CHAPTER 4 — The Widow's Perfect Victory
Victoria barely slept after Daniel's memorial.
Not because she missed him.
Because she was waiting.
Waiting for the lawyers to transfer everything into her name.
Waiting for the insurance company to release the fifty-million-dollar policy.
Waiting for the board of directors to officially recognize her as the controlling shareholder of Ashford Global.
For the first time in years, she believed she had won.
Ryan arrived at the penthouse carrying an expensive bottle of champagne.
"We did it," he said with a grin.
Victoria smiled for the first time since the cliff.
"We're finally free."
They toasted while standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Manhattan.
Neither of them noticed the tiny red light blinking beneath the smoke detector.
Daniel had redesigned the penthouse security system years ago.
Every hidden camera.
Every microphone.
Every encrypted backup.
Still running.
Still recording.
Meanwhile, fifty miles away inside a private rehabilitation estate hidden in the mountains, Daniel watched the live feed on a giant monitor.
Samuel Brooks folded his arms.
"They're celebrating your murder."
Daniel's expression never changed.
"They're celebrating too early."
Doctors had managed to stabilize his injuries.
He still couldn't walk.
But the fall hadn't taken everything.
When the wheelchair plunged over the cliff, Daniel had released the emergency harness at the last possible second.
Instead of falling hundreds of feet, he landed on a narrow rock shelf hidden behind the waterfall.
Broken ribs.
A shattered shoulder.
A concussion.
But alive.
Samuel's rescue team—already tracking Daniel's emergency GPS after receiving Package Black—had reached him before nightfall.
To the world...
Daniel Ashford was dead.
Exactly the way he wanted.
Because dead men could watch without being watched.
And Daniel intended to learn everything.
That same night, Victoria opened Daniel's private office.
She searched every drawer.
Every safe.
Every cabinet.
"There has to be another password," she muttered.
Ryan leaned against the desk.
"If there's anything left, we'll find it."
Neither realized Daniel had expected this moment years ago.
The office computer quietly copied every file they touched.
Every fingerprint.
Every deleted document.
Every illegal transfer.
May you like
The evidence was growing by the hour.
And Daniel was collecting all of it.
