Part 4 — I Was a Billionaire and Was Testing a Child in My Own House, but His Unexpected Gesture Took the Breath Away from Security

“Where is your brother?” I asked.

Maria stood by the window. Raindrops ran down the glass and distorted the yellow light of the room.

“He got out of prison two days ago,” she said. “Nathan knew that he was asking for help because of money. He told me that if I brought you the documents, they would accuse him of theft.”

“And you still brought them to me.”

“Your mother’s words were not only for you. I kept them my whole life.”

The phone rang again.

This time I answered my lawyer, Helen Ward.

“Daniel, where are you?”

“At home.”

“Nathan has requested an order from the court for the company’s archives to be sealed immediately. He says that you are psychologically unstable and that Maria stole the documents from you.”

I laughed. For the first time in many weeks.

“He has no evidence.”

“Now he does. He bought three witnesses.”

“And us?”

“We have the recording, your mother’s documents, and the cameras. But there is something else you must know.”

Tension appeared in Helen’s voice.

“The information sold by Nathan was not accidental. Every leaked plan concerned the schemes that your father had created years ago. Your partner was not only stealing money. He was trying to return control of your company to Charles’s old fund.”

Silence fell over the room.

“My father is dead.”

“But his signatures are alive.”

Helen told me that an additional power of attorney had appeared in my father’s old documents, giving Nathan the right to claim part of my property if I became “incapable of managing.” That was exactly what Nathan was trying to prove.

He wanted to turn silence into evidence against me.

“Then play the recording publicly,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

My mother’s voice sounded again in my mind: Always leave a door open for the house.

“This time I will no longer hide.”

The next morning an emergency company meeting was held. Twenty-two people sat around a long table at the New York headquarters. Nathan stood at the end, touching his expensive watch with his finger and trying to keep a calm face.

“Daniel, this can still be settled quietly,” he told me.

“What does settling it quietly mean to you?”

“You will resign. I will manage the group temporarily. I will also withdraw the complaint against Maria.”

Maria stood beside me. Her hands were clasped in front of her, but she was no longer trembling.

“You ruled people through threats,” I told him.

Nathan smiled bitterly.

“And you through fear. The only difference is that you call it nobility.”

Helen placed the documents on the table.

“The meeting begins.”

For the first time we listened to the recording. My mother’s voice spread through the room. Several employees lowered their heads. One elderly director covered his mouth with his hand.

At first Nathan was laughing.

“An old recording proves nothing.”

Then Charles’s voice was heard, his threat, his admission about the fund’s money. Then Helen turned on the hidden-camera recording, where Nathan was telling his accomplice:

“Daniel trusts no one. If we leave him alone for a few days, he will prove himself that he is losing his mind.”

Nathan slowly sat down.

“This is illegal,” he said.

“You said it yourself,” Helen replied.

That day Nathan’s lawyer requested to speak with him separately during the meeting break. Ten minutes later he came out and approached me.

“I can no longer continue this case,” he said.

Nathan stared at him.

“What are you saying?”

“You told me that the recording did not exist.”

Nathan put his hands on his head.

“Daniel, listen to me. I only did what your father wanted.”

This was the first time he had mentioned my father’s name aloud.

“Charles is dead,” I said.

“But his plan is not.”

Then the police came.

Forgery of documents, financial fraud, intimidation, and misappropriation of company funds proved sufficient. Nathan tried to resist, but the cameras in the corridor recorded everything.

The hardest moment came when the investigator played his own voice for him.

“If we leave Daniel alone, he will prove himself that he is losing his mind.”

Nathan listened to the voice recording and gradually realized that his own voice could be heard there. Not distorted, not inserted, not someone else’s.

His.

“I did not say it like that,” he whispered.

“You did,” I said.

For the first time he looked at me not as an opponent, but as a person whom he could no longer deceive.

“Forgive me.”

“Forgiveness is possible. Trust will not return.”

Nathan was taken away.

I was not happy.

Nor did I feel relief.

When I returned home in the evening, I found the archive room open. The place was empty. My father’s desk had been removed, and only rectangles of dust remained on the shelves.

My mother’s recording was in my hand.

The next day Maria and Lily visited me. Maria put a small suitcase in the corridor.

“If you want, we will leave,” she told me.

“Why should you leave?”

“Now you know everything. Maybe you will no longer need us.”

These words hurt me more than Nathan’s betrayal.

“Maria, all my life I allowed people close only when the danger of losing them no longer existed. Now, for the first time, I do not want anyone to leave.”

Lily stood on the first stair.

“Do you still want the wooden house?”

“Every day.”

“Then we must see your room.”

I arranged the small room in the guest wing for her. I had the walls painted warm yellow, placed a low table by the window, and put the wooden house on a shelf. Lily arranged her purple pencils beside it.

Three weeks later the company’s board revoked all of Nathan’s powers. The court ruled that the fund’s money truly was property created by my mother and legally belonged to me. I gave part of the money to a charity that helped mothers of seriously ill children.

With the remaining money I bought a new house on a small street in the city.

The house did not have fourteen rooms.

It had only three bedrooms, and a ray of sunlight came in by the kitchen window in the morning.

In the first week I did not have enough dishes. In the second week Lily drew a sun on the wall with chalk. In the third week I myself learned to cook pasta and burned it three times.

Maria told me with laughter:

“Billionaires need a recipe too.”

“Apparently money alone is not enough.”

“It took you a long time to understand that?”

“Twenty-eight years.”

At the beginning of winter, when the first snow came, Lily ran into my office. She held a sheet of paper in her hand. On it three people stood in front of a small house. One wore a large black coat, the second a red dress, and the third a purple dress.

“This is us,” she said. “The door is open here.”

I pinned the sheet to the wall.

That same evening I received a letter from Nathan. It had been sent from prison.

“I want to speak with you at least once. I am not asking for money. Only for a chance.”

I looked at the letter for a long time.

Before, at such a time I would have answered in order to control everything. Now I folded the paper and put it in a drawer.

Maria asked me quietly:

“You will not answer?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because his regret is no longer my responsibility.”

That night Lily took the wooden house down from the shelf. The copper key hidden in the roof was still in its place, while the small wooden whistle tied to the red thread waited beside it.

“Will you blow it?” Lily asked.

I went to the window. It was snowing outside. The noise of the city came from far away, while inside the house the breathing of two people could be heard.

I brought the whistle to my lips and blew softly.

A thin sound spread through the room.

Lily took my hand.

“You see? They heard you.”

I looked at the small wooden house. On its door one word was still written in blue pencil.

Come in.

And this time I left the door open.