Chapter 10 - My Father's File
Daniel found my father's old archive in the foundation's legal storage.
Box 44.
My father, Robert Cross, had built Lakeshore Children's Trust after my younger sister died waiting for a transplant bed that never opened.
He believed institutions failed when people became more important than rules.
I had spent years trying to live up to that.
Inside Box 44 was a folder labeled CARLISLE / SHAW / MERIDIAN.
There were draft vendor agreements, reserve projections, and handwritten notes.
At the top of one page my father had written:
THEY ARE NOT BUYING THE FOUNDATION. THEY ARE STARVING IT UNTIL IT SELLS ITSELF.
Daniel exhaled.
"He knew."
"Why didn't he tell me?"
Three months before his death, my father had requested a private audit.
The auditor was Peter Lang.
"No," I whispered.
Daniel kept reading.
Lang had reported no significant irregularities.
PETER IS LYING. EVELYN KNOWS WHY.
Then came a medical file.
He had died of a stroke after a long cardiac history.
But someone had removed two pages from his final board packet.
The page numbers jumped from 18 to 21.
Daniel checked the binder rings.
"Taken recently," he said.
My phone buzzed again.
A photograph appeared.
Evelyn Shaw standing beside a private jet.
Timestamp: eleven minutes ago.
Below it:
SHE IS LEAVING.
Daniel called Brooks.
Then another message arrived.
THIS ISN'T A FAVOR, AMELIA.
YOUR FATHER SAVED MY SON.
I OWE HIM.
I typed one question.
WHO ARE YOU?
The reply came immediately.
ASK HOWARD WHAT HAPPENED IN 2019.
I looked across the archive room.
Howard Mills, our catering manager, had worked foundation events since 2017.
May you like
He had also been the first person tonight to tell me to get away from Vanessa.
And suddenly I realized I had never asked how he got hired.
