No Assistant Ever Lasted a Week Working for the Paralyzed Millionaire — Until a Single Dad Showed Up

Thursday morning arrived with a torrential downpour that rattled the reinforced glass of the Ashworth estate.

The tension inside the master study was suffocating.

At 8:30 AM, just ninety minutes before a preliminary strategy session with international investors, Victoria was reviewing her digital briefing files when the screen flashed an error message: CORRUPTED FILE.

ASSET VALUATION INDEX MISSING.

Victoria slammed her palm against her titanium armrest.

“Eric! Where is the secondary valuation ledger from the Munich real estate holdings?”

Eric hurried over, running diagnostic commands on her terminal.

“The file path was deleted from the central server at 3:00 AM, Ms. Ashworth. Someone purged the directory remotely from the Manhattan IT portal.”

“Langston,” Victoria hissed, her voice trembling with a mixture of rage and panic that she couldn’t hide.

“He knows the Zurich group won’t commit without verified asset valuations. If I show up to this briefing empty-handed, it confirms his narrative that I’m losing oversight of our core portfolios.” She looked away, her knuckles white as she gripped her chair.

“He’s going to win. He’s actually going to take my company.”

Eric looked at the digital clock: 8:34 AM.

Manhattan was an hour and a half away in heavy rain.

A physical backup server existed at the corporate disaster recovery vault, but couriers wouldn’t drive through the flash flood warnings.

“Ms. Ashworth,” Eric said firmly, grabbing his coat.

“Where is the nearest physical backup drive stored locally?”

“There is a encrypted hard drive at our secure data vault in downtown White Plains,” Victoria said, looking at him helplessly.

“But the vault manager requires double-blind biometric release protocols, and their courier service suspended operations due to the storm. You can’t get it here in time.”

“I used to route emergency freight through Category 2 hurricanes for medical supply lines,” Eric said, his eyes burning with intense determination.

“Call the vault manager right now and authorize my name for release. Keep the board talking when the call starts. I’ll be back.”

Eric didn’t wait for her reply.

He sprinted down the stairs, bursting into the pouring rain.

His old Ford sedan roared to life, tires spinning on the wet gravel as he launched down the driveway.