We left the Vance estate in three vehicles.
Noah insisted I ride with him. Julian came too, while Leo, Marcus and Caleb divided themselves between the other SUVs. Nobody trusted the Vance security staff anymore, so Noah's people remained behind to preserve recordings and make sure the evidence from the ballroom didn't disappear.
Isaac tried to follow us.
I told him not to.
He stood on the front steps beneath the birthday decorations, his expensive tuxedo wrinkled and his confidence finally stripped away.
"Flora, please."
It was the first time I remembered hearing him use that word with me.
I stopped beside the SUV.
"What?"
"We need to talk."
"You had four years."
"This isn't what you think."
I looked at the marks around my wrists.
"What part?"
He glanced at Noah.
"The documents."
"What about the affair?"
Silence.
"The money?"
Nothing.
"The rope?"
His eyes dropped.
"The thirty strikes?"
He swallowed.
"I was angry."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"You made choices."
He looked at me then.
For one second I saw the frightened man beneath everything else.
"I didn't know what my father had done."
"Neither did I."
"Flora—"
"But I didn't tie you to a ceiling because of it."
I got into the vehicle.
Noah closed the door.
As we pulled away, I watched the Vance mansion disappear behind the trees.
Thirty-four candles were still burning somewhere inside.
I wondered whether anyone would bother blowing them out.
My uncle was waiting in a converted warehouse near the river.
The building belonged to one of Leo's logistics companies and had been empty for months. Caleb had arranged the meeting there because the property had independent security and only two controlled entrances.
When we arrived, I almost couldn't leave the SUV.
I had spent years believing Uncle Gabriel was dead.
His funeral had been private because, according to the family attorney, there had been little left to bury after the boating accident.
Now a living man waited behind a steel door.
Noah touched my hand.
"You don't have to go in first."
"Yes, I do."
The warehouse smelled faintly of dust, machine oil and the river.
A single office near the loading area had lights on.
Caleb opened the door.
The man inside stood.
Time had changed him.
His hair was almost entirely gray. His face was thinner, and a scar ran from beneath his left ear into his collar.
But I knew him immediately.
"Uncle Gabriel."
His mouth trembled.
"Little Flora."
Nobody had called me that since my father died.
I crossed the room before I could think better of it.
Gabriel caught me in his arms.
For several seconds I was no longer thirty-four. I was a child again, running through my father's office while Gabriel complained that I had stolen his chair.
Then the pain in my back reminded me where I had come from.
Gabriel pulled away.
His expression changed when he saw my wrists.
"Who did that?"
Noah answered.
"Her husband."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
"I was too late."
"For what?"
He looked at me.
"To stop Victor from reaching you."
I sat across from him.
"Start at the beginning."
Gabriel glanced at my brothers.
"We don't have enough time for the beginning."
"Then start with my father."
He nodded slowly.
"Richard discovered Victor was stealing from all three families."
"All three?"
"Sterling. Vance. Hale."
Marcus leaned forward.
"How?"
"Shell companies. False development projects. Loans backed by assets that didn't know they were collateral. Victor built a network so complicated that nobody could expose one piece without implicating themselves."
"Arthur said Dad found out."
"He did."
"What happened?"
"Your father began collecting evidence."
Gabriel's voice weakened.
"He planned to take it to federal investigators."
My hands tightened.
"Did Victor kill him?"
Gabriel stared at the table.
"I can't prove it."
"But you believe he did."
"Yes."
Noah stood beside the window.
"Why disappear?"
"Because Richard contacted me the night before he died."
Every one of us went still.
Gabriel continued.
"He told me that if anything happened to him, I was to vanish with the evidence he had entrusted to me."
"Why not go directly to the police?"
"Because Richard believed somebody involved in the investigation had already been compromised."
Julian frowned.
"That's a serious allegation."
"I know."
"Who?"
"I never learned the name."
Gabriel reached into his coat.
Caleb moved instinctively, then stopped when Gabriel produced a weathered envelope.
My name was written across the front.
Flora.
I recognized the handwriting.
My father.
My fingers refused to close around it at first.
Gabriel placed it on the table between us.
"He gave me this the night before he died."
"Why didn't you give it to me?"
"Because he gave me instructions."
"What instructions?"
"Wait until somebody tries to obtain the protected Sterling assets through you."
The room became silent.
Marcus looked at me.
"The transfer agreement."
Gabriel nodded.
"Richard knew whoever came after the holdings would eventually need Flora."
"Why me?"
"Because you were the youngest."
That answer made no sense until Gabriel explained.
My father had never trusted any single person with complete control after discovering Victor's scheme. He divided access across the family, placing operational authority with my brothers while making me the final beneficiary of several dormant holding companies.
Nobody could simply seize everything.
They needed my authorization.
"Isaac married me because of this?"
The question hurt more than I expected.
Gabriel hesitated.
"I don't know why he married you."
"But somebody knew."
"Yes."
I looked at the envelope.
Then I opened it.
The paper inside had yellowed slightly along the fold.
I began reading.
