CHAPTER 2: THE FILE THEY HOPED NO ONE WOULD EVER OPEN
CHAPTER 2: THE FILE THEY HOPED NO ONE WOULD EVER OPEN
The employee database loaded slowly.
Marcus Green stared at the screen while rain and snow rattled against the windows of his penthouse.
LILY PARKER.
Age: 30.
Position: Night Custodial Services.
Employment Status: Contract Worker.
Years of Service: 6.
Attendance: 99.8%.
Disciplinary Record: None.
Performance Reviews:
"Exceptional."
"Never complains."
"Always volunteers for additional shifts."
Marcus frowned.
Someone this reliable should not have looked like she was dying on the seventeenth floor.
He clicked the medical benefits tab.
No active health insurance.
His eyes narrowed.
That made no sense.
Green Enterprises required every full-time employee to receive medical coverage after ninety days.
He opened another section.
The answer hit him like a punch.
Employment Classification Changed: Full-Time → Temporary Contractor.
Date of change:
Four years earlier.
Authorized by:
Facilities Operations Manager — Daniel Brooks.
Marcus leaned back.
Temporary contractors received no company insurance.
No paid sick leave.
No disability protection.
No maternity benefits.
Nothing.
He kept scrolling.
Attached to the record was a short internal note.
"Employee requested contractor status voluntarily."
Marcus stared at the sentence.
"No."
He whispered it to the empty apartment.
"No mother with a sick child gives up health insurance voluntarily."
Something was wrong.
Something had been wrong for years.
He picked up his phone.
"Karen."
His executive assistant answered despite the hour.
"Mr. Green?"
"I need every personnel document connected to Lily Parker before eight o'clock tomorrow."
There was a pause.
"May I ask why?"
"No."
Another pause.
"Yes, sir."
"And don't tell Facilities."
"...Understood."
Marcus hung up.
Someone inside the company had buried something.
He intended to find it before sunrise.
Across town...
Lily Parker unlocked the door to Apartment 3B.
The apartment was barely six hundred square feet.
Old paint peeled from the walls.
The heater rattled louder than it warmed.
Sophie kicked off her wet shoes.
"I'm sorry."
Lily smiled despite the pain.
"For what?"
"For making the nice man worry."
Lily knelt carefully.
"You never apologize for being a child."
She brushed damp hair away from Sophie's face.
"You did nothing wrong."
"But I told him you're sick."
For a heartbeat...
Lily's smile disappeared.
She looked toward the tiny kitchen where unopened medical bills covered the counter beneath a stack of grocery coupons.
"I know."
"I'm sorry."
Lily hugged her daughter.
"So am I."
Not because Sophie had spoken.
Because she had spent two years teaching her little girl to keep frightening secrets.
When Sophie finally fell asleep, Lily locked the bathroom door.
She gripped the sink.
Then the pain came.
Hard.
Sharp.
Violent.
She doubled over.
A cry escaped before she could stop it.
Blood spotted the white tile.
Just a little.
But enough.
She closed her eyes.
"No..."
She opened the medicine cabinet.
Only two pills remained.
Her prescription had run out three days ago.
The refill cost more than half her monthly rent.
She swallowed one without water.
Then looked at herself in the cracked mirror.
Her face was pale.
Her lips almost colorless.
She looked older than thirty.
Much older.
The doctor's words echoed in her mind.
"If you keep delaying surgery, the mass could rupture."
"You need treatment immediately."
Immediately.
She had laughed when the doctor said it.
People who cleaned office buildings at night didn't have the luxury of "immediately."
At seven-thirty the next morning...
Marcus walked into headquarters.
People stepped aside instinctively.
He rarely smiled.
He rarely slowed down.
Today, he did neither.
Karen met him outside his office carrying a thick folder.
"I found everything."
Marcus opened it.
His jaw tightened.
Original hiring paperwork.
Insurance enrollment.
Benefit confirmations.
Performance awards.
Then...
A second folder.
Red stamped across the front.
VOIDED.
Inside was a resignation letter.
Supposedly signed by Lily Parker.
Marcus read it once.
Then twice.
Something bothered him.
He compared the signature to the one on her original application.
Different.
Subtly.
But different.
He pressed the intercom.
"Get Legal."
Five minutes later, company attorney Rachel Monroe entered.
"You wanted me?"
Marcus handed her both documents.
"Tell me what you see."
She studied them carefully.
After nearly a minute, she looked up.
"These signatures weren't written by the same person."
"You’re certain?"
"I've reviewed enough fraud cases."
She pointed to the page.
"The angle changes."
"The pressure changes."
"The ending stroke is completely different."
Marcus felt cold anger settle into his chest.
Someone had forged Lily Parker's resignation from company benefits.
Someone inside Green Enterprises.
Rachel looked at him.
"Do you want me to investigate quietly?"
Marcus answered without hesitation.
"No."
"I want everyone involved."
Downstairs...
Daniel Brooks watched through the glass walls of his office as employees hurried across the lobby.
His phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
He answered.
"What?"
A nervous voice whispered,
"Marcus Green is looking into Lily Parker."
Daniel froze.
"What did you say?"
"He pulled her personnel file."
"When?"
"Last night."
Silence.
Then Daniel stood so quickly his chair crashed backward.
"Keep watching him."
"He already contacted Legal."
Daniel's face drained of color.
"No..."
Not Legal.
Anyone but Legal.
Because if they audited the contractor conversions...
They would find dozens.
Maybe hundreds.
And every one of them had made someone rich.
That afternoon...
Marcus personally rode the service elevator to the seventeenth floor.
Cleaning carts lined the hallway.
Vacuum cleaners hummed in the distance.
Employees glanced up nervously.
One elderly janitor recognized him immediately.
"Mr. Green?"
Marcus smiled politely.
"I need to ask you something."
The old man nodded.
"Anything."
"Lily Parker."
The man's expression changed instantly.
"What about her?"
"How long have you worked together?"
"Almost six years."
"Has she always been sick?"
The janitor looked around to make sure no supervisor was nearby.
Then lowered his voice.
"She used to be healthy."
Marcus waited.
"Until..."
"Until what?"
The old man's hands trembled.
"Until she reported Mr. Brooks."
Marcus felt his pulse quicken.
"Reported him for what?"
The janitor swallowed.
"He was stealing."
Silence.
Only the distant sound of a vacuum echoed through the corridor.
Marcus stared at him.
"What happened after she reported him?"
The old man's eyes filled with regret.
"They said there wasn't enough evidence."
"Lily lost her benefits."
"Lost her overtime."
Lost her promotion.
Lost everything.
"And six months later..."
He looked Marcus directly in the eye.
"Her husband died."
Marcus frowned.
"I thought she was divorced."
"So did everyone."
The janitor's voice shook.
"But her husband didn't leave."
"He disappeared."
Marcus felt every instinct he possessed come alive.
"What do you mean... disappeared?"
The old man leaned closer.
"He walked into this building one night..."
"...after telling Lily he had proof Daniel Brooks was laundering company money."
"He never came home."
Marcus's breathing stopped.
"Police ruled it a missing-person case."
"They never found him."
The old janitor's voice broke into a whisper.
"But around here..."
"...everyone knew he found something he wasn't supposed to see."
At that exact moment, Marcus's phone vibrated.
A text from Rachel Monroe.
Emergency.
May you like
Do NOT let Lily Parker return home tonight.
Someone has already broken into her apartment.
