Chapter 9 - Daniel’s Father
Charles Reed had founded Lakeshore’s modern hotel division.
He publicly praised Emma’s employee-housing work.
He attended retirement dinners.
He called staff the heart of the company.
Privately, he had negotiated with Margaret for years.
The first residential-school application for Lily was created before Emma became ill.
Charles approved it.
The original plan would place Lily under a private foundation’s care, allowing the adults to control her shares while claiming the child received elite opportunities.
Daniel stared at the signature.
“My father promised Emma he would protect Lily.”
Margaret answered quietly.
“He promised to protect the company.”
“To him, those were different promises.”
The recording showed Charles believed employee housing had become too valuable to preserve.
He described retired workers as sentimental liabilities.
He called Lily an emotional beneficiary.
And he chose Claire’s marriage as the cleanest route to control.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Where is he?”
Charles had been expected at the wedding.
His place at the family table remained empty.
The hotel manager checked the keycard logs.
Charles’s private card had opened the service corridor forty minutes earlier.
Then it accessed the freight elevator below the ballroom.
Margaret looked frightened.
“You said he wasn’t coming.”
Claire stared at her mother.
“You spoke to him today?”
Margaret’s composure broke.
“He told me to place Lily beneath the cake only until the photographs ended.”
Maya looked at her.
“You obeyed him.”
“He said the cart would take her to the employee lounge.”
“It was moving toward the freight elevator.”
Margaret went pale.
She had not known the destination had been changed.
The cake had not merely been hiding Lily from photographs.
May you like
Someone was moving her toward the private archive below the hotel.
And Charles had the only key.
