Chapter 3 - The Ghost of the Past
"Take them to the holding cells at the local garrison," Colonel Vance ordered, pointing a rigid finger at Victoria and Julian.
"Wait! You can't arrest us! On what charges?!" Julian screamed as two heavily armed soldiers grabbed him by his custom-tailored suit jackets, dragging him away from the bar.
"Assault on a supreme asset, financial fraud, and exploitation of a state ward," Vance listed off coldly. "We will also be looking very deeply into how your father suddenly 'inherited' the Sterling-Vaughn name right after the General’s transport was attacked twenty-four years ago."
Victoria’s head snapped up at those words. A flash of pure, unadulterated guilt crossed her features before she masked it with anger. Maya caught it. Colonel Vance caught it too.
As the mother and son were forcefully dragged out of the banquet hall, screaming obscenities and begging for mercy, Maya felt a strange, profound emptiness lift from her chest. For the first time in her life, she wasn't just a shadow trying to fit into a world that rejected her.
"Miss Aurora," Vance said, his demeanor respectful. "We need to get you and the child to a secure location. The estate of your late father has been maintained by the state for over two decades. It belongs to you now. There are answers there. Answers about who you are... and who put you on that highway."
Two hours later, a convoy of armored black SUVs pulled through the massive, iron gates of the true Sterling Estate. It was a fortress of limestone and glass nestled deep in the mountains, overlooking the city.
As Maya stepped into the grand foyer, holding Lily, she felt an eerie sense of familiarity. The architecture, the scent of cedar and old books—it was all buried deep within her subconscious.
Vance led her into a massive study. On the wall hung a giant, oil painting of a man in a flawless military uniform. He had the exact same piercing green eyes as Maya, the same strong jawline. Next to him was a beautiful woman with a gentle smile, holding a tiny baby with a familiar silver pendant around its neck.
Maya walked up to the painting, her hand trembling as she touched the canvas. "My parents..."
"They loved you more than life itself," Vance said softly. "The night of the ambush, your father knew they were compromised. He gave you his personal command token—the pendant—because it contained an embedded GPS tracker and your inheritance keys. He managed to smuggle you out of the transport vehicle before the enemies struck. But the tracker was damaged in the chaos, which is why we lost you."
"Who did it, Colonel?" Maya asked, her voice dropping into a dangerous register. The timid girl from the banquet hall was dying, replaced by the blood of the General flowing through her veins. "Who betrayed my father?"
Vance sighed, pulling out a heavily encrypted tablet. "We never found out. The records were wiped from the inside. Whoever did it had high-level access to the family's personal schedules. But tonight, when I mentioned the investigation into the Sterling-Vaughn family's sudden rise to wealth... did you see Victoria's face?"
Maya narrowed her eyes, remembering the flash of terror in her mother-in-law's eyes. "She knows something."
"More than just something," Vance replied. "Our cyber-intelligence team just intercepted an encrypted distress signal sent from Victoria’s personal phone right before she was booked into the cell. She didn't call a lawyer, Maya. She called a black-market mercenary syndicate known as the 'Iron Phantoms'."
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Maya looked back at the painting of her father. "What did the message say?"
Vance looked at her grimly. "It said: The asset is alive. Aurora Sterling has the token. Eliminate her before she opens the vault."
