Chapter 11 - Shadows in the Corporate Archive
The sun had barely cleared the horizon when Maris Klein unlocked the subterranean archives of Sterling Innovations. The air down here smelled of aged paper, ozone, and forgotten secrets.
Since the arrest of Evelyn Vance and Jonathan Vance, Maris had been tasked with scouring every legacy server and hard-copy ledger from the company's inception. She slid a heavy, dust-covered binder from a reinforced steel shelf. It was labeled Project Horizon – 1998.
Inside were handwritten notes, early partnership deeds, and financial drafts detailing the exact period when Maxwell Sterling had walked away from Savannah.
A single photograph slipped from the back cover and fluttered down onto the metal table.
Maris picked it up. It showed a young, twenty-year-old Maxwell standing outside a small mechanic’s garage alongside a man with a weathered beard—and standing right beside them was a teenage Sarah Hayes, holding a hand-carved wooden bird.
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Maris froze. The handwriting on the back of the photo wasn’t Maxwell’s. It was inscribed in sharp, hurried ink: “They know about the secondary trust. Protect the children at all costs.”
Before Maris could inspect the document further, the heavy fire door at the end of the archive hallway clicked open. Heavy, measured footsteps echoed across the concrete floor.
