His Forbidden Guard

SIX YEARS AGO

The apartment was darker than it should have been at three in the afternoon. Sixteen-year-old Roarke Daveson had stopped opening the curtains weeks ago. What was the point? Sunlight didn't make anything better. It just illuminated the emptiness, the decay, the slow dissolution of everything that had once been his life.

He sat on the threadbare couch, one of the few pieces of furniture left, staring at his phone. No new messages. No missed calls. His mother hadn't contacted him in five days. Before that, it had been three days. Before that, a week.

The pattern was clear. She was disappearing, piece by piece, slipping away like water through his fingers.

His stomach growled, a hollow ache that had become familiar. There was half a loaf of bread in the kitchen, some peanut butter that was probably expired. That would have to last until he got paid from his shift at the corner store tomorrow. Twelve dollars for six hours of work under the table, because no one wanted to officially hire a sixteen-year-old dropout.

Dropout. The word still stung.

He'd loved school. Had been good at it, even. Teachers had said he was smart, that he had potential. But potential didn't pay rent. Potential didn't buy food. So he'd left, quietly, without telling anyone, and started working whatever jobs would take him.

His phone buzzed, making him jump. A text from his mother: Won't be home tonight. Maybe not tomorrow either. There's money in the drawer.

There was never money in the drawer.

Daveson, he'd started going by his middle name after his father died, unable to bear hearing "Roarke" because it sounded too much like his father's name, typed out a response: When are you coming back?

The three dots appeared, disappeared, appeared again. Then: I don't know, baby. I'm sorry. I just can't be there right now.

Can't be there. As if the apartment was the problem. As if the walls themselves were what was unbearable, and not the crushing weight of grief and loss that had swallowed them both whole.

He wanted to type back something cruel, something that would make her hurt the way he was hurting. Instead, he wrote: Okay. Be safe.

She didn't respond.

Daveson set the phone down and walked to his father's room, their room, technically, but his mother hadn't slept there since the funeral. The door creaked as he pushed it open, revealing a space frozen in time. His mother hadn't touched anything. Hadn't packed away his father's clothes, hadn't cleared the nightstand of his reading glasses and the mystery novel he'd been halfway through before his arrest.

It was like a shrine to a ghost.

Daveson had been avoiding this room, but desperation had brought him here. There had to be something, anything, that could explain what had happened. His father had been a good man. Everyone had said so. Neighbors, coworkers, friends. Roarke Mark had been honest, hardworking, devoted to his family.

And then, overnight, he'd become a criminal.

The arrest had been brutal in its efficiency. Their tenth wedding anniversary party, his parents laughing and dancing in their small living room while Daveson watched from the kitchen, smiling at how happy they were. And then the knock on the door. The flash of badges. The cold reading of rights.

Roarke Mark, you're under arrest for embezzlement, fraud, and conspiracy to commit financial crimes.

His father's face had gone white. "There's been a mistake," he'd said, his voice steady despite the fear in his eyes. "I haven't done anything wrong."

But they'd taken him anyway. Handcuffed him in front of his wife and son, led him out while neighbors watched from their doorways, while his mother sobbed, while Daveson stood frozen, unable to process what was happening.

The trial had been swift. The evidence overwhelming. Bank records showing massive transfers. Falsified documents with his father's signature. Testimony from coworkers who claimed to have seen suspicious behavior. His father's lawyer, a public defender who looked exhausted before the trial even began, had tried his best, but it hadn't mattered.

Two years in federal prison.

Daveson had visited when he could, taking three buses to get to the facility, sitting across from his father in a room full of other broken families. His father had aged a decade in months. The vibrant, confident man he'd known had been replaced by someone hollow, someone haunted.

"I didn't do it, son," his father had said during that last visit, gripping Daveson's hand across the table. "I swear to you, I didn't do any of it. But no one will listen. No one cares about the truth."

"I believe you, Dad," Daveson had whispered, his throat tight. "I'll always believe you."

Three months later, his father had been released on appeal. New evidence had come to light, or so the lawyer had said. The charges were being reviewed. There was hope, finally, after two years of darkness.

Daveson had gone to the courthouse steps to meet him, his heart soaring with a joy he hadn't felt since before the arrest. His father had walked out into the sunlight, blinking like someone emerging from a cave, his face breaking into a smile when he saw Daveson waiting.

"Hey, kiddo," he'd said, opening his arms.

Daveson had run to him, and for one perfect moment, everything had been okay again.

