I thought I’d lost everything when my wife died—until my daughter’s quiet whisper on Easter afternoon told me I still had a battle left to fight.

Marcus had a safe house.

Of course he did.

It was a modest condo in a neighborhood nobody would associate with Carter Industries. No doorman. No fancy lobby. Just a regular place where regular people lived.

Perfect.

We arrived around noon.

Lily carried her small bag inside and looked around. The furniture was plain but comfortable. The windows had thick curtains. There was a security system that would have made Fort Knox jealous.

“Will he find us here?” she asked.

Marcus answered from the doorway. He’d driven separately, arriving two minutes after us. Old habits.

“Not if I don’t want him to. This place doesn’t exist on any of our official books. Even most people inside the company don’t know about it. You’re safe here, Lily.”

She nodded, but I could see the doubt in her eyes.

She’d been told she was safe before.

By Ethan.

On their wedding day.

I put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to stay here with you. We’re not going anywhere until this is over.”

Marcus cleared his throat. “Actually, James, I need you back at the office. We have a lot of work to do. And Lily… I’m going to assign someone to stay with her. Round the clock. Someone I trust with my life.”

Lily tensed. “A stranger? In the house with me?”

“Not a stranger. Sarah. She’s been with the company for fifteen years. She’s the best protection operative we have. And she’s a woman. I thought that might make you more comfortable.”

Lily looked at me.

I nodded. “Marcus doesn’t make mistakes about people. If he says Sarah is good, she’s good.”

An hour later, Sarah arrived.

She was in her mid-thirties, with a no-nonsense haircut and eyes that missed nothing. She shook Lily’s hand firmly.

“Ms. Carter. Pleased to meet you. I’ll be staying in the guest room. You won’t even notice I’m here. Unless you need me. Then I’ll be right there.”

Lily managed a small smile. “Thank you.”

Marcus and I left for the office.

The drive was quiet.

When we walked into Carter Industries, it felt like stepping back in time. The building had changed—new floors, new furniture, more employees—but the energy was the same. Focused. Intense. People who knew how to get things done.

Marcus led me to his office on the top floor.

Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.

A desk that could double as a landing strip.

He tossed a thick file onto the table between us.

“Ethan Sterling. Everything we have so far. And it’s just the beginning.”

I opened the file.

The first page was Ethan’s photo.

Handsome. Confident. Arrogant.

The kind of face that belonged on a magazine cover.

“Start talking,” I said.

Marcus leaned back in his chair. “Ethan made his first million at twenty-five. Sold a social media app to a bigger company. Took the money and started Sterling Tech. Made his first billion by thirty. On paper, he’s a genius. A self-made success story.”

He tapped the file.

“In reality? He’s a thief. A bully. And a criminal. He built his company on stolen ideas. We’ve got three separate cases where he took other people’s work, buried them in legal fees until they couldn’t fight anymore, and rebranded their ideas as his own. He’s got offshore accounts. Money laundering through fake charities. Bribery. You name it, he’s probably done it.”

I flipped through the pages.

Bank records.

Witness statements.

Internal emails.

It was damning.

But it wasn’t enough.

“Most of this is white-collar stuff,” I said. “He’ll get a fine. Maybe a few years in a minimum-security prison. That’s not what he deserves for what he did to Lily.”

Marcus nodded. “I know. And we’re going to get him for that too. But here’s the thing about Ethan—he doesn’t just hurt his wife. He hurts everyone who gets close to him. We’ve got former employees who say he’s physically violent in the office too. Not just yelling. Throwing things. Pushing people. But everyone’s too scared to talk. He pays them off. Threatens them. Ruins their careers if they cross him.”

He slid another file across the desk.

This one was thinner.

And marked Confidential.

“What’s this?”

“His first wife.”

I froze.

“First wife? Ethan was married before Lily?”

“For eighteen months. Ten years ago. Her name was Rebecca. They got divorced very quietly. Very expensively. She signed an NDA so tight she couldn’t even say his name in public without getting sued.”

I leaned forward. “Where is she now?”

“Upstate. Runs a small bookstore. We found her last week. I sent someone to talk to her. She wouldn’t say much. But she didn’t deny anything either. And when our investigator mentioned Lily’s name… she got very quiet. And she said, ‘I hope that girl gets out before it’s too late.’”

I closed the file.

Rebecca.

Another victim.

Maybe the key to everything.

“I need to talk to her,” I said.

Marcus shook his head. “She won’t talk to you. She’s terrified of him. The NDA isn’t the problem—it’s what he’ll do if she breaks it. He’s made threats. To her. To her family.”

“Then I’ll make her see that she’s not alone. That we can protect her. That if she stands with us, we can make sure Ethan never hurts anyone again.”

Marcus studied me for a long moment.

“You really mean it, don’t you? You’re going to burn his whole world down.”

I thought of Lily’s face.

The bruise.