then climbed onto her chair at the breakfast counter. Daddy, I like it here. Miss Victoria's house is nice. It is nice. "Can we stay here forever?"
The question hit Ethan harder than it should have because somewhere in the past few days, this temporary arrangement had started feeling less temporary, and that terrified him more than anything Marcus could do. The evidence appeared by accident. The universe demonstrating that sometimes desperation led to preparation that looked like luck. Ethan had been going through papers Victoria had given him about Lily's enrollment at a private school. She'd suggested forms requiring his financial information that would technically make him guardian on official documents.
Mixed in with enrollment forms was a folder labeled Sterling Capital Executive Compensation Review. He'd opened it thinking Victoria had accidentally included work documents with papers meant for him. What he found instead made his hands start shaking. The folder contained financial records that shouldn't have existed outside secure servers, shell companies, offshore accounts, wire transfers showing Marcus Ashford had been systematically embezzling from Sterling Capital for 4 years. $53 million moved through entities designed to hide ownership. Partnerships that existed only on paper. investment funds that had no actual investors beyond Marcus himself.
Ethan stared at the documents. The transfers had started small. 200,000 here, half a million there. Amounts that would get lost in Sterling Capital's billion-dollar annual revenue, but they'd accelerated after Victoria became CEO. Marcus apparently escalating theft while simultaneously undermining her leadership.
Ethan called Victoria immediately, interrupting her postboard meeting lunch with Meridian Holdings executives. Her voice was distracted when she answered. Still in CEO mode. Ethan, this isn't great timing. I'm in the middle of you need to see something.