CHAPTER 5 — "The Funeral Photo Everyone Ignored Revealed the Real Villain."
The next morning, Victoria gathered the company's oldest archives.
Thousands of photographs covered the conference table.
Board meetings.
Store openings.
Charity galas.
Family celebrations.
Hours passed.
Nothing.
Until she found one photograph from her father's funeral.
At first glance, it looked ordinary.
Executives stood together outside the cathedral.
Arthur appeared younger.
Several board members wore black.
Victoria herself stood in the front row beside her mother.
But then...
She noticed someone standing quietly behind the mourners.
A man no one remembered inviting.
He wore dark sunglasses despite the rain.
His face remained half-hidden beneath an umbrella.
Victoria enlarged the image.
Her breathing slowed.
She had seen him before.
Not once.
Not twice.
Seven different photographs.
Always in the background.
Always watching.
Never speaking.
She immediately called the private investigator who had worked with her family for decades.
"Nathan."
"I need you to identify someone."
Within four hours, Nathan called back.
His voice sounded unusually serious.
"Victoria..."
"You need to sit down."
"I'm listening."
"The man isn't just anyone."
A pause.
"He used to work inside Lawrence & Co."
Victoria frowned.
"I've never seen him."
"Because he disappeared before you joined the board."
"Why?"
Nathan inhaled deeply.
"He was fired by your father."
"For attempting to forge ownership documents."
Victoria's blood ran cold.
"Name."
"Benjamin Cross."
Another silence followed.
Nathan continued.
"After disappearing, Benjamin changed his identity."
Victoria whispered,
"What name does he use now?"
Nathan answered quietly.
"Benjamin Sterling."
Victoria's fingers tightened around the phone.
Sterling.
Not by birth.
By choice.
The surname Arthur's family carried.
The very surname her father had warned her never to trust.
But Arthur had never changed his name.
Which meant...
Someone else in the Sterling family had.
Someone older.
May you like
Someone far more dangerous.
Someone who had been waiting decades.
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