Arthur Vance asked for the ballroom doors to be closed.
Nobody obeyed him.
That seemed to unsettle him more than anything else that had happened.
For most of his adult life, Arthur had been a man whose requests were treated as instructions. Employees hurried when he frowned. Bankers returned his calls. Contractors rearranged schedules. His family measured their words around his temper.
Now he stood in his own house while five Sterling brothers and the daughter of Richard Sterling waited for an explanation he clearly did not want to give.
I held the photograph in front of him.
"Look at it."
"I've seen it."
"Then tell me why a man who supposedly died years ago was photographed six days ago."
Arthur looked toward Caleb.
"Where did you get that?"
Caleb remained expressionless. "You don't get to ask the questions yet."
Wendy stepped between us. "Arthur, don't tell these people anything."
"These people?" Leo repeated.
She ignored him.
Her attention remained fixed on her husband.
That was when I noticed fear in her face.
Not confusion.
Fear.
Wendy knew something too.
I had lived under the same roof with these people and attended hundreds of dinners with them. I knew the patterns of their arguments. Wendy became loud when she wanted attention and quiet when she was genuinely frightened.
Tonight she was nearly whispering.
"Arthur, think."
"I have been thinking," he snapped.
His gaze moved toward Isaac.
"And apparently I'm the only person in this family who ever does."
Isaac stiffened.
Arthur pointed toward the discarded rope.
"You put your hands on Richard Sterling's daughter in front of witnesses while we were already exposed financially."
"I didn't know—"
"That's your excuse?"
"You never told me who her family really was!"
I felt something inside me harden.
Isaac turned toward me.
"You didn't tell me either."
The accusation was so absurd that for a moment nobody responded.
Then Noah laughed once.
It wasn't amusement.
"My sister was required to provide you with a financial threat assessment before you treated her like a human being?"
Isaac looked away.
Arthur lowered himself into a chair.
For the first time that evening he looked old.
"Richard and I knew each other."
I waited.
"We worked together thirty years ago."
"Doing what?"
"Development. Infrastructure. Logistics. Things were different then."
Marcus folded his arms.
"That's not an answer."
Arthur looked at him.
"Your father financed projects people considered impossible. I built them. We made a great deal of money together."
"And then?" I asked.
"Then we stopped trusting each other."
"Why?"
Arthur looked toward the photograph in my hand.
"Because of Victor."
I glanced at my brothers.
None reacted visibly except Caleb.
His eyes narrowed.
"Victor who?"
Arthur shook his head.
"Not here."
"You're already here," Julian said.
Arthur hesitated.
"Victor Hale."
Clover's champagne glass slipped from her hand.
It shattered on the marble.
Every head turned toward her.
Her face had drained of color.
"My father?"
Arthur looked at her.
"You weren't supposed to be involved."
Clover took a step backward.
"What does my father have to do with any of this?"
Nobody answered immediately.
I stared at her.
Eight months.
Isaac had been sleeping with Victor Hale's daughter for eight months while secretly preparing documents involving my father's estate.
Coincidence had suddenly become difficult to believe.
Clover looked at Isaac.
"Did you know?"
He didn't answer.
"Isaac."
"I knew who your father was."
Her expression collapsed.
"You told me you'd never met him."
Isaac rubbed both hands over his face.
"I couldn't tell you everything."
"Everything about what?"
Arthur stood.
"Victor worked with Richard and me. He handled certain investments."
Marcus interrupted. "Meaning?"
Arthur hesitated.
"Money that couldn't always move through ordinary channels."
Noah's expression sharpened.
"My father walked away from that."
"Eventually."
"Why?"
"Because Victor started stealing."
Arthur's answer came quietly.
The ballroom seemed to shrink around us.
He continued.
"Richard discovered discrepancies. Companies that existed only on paper. Accounts opened through intermediaries. Payments being redirected. Victor believed Richard would expose him."
"And you?" Julian asked.
Arthur's gaze dropped.
"I had my own exposure."
There it was.
Not innocence.
Complicity.
I thought about my father during his final year. The late-night telephone calls. The locked office. The arguments I heard but was too young and too sheltered to understand.
Then his death.
A highway accident.
Rain.
A vehicle leaving the road.
An investigation that ended almost before our family had finished burying him.
"What happened to my father?"
Arthur looked at me.
"I don't know."
"That's not good enough."
"It's the truth."
"Did Victor kill him?"
"I don't know."
"Did you help cover up what happened?"
Arthur's silence lasted too long.
