Chapter 4 - THE MAN SYLVIO TRUSTEDDaniel Mercer didn't deny anything immediately.
That made Sylvio more suspicious.
An innocent man usually responded to an accusation with outrage.
Daniel responded with questions.
“Who told you?”
They stood inside Sylvio's private office.
Rebecca.
General counsel.
Two security officers.
And Daniel.
Sylvio remained behind his desk.
“No one told me.”
Daniel adjusted his cuff link.
“Then you're making accusations based on incomplete information.”
“Do you own ClearPath Maintenance Group?”
Daniel sighed.
“Indirectly.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You billed your employer through a company you secretly owned?”
“It isn't that simple.”
“It rarely is,” Sylvio said.
Daniel stepped closer.
“The company filled a labor gap after you impulsively terminated the previous vendor.”
“I terminated them for falsifying safety inspections.”
“And suddenly three dozen maintenance positions were empty. I solved the problem.”
“By stealing wages?”
Daniel's expression tightened.
“I didn't manage payroll.”
“Curtis did.”
“Yes.”
“A man you promoted.”
“Because he was competent.”
Sylvio slid Khloe's pay records across the desk.
Daniel barely looked.
“He skimmed forty-one thousand dollars from one cleaner.”
“If he did, prosecute him.”
“If?”
“I don't know what Curtis did.”
“You benefited from the company.”
Daniel finally showed emotion.
“Do you know what I've done for this business?”
Sylvio said nothing.
“I was here when Raldi Properties had twelve employees. I slept beneath my desk when we were buying our first distressed building. I negotiated lenders while your father was dying.”
“And?”
“And you became the legend.”
There it was.
Not greed alone.
Resentment.
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Every magazine cover had your face. Every profile called you self-made.”
“I didn't write them.”
“No. You just enjoyed them.”
Rebecca interrupted.
“This does not explain stolen wages.”
Daniel turned.
“You think I knew cleaners were being paid eleven dollars an hour? Curtis handled operations.”
“You owned the vendor.”
“As an investment.”
Sylvio's gaze hardened.
“Without disclosure.”
Daniel said nothing.
“Leave your company devices.”
“For what?”
“You're suspended.”
“You can't be serious.”
“Completely.”
Daniel leaned across the desk.
“Think carefully, Sylvio.”
“I have.”
“If you make this public, investors will panic.”
“Then they panic.”
“The board—”
“Can call me.”
Daniel smiled coldly.
“You always believe you can survive everything.”
Sylvio's expression didn't move.
“No. I believe the people who clean my floors shouldn't finance executives' lifestyles.”
Daniel stared at him.
Then slowly removed his access card.
He placed it on the desk.
“You're making a mistake.”
“We'll find out.”
As security escorted Daniel toward the elevator, he passed Khloe in the corridor.
She had come upstairs to give investigators additional information.
Daniel recognized her instantly.
That frightened her more than if he hadn't.
He stopped.
“So you're the cleaner.”
Sylvio moved between them.
“Keep walking.”
Daniel looked around him toward Khloe.
“You have no idea what you've started.”
Khloe surprised herself.
“Neither did you.”
Daniel's smile vanished.
Security took him away.
Khloe's knees weakened after the elevator closed.
Sylvio noticed.
“You didn't have to answer him.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
“Because I've spent too much of my life letting people like him decide when I'm allowed to speak.”
Sylvio looked at her for a long moment.
“Fair enough.”
Over the next three days, Raldi Tower changed.
Auditors interviewed every maintenance worker.
Security officers escorted night staff home.
Anonymous tip lines opened.
Employees who had remained silent for years began talking.
And the problem grew.
Missing overtime wasn't confined to cleaners.
Security guards had been incorrectly classified.
Cafeteria workers had been charged fraudulent equipment fees.
A building engineer named Marcus Reed said Curtis had demanded cash in exchange for desirable shifts.
The theft appeared systematic.
Khloe became an unwilling center of the investigation.
Workers trusted her more than executives.
She translated corporate questions into normal language.
She convinced frightened employees that retaliation would be documented.
She sat beside Maria when Maria finally gave her full statement.
Sylvio watched all of it.
He noticed that Khloe remembered everyone's children's names.
That she carried granola bars now and offered them to other people before eating one herself.
That when attorneys used words like indemnification, Khloe interrupted.