Then his father had stumbled. His hand had gone to his chest. His face had contorted in pain.

"Dad?" Daveson had caught him as he fell, his father's weight suddenly too heavy, too real. "Dad! Someone help! Please!"

The ambulance. He was rushed to the hospital. The doctor's grim face. The flatline sound that had echoed in Daveson's nightmares ever since.

Massive cardiac arrest. His heart just... gave out. I'm so sorry.

Now, standing in his father's room, Daveson felt that same helpless rage that had consumed him in the hospital. It wasn't fair. None of it was fair. His father had been innocent, and he'd died anyway. Had died thinking he was a criminal, that the world believed he was a thief.

Daveson moved to the closet, pulling down boxes from the top shelf. His father had kept meticulous records of everything, receipts, documents, letters. Somewhere in here had to be an answer.

The first box was full of work documents. Performance reviews, all glowing. Commendations. A bonus letter from five years ago, praising his father's dedication to Heyden Industries.

Heyden Industries. The ink production company where his father had worked for nearly fifteen years, climbing from entry-level accountant to senior financial analyst. He'd loved that job, had talked about it at dinner, excited about new contracts and expansion plans.

Daveson dug deeper, finding his father's personal notes. Ledgers filled with numbers in his careful handwriting. And then, tucked at the bottom of the box, a flash drive with a sticky note attached: Original records - backup.

His hands shook as he pulled out his old laptop, one of the few things that hadn't been sold, and plugged in the drive.

The files opened, revealing spreadsheets dating back years. Daveson wasn't an accountant, didn't understand half of what he was looking at, but even he could see the discrepancies. Highlighted cells. Notes in the margins in his father's handwriting: Doesn't match company records. Where did this money go? Need to investigate further.

There were dozens of flagged transactions. Millions of dollars, moving through accounts that shouldn't exist, disappearing into offshore holdings. And every single one of them had been signed off by the same person.

L. Heyden.

Daveson stared at the initials, his heart pounding. He opened another file, this one a scanned letter. His father's handwriting, but never sent.

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to report serious financial irregularities at Heyden Industries. As a senior financial analyst, I have discovered evidence of systematic embezzlement and fraud occurring at the highest levels of the company...

The letter went on, detailing everything his father had found. The offshore accounts. The falsified records. The money laundering scheme that had been operating for years. And at the center of it all: Lissa Heyden, CEO and majority shareholder.

Daveson's breath caught. His father had known. Had discovered the truth. And instead of being able to report it, he'd been framed for the very crimes he'd been trying to expose.

He kept digging, finding more evidence. Emails his father had saved, carefully documenting his attempts to go through proper channels. A meeting with the company's internal auditor that had been mysteriously canceled. A scheduled appointment with the SEC that his father never made it to because he'd been arrested the night before.

The timeline was damning. Lissa Heyden had known what his father had discovered, and she'd destroyed him to protect herself.

Daveson found one more document, a draft of a letter addressed to him.

Daveson,

If you're reading this, then something has happened to me. I'm writing this because I'm scared, son. I've discovered something terrible, and I don't know who I can trust anymore.

I work for Lissa Heyden at Heyden Industries. She's one of the most powerful women in New York, brilliant, charming, ruthless. Everyone loves her. She's on magazine covers, she does charity work, she's considered a role model for women in business.

But it's all a lie.

She's been stealing from her own company for years. Millions of dollars funneled through shell corporations and offshore accounts. She's good at it too, the paperwork is nearly perfect. If I hadn't been reviewing records going back five years for an audit, I never would have caught it.

I tried to do the right thing. I tried to report it quietly, through proper channels. But every door I knock on seems to close before I can get through. I think she has people in her pocket, auditors, lawyers, maybe even law enforcement.

I'm going to keep trying, but I want you to know the truth in case something goes wrong. I love you and your mother more than anything in this world. Everything I do, I do to protect you both.

If something happens to me, please don't try to fight her. She's too powerful, too connected. Just live your life, be happy, and know that your father loved you.

Dad

Daveson's hands were shaking so badly he nearly dropped the laptop. Tears blurred his vision, hot and angry, spilling down his cheeks as the full weight of what had happened crashed over him.

His father had tried to do the right thing. Had tried to expose corruption, to seek justice.

The rage that filled Daveson in that moment was unlike anything he'd ever felt. It burned through his grief, his fear, his helplessness, leaving behind something hard and cold and unbreakable.

Don't try to fight her, his father had written.

But his father was dead. And Daveson had nothing left to lose.