Noah moved toward him.
I caught my brother's sleeve.
"No."
He stopped.
I wanted Arthur afraid.
I did not want him unable to speak.
Arthur finally said, "I helped keep certain financial records away from investigators."
Julian's voice became very quiet.
"After Richard died?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because if those records became public, Vance Development would have collapsed."
"So you protected your company."
"I protected thousands of employees."
"No," Marcus said. "You protected yourself."
Arthur didn't challenge him.
Wendy sank into a chair.
Isaac stared at his father as though hearing the story for the first time.
That mattered.
Whatever Isaac had done, he did not know everything.
Caleb took the photograph from me.
"Where does Flora's uncle fit into this?"
Arthur rubbed his forehead.
"Your uncle discovered what Victor was doing."
"Then why did everyone think he was dead?"
"I don't know."
"Try again."
"I don't know."
Caleb studied him.
I had seen that look before. He used silence differently from the rest of us. Caleb waited until people became uncomfortable enough to fill it themselves.
Arthur lasted perhaps fifteen seconds.
Then he said, "Richard believed somebody inside his organization was helping Victor."
Noah went still.
"Who?"
"He never told me."
"Did he suspect our uncle?"
"I don't think so."
"Then why disappear?"
Arthur shook his head.
"I heard rumors after Richard died. Someone was eliminating anyone who could reconstruct the accounts."
The words chilled me.
Clover stepped closer.
"My father isn't a murderer."
Arthur looked at her with something close to pity.
"You don't know your father."
She slapped him.
The sound cracked through the room.
Isaac moved toward her, but she turned on him.
"Don't touch me."
"Clover—"
"You knew there was something between our families."
"I knew there had been business."
"You used me."
His expression told her enough.
She covered her mouth.
For the first time that evening I didn't see my husband's mistress.
I saw another person who had been lied to.
That didn't absolve her.
But it complicated my anger.
Marcus returned to the asset-transfer agreement.
"There's another problem."
I turned.
"The properties Isaac tried to transfer aren't ordinary real estate."
"What are they?"
"Several hold controlling interests in companies created by your father."
"I thought those companies were dissolved."
"So did we."
Noah looked at him sharply.
Marcus continued.
"Someone has been keeping them active through layered ownership structures. Their combined value is enormous."
"How enormous?"
He gave me the number.
I sat down.
Isaac had not been preparing to steal a house or a trust fund.
He had been trying to obtain control of an empire I didn't know still existed.
"Why me?"
Marcus pointed to the document.
"Because Dad structured the holdings so control passed to you."
"Why wouldn't he tell me?"
"Maybe he planned to."
Caleb's phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
Then his entire posture changed.
"What?"
He didn't answer.
He walked toward the windows and made a call.
Noah followed.
Caleb spoke quietly for less than a minute before returning.
"We found the man in the photograph."
"My uncle?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Not far."
My heart started pounding.
"Is he alive?"
Caleb nodded.
"Then bring him here."
"He refuses."
"Why?"
"He says the Vance estate isn't secure."
Arthur stood immediately.
"What does that mean?"
Caleb looked toward the security cameras.
"He says someone else has been watching this house for three days."
Every person in the room seemed to stop breathing.
"Who?" I asked.
Caleb held my gaze.
"He wouldn't say over the phone."
Then his phone buzzed again.
This time it was a message.
Caleb read it twice.
"What did he say?"
My brother looked at me.
"He says Dad left something for you."
I stood.
"What?"
"A letter."
The room blurred around me.
"Where is it?"
"Your uncle has it."
I reached for my coat.
Noah blocked me.
"Flora, you need medical attention first."
"My father has been dead for years. If there's a letter from him, I'm not waiting until morning."
"Then we're all going."
Arthur stepped forward.
"You shouldn't leave."
I turned toward him.
"Why?"
He looked toward the dark windows.
"Because if Victor knows your uncle is alive, he'll know you're looking for him."
I stared at Arthur.
"And if Victor knows that?"
Arthur's answer came almost as a whisper.
"Then tonight wasn't Isaac's biggest mistake."
He looked at the photograph.
"It was bringing all six Sterling children into the same place."
Click here to continue reading: PART 4: My Father’s Hidden Letter Explained Why I Inherited the Sterling Holdings, but Its Final Warning Pointed Straight Back Toward My Husband
On My Thirty-Fourth Birthday, Isaac Turned a Spilled Glass of Wine Into a Public Lesson He Thought I Would Never Answer
Part 3 of 10
