CHAPTER 4 – The Fire Was Never an Accident
William brought Samuel to the private penthouse office on the top floor.
For the first time in years, Samuel sat in a leather chair instead of cleaning one.
William placed the old photograph on the desk.
“Tell me everything.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
Twenty-three years ago, he had worked as a night supervisor at a factory owned by the original Sterling family.
That night, he discovered illegal documents hidden in a locked storage room.
Fake accounts.
Stolen wages.
Names of children forced to work under false records.
Before he could report it, the building caught fire.
Samuel escaped badly injured.
But when he woke up in the hospital, he was told his little boy had died.
William’s face hardened.
“I was told you abandoned me.”
Samuel shook his head.
“No. Someone took you.”
At that moment, William’s phone rang.
It was his stepmother, Eleanor Sterling.
Her voice was sweet.
Too sweet.
“William, darling… I heard you found an old janitor in the lobby.”
William said nothing.
Then Eleanor whispered,
“Send him away before he remembers where the bodies are buried.”
Samuel went completely still.
Because only one person alive could know those words.
May you like
The woman William called “Mother”…
Was the same woman who had ordered the fire.
