CHAPTER 5 — “The Dead Man Walked Into The Boardroom… And Called Emma By Her Real Name”
The entire Sterling family gathered in the boardroom the following morning.
No one spoke.
No one dared.
Every television station in the country was already reporting the shocking disappearance of the Sterling inheritance documents.
Emma stood at the head of the table.
"The police have blocked every airport."
"If Victoria stole those files..."
"She can't escape forever."
Before anyone could answer...
The boardroom doors slowly opened.
An elderly man in a tailored black suit walked inside with a silver cane.
Every executive froze.
The old butler nearly collapsed.
"It... it can't be..."
The stranger smiled.
"I've heard that sentence many times over the last twenty-three years."
Emma stared at him.
His face matched every photograph hidden inside Henry Sterling's archives.
There was no mistake.
It was Richard Sterling.
The younger brother who had supposedly died in a yacht explosion decades ago.
Ethan stood up in disbelief.
"You... you're dead."
Richard chuckled softly.
"Only to the people who wanted me dead."
He calmly placed a thick folder on the conference table.
"I didn't come for the company."
"I came for her."
He pointed directly at Emma.
The room fell silent.
Richard looked into Emma's eyes and spoke words that made her blood run cold.
"Your real name isn't Emma."
"It's Isabella Amelia Sterling."
Emma's heart pounded.
"What did you say?"
Richard opened the folder.
Inside were dozens of photographs.
One showed Amelia holding a newborn baby girl.
Another showed Henry Sterling signing legal adoption papers.
And the last photograph...
Showed Richard himself standing beside Amelia in a hospital room.
"I was there the night you were born," Richard said quietly.
"I made a promise to your mother that if anything happened to her, I would protect you."
Emma's voice trembled.
"Then... where were you all these years?"
Richard lowered his head.
"I was hiding."
"Because someone wanted every member of the Sterling bloodline dead."
At that moment, the conference room lights suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the building.
A loud explosion shook the tower.
The emergency lights flickered on.
Smoke poured through the hallway.
Security guards rushed toward the underground parking garage.
Seconds later, one of them screamed into the radio.
"There's a body!"
Everyone ran downstairs.
Lying beside a burning black SUV...
Was the family lawyer.
He was still alive—but barely.
With his last breath, he grabbed Emma's hand and whispered,
"Don't trust... Richard..."
Then he slipped a small brass key into her palm.
His hand fell lifelessly to the ground.
Emma looked up.
Richard was gone.
So was Ethan.
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And on the wall behind the burning vehicle, someone had written in fresh red paint:
"THE REAL HEIR MUST DIE BEFORE MIDNIGHT."
