Chapter 4 - The Trial in the Shadows
đ¨ SHOCKING EXPOSURE: "My Father Isn't Dead?!" The Secrets Hidden Deep Within The Sterling Vaults Unlocked!The room seemed to tilt beneath Julianâs feet. "What are you talking about?"
"The body in the ashes... it was never Richard Sterling," Victoria said, taking another calm sip of her drink, enjoying the absolute agony on Julian's face. "Your father was a coward, yes, but he was also a traitor. He didn't die twenty years ago. He faked his death with my help, took half of the family syndicate's liquid capital, and abandoned both of you."
"Liar!" Elena screamed, her composure finally breaking. "I saw him that night! I saw the flames!"
"You were five years old, little girl!" Victoria barked back, her eyes flashing with venom. "You saw smoke and terror! You didn't see Richard slipping out through the eastern tunnels while I locked the servants' quarters! He paid me to let him escape his debts! He traded his own children for a clean slate!"
Julian felt a cold sweat break out across his neck. The foundations of his entire existence were crumbling brick by brick. His adoptive mother was a sociopathic murderer, his biological mother was dead, and his father was a mercenary coward who had sold his children to buy his freedom.
"Where is he?" Julian demanded, his voice shaking with violent rage. "Where is Richard Sterling?"
"He's closer than you think," Victoria murmured, a chilling smile spreading across her face. "Who do you think has been funding my offshore accounts, Julian? Who do you think was paying the agencies to keep Elena moving from state to state? It wasn't me hiding her to protect my secret. It was your father paying me to keep her away from him."
Elena gasped, staggering backward as if she had been struck by an invisible blow. "No... no, that's impossible..."
"He didn't want a daughter reminding him of his sins," Victoria continued relentlessly, stepping toward Elena like a predator closing in on wounded prey. "He wanted a fresh start. And Julian... he left you with me as collateral. A payment for my silence."
"Stop talking," Julian snarled, pulling a heavy silver keycard from his inner jacket pocketâthe master security pass to the private subterranean vault beneath the estate. "You're lying to tear us apart."
"Am I?" Victoria taunted, pointing at the floor beneath them. "Go down to Vault 4. Use your key. Open the encrypted server that has been running since 2004. Look at the IP address of the monthly wire transfers. See who has been pulling the strings of the Sterling Estate for twenty years."
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Julian looked at Elena. Her face was pale, tears running down her dust-stained cheeks.
"Elena," Julian said softly. "We go down together. Whatever is down there... we face it together."
