I walked over and knelt beside her on the Persian rug.

The air in the study smelled of old paper and cedar.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Look at the name on the top,” Mia said, pointing her finger at the first page.

I squinted at the faded typewritten ink.

The document was a United States patent application dated forty years ago.

The title read: *Digital Encryption Protocol for Secure Financial Transactions.*

Below it was the name of the sole inventor.

*Arthur Vance Sterling.*

My father.

I stared at the name, my throat suddenly dry.

“He always told me he designed the system,” I whispered.

“He did,” Mia said.

She turned the page to reveal a series of detailed technical drawings.

The schematics were drawn in precise, black ink.

They bore my father’s unmistakable, neat handwriting in the margins.

“But Preston told the board he invented it,” Mia said.

“He told the whole world he built the core technology of Hayes Enterprises.”

I turned the page to the very back of the folder.

Attached to the patent was a private transfer agreement.