“English.”
No one usually interrupted Sylvio's lawyers.
He found it refreshing.
Lily adapted more quickly.
She decided Raldi Tower was “the castle.”
Sylvio was “Mr. Serious.”
His head of security, Vincent, became “Mr. Muscles.”
And the executive cafeteria became her favorite place in the world because it had unlimited strawberries.
On the fourth afternoon, Sylvio found Lily sitting outside his office drawing.
“Where's your mother?”
“Talking to lawyer people.”
“What are you drawing?”
She covered the paper.
“Secret.”
He sat beside her.
“How secret?”
“Very.”
“I own this hallway.”
“You can't own secrets.”
Sylvio considered that.
“Fair argument.”
Lily studied him.
“Do you have kids?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He nearly laughed.
“I suppose I never found time.”
“My mommy says people don't find time. They make it.”
Sylvio looked toward the conference room.
“Your mother says a lot of things.”
“She says you're bossy.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“She said that?”
“Not exactly.”
“What exactly?”
“She said, ‘That impossible man thinks he can order the whole planet around.’”
Sylvio leaned back.
“That sounds more believable.”
Lily giggled.
Then her expression changed.
“Are bad men going to hurt Mommy?”
“No.”
“You promise?”
Sylvio hesitated.
He didn't like promises he couldn't absolutely guarantee.
But a six-year-old deserved more certainty than the world naturally provided.
“I promise I'll do everything I can to keep her safe.”
Lily nodded.
Apparently acceptable.
She handed him her drawing.
Three people stood in front of a tall building.
A little girl.
A woman.
A very tall man wearing what appeared to be a cape.
“Why am I wearing a cape?”
“That's your coat.”
“Oh.”
“You're too tall.”
“I see.”
“And that's Mommy.”
Sylvio stared at the drawing.
Khloe appeared holding his hand.
Lily watched his face.
“It's pretend.”
“Of course.”
“Unless you like her.”
Sylvio coughed.
“I'm going back to work.”
Lily smiled knowingly.
He escaped into his office.
The problem was that the child had noticed something he was trying not to examine.
Sylvio did like Khloe.
More every day.
Not because she needed rescuing.
She clearly hated being rescued.
He liked the way she challenged him.
The way she refused to laugh at unfunny things merely because he was wealthy.
The way her entire face changed when Lily entered a room.
The way she thanked the kitchen staff by name.
But none of that could matter.
Khloe worked in his building.
She was part of an investigation involving his company.
The imbalance between their lives was enormous.
He intended to respect it.
Then, at 8:20 that evening, everything changed again.
Khloe's landlord called.
“Your apartment door's open.”
She stood from the conference table.
“What?”
“I came upstairs because somebody complained about noise. Your door is busted.”
Khloe's face emptied.
“What about my things?”
“Looks like someone tore the place apart.”
Sylvio was already standing.
Khloe grabbed her coat.
“I need to go.”
“Security goes first.”
“It's my home.”
“And someone threatened you.”
“Lily's things are there.”
“Khloe.”
“My mother's photographs.”
Her voice broke.
Sylvio stopped arguing.
“I'll take you.”
They arrived twenty-five minutes later.
Two security SUVs reached the building first.
Police were already there.
Khloe climbed the stairs with Sylvio behind her.
Her apartment looked as though a tornado had passed through it.
Drawers overturned.
Mattress cut open.
Cabinet doors torn free.
Clothes scattered across the floor.
Lily's school pictures ripped from the wall.
Khloe stood motionless.
Then she saw the stuffed-animal shelf.
Every toy had been thrown down.
Except one.
A stuffed rabbit sat upright on the kitchen table.
Lily's favorite rabbit.
Around its neck was a red string.
Attached to the string was a note.
Khloe reached toward it.
Sylvio stopped her.
“Don't touch.”
A detective photographed the message.
Five words had been printed in black ink.
STOP TALKING OR SHE PAYS.
Khloe stopped breathing.
Sylvio stared at the note.
His security chief called from the bedroom.
“Mr. Raldi?”
They found something beneath Khloe's pillow.
A small electronic device.
Recently installed.
A listening device.
Someone hadn't merely broken into her home.
They had been listening before the investigation even began.
May you like
Which meant Khloe hadn't become a target after collapsing.
She had already been one.
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