The penthouse was silent, save for the rhythmic breathing of Leo sleeping in his bassinet. Victoria sat on the floor of the spare room, the rusted lockbox open beside her. The file she had discovered was spread out on the rug–a map of a tragedy she had never fully understood.
She picked up a yellowed police report dated 1998. The official story, the one William had told her, was that his father, Richard Croft, had died in a tragic car accident on an icy road. But the report in her hands told a different story. It listed “excessive speed” and “evidence of illicit substances.”
Beneath the police report was a memorandum from Croft Enterprises legal counsel, addressed to Lady Beatrice. It detailed a sum of ten million dollars missing from the company accounts–embezzlement attributed to Richard just days before the crash. The memo referred to the cover-up as “Project Nightingale”.
“He wasn’t just a victim,” Victoria whispered, realizing the weight of the paper in her hand. “He was a liability.”
She realized why this file was dangerous. William had built his entire identity on being the “Protector,” the man who would fix the mistakes of the past. If the world found out that the Croft legacy was built on a lie, that the last CEO was a thief and an addict, the company’s reputation would shatter. This was the ammunition Arthur Sterling was hunting for.