My father's words were not sentimental. That was exactly like him. Richard Sterling had loved deeply but spoken plainly. He wrote that if the letter reached me, something had gone wrong and secrets he hoped to resolve himself had survived him.
He told me not to make decisions from fear.
He told me my brothers would argue, overprotect me and occasionally make me furious, but they would never sell me for money.
Leo laughed softly when I read that sentence aloud.
Then I reached the part about the assets.
My father explained that the Sterling holdings were never meant to make one child powerful.
They were designed as a lock.
Each of us possessed something required to open the most sensitive records.
Noah frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Gabriel looked at him.
"Think about what your father gave you before he died."
My brothers exchanged glances.
I remembered.
Dad had given each of us a small personal object during the final months of his life.
Mine was an old brass key.
I had kept it in a jewelry box for years.
Marcus had received a silver token.
Leo had a compass.
Julian had an antique fountain pen.
Caleb had a metal card engraved with coordinates.
Noah had our father's watch.
Six meaningless keepsakes.
Except they weren't meaningless.
"They're access devices," Marcus said.
Gabriel nodded.
"Parts of one authentication system."
My pulse quickened.
"What happens when they're combined?"
"You gain access to Richard's private archive."
"What is inside?"
"The evidence."
Julian leaned forward.
"Evidence against Victor?"
"And anyone who helped him."
Arthur's name hung silently in the room.
Possibly Wendy's.
Possibly people we hadn't discovered yet.
I looked down and continued reading.
The final paragraph was shorter.
My father's handwriting became less steady there.
He warned me that the greatest danger would not necessarily come from an obvious enemy.
I read the last lines twice.
Then a third time.
Noah noticed.
"What?"
I couldn't answer.
I handed him the letter.
His eyes moved across the page.
His jaw tightened.
One by one my brothers read it.
The warning was simple.
If someone tried to obtain my authorization through marriage, affection or trust, Dad wanted us to assume the person had been placed near me deliberately until proven otherwise.
I felt suddenly cold.
Isaac and I had met less than a year after my father's death.
He had appeared by chance at a charity event.
At least, I had always believed it was chance.
Gabriel reached for another envelope.
"There's something else."
He slid a photograph across the table.
It showed Isaac years younger, standing outside a restaurant.
Beside him was Arthur.
And across from them stood Victor Hale.
The date printed in the corner was three months before Isaac supposedly met me.
I couldn't breathe.
"He knew Victor before Clover," I whispered.
Gabriel nodded.
"Yes."
My phone rang.
Isaac.
I stared at his name.
Noah reached toward the phone, but I stopped him.
"I need to hear what he says."
I answered.
For several seconds neither of us spoke.
Then Isaac said, "Flora, where are you?"
"Why?"
"You need to come back."
"No."
"You don't understand."
"Then explain it."
His breathing became uneven.
"There's someone you shouldn't trust."
I looked at Gabriel.
My brothers were watching me.
"Who?"
Isaac hesitated.
Then he said something I hadn't expected.
"Your uncle."
Gabriel's face went rigid.
I stood.
"What did you say?"
"Gabriel isn't protecting you."
"How do you know he's alive?"
Silence.
That silence answered everything.
I gripped the phone.
"Isaac."
"Listen to me. Victor knew your uncle would eventually come back. That's what tonight was about."
My pulse hammered.
"What was tonight about?"
"I didn't know it would go this far."
"You tied me up."
"I was told to push you."
"By whom?"
He breathed my name.
"By whom, Isaac?"
Finally he answered.
"Victor."
Gabriel rose from his chair.
Noah swore under his breath.
I forced myself to remain still.
"Why would Victor tell you to humiliate me?"
"Because he needed you frightened enough to call your brothers."
The room seemed to tilt.
I looked at Noah.
Then Leo.
Julian.
Marcus.
Caleb.
All five Sterling brothers were standing in the same warehouse with me.
Exactly as Victor wanted.
Isaac continued.
"He needed every Sterling child together."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I swear I don't know the whole plan."
Caleb suddenly turned toward the warehouse entrance.
His hand rose.
Everyone fell silent.
A faint electronic beep came from the security panel.
Then another.
Someone had entered the outer perimeter.
Caleb checked his phone.
His expression changed.
"Noah."
"What?"
"Our cameras just went offline."
Isaac was still speaking through my phone.
"Flora, get out of there."
The warehouse lights died.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Somewhere beyond the office, metal scraped against concrete.
My father's letter was still in my hand.
Caleb drew us away from the windows.
Then Isaac whispered one final sentence through the phone.
"Victor didn't want the six of you together so you could open Richard's archive."
A heavy impact struck the warehouse's outer door.
I pressed the phone harder against my ear.
"Then why?"
Isaac's answer came as the lock began to break.
"Because once you're all in one place, nobody else can stop him from taking every key."
Click here to continue reading: PART 5: The Warehouse Was Breached in Darkness, and the First Thing Victor’s Men Wanted Wasn’t Us but the Objects Our Father Had Left Behind
On My Thirty-Fourth Birthday, Isaac Turned a Spilled Glass of Wine Into a Public Lesson He Thought I Would Never Answer
Part 4 of 10
