Chapter 9 - The Truth Emily Never KnewEmily slapped Nathan.
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, someone slapped the richest man in the city.
Nathan did not move.
Jamie stared.
Claire whispered, “Maybe we should have delivered that result differently.”
Emily’s chest rose and fell.
“No.”
Nathan touched his cheek.
“I agree.”
Emily looked terrified rather than angry.
“That is impossible.”
Nathan nodded.
“I know.”
“You and I never—”
“I know.”
Jamie looked between them.
“Could everybody stop saying impossible?”
The adults fell silent.
He folded his arms.
“I’ve had a weird day.”
Nathan almost laughed.
Emily sat.
Claire pulled the genetic report closer.
“Let’s not assume the interpretation is correct.”
Nathan nodded.
“Explain.”
“The lab used a historical Sterling reference sample supplied through corporate medical records.”
“Whose sample?”
Nathan asked.
Claire scanned the paperwork.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Label says Nathan J. Sterling.”
“That’s me.”
Emily looked at him.
Nathan frowned.
“But I never gave a genetic sample to Sterling corporate records.”
Claire stopped.
“What?”
“I’ve had blood drawn for insurance exams, but no DNA profile.”
Claire immediately called the lab.
Ten tense minutes followed.
The answer changed everything.
The reference sample had entered Sterling family medical archives fifteen years earlier.
Tagged Nathan Sterling.
Collected during treatment after a skiing accident.
Nathan remembered the accident.
He had been seventeen.
Daniel had also been treated at the same private clinic after visiting him.
Nathan’s face changed.
“Daniel donated blood.”
Emily looked up.
“What?”
“I needed surgery. There was a complication. Daniel was screened as a possible donor.”
Claire understood.
“The sample could have been mislabeled.”
Nathan nodded.
“Test Jamie directly against me.”
They did.
Three hours later, the second result arrived.
Nathan was not Jamie’s father.
He was Jamie’s uncle.
Daniel was almost certainly the biological father.
Emily cried again.
This time from relief so complicated she could not explain it.
Jamie looked at Nathan.
“So you’re my uncle.”
Nathan nodded.
“Apparently.”
Jamie considered.
“Cool.”
Nathan smiled.
“High praise.”
The moment lasted only seconds.
Then the secure station door opened.
Marcus entered with federal investigators.
Behind them came Arthur Bell.
Emily stood.
Bell looked terrible.
Bruised.
Unshaven.
A bandage covered one side of his head.
Nathan stepped forward.
“You.”
Bell raised both hands.
“I’m turning myself in.”
“You killed my mother.”
Bell’s eyes filled with fear.
“I removed her medication.”
Nathan moved so fast Marcus stepped between them.
“Nathan.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Bell backed against the wall.
“I didn’t think she would die.”
Nathan laughed.
“What did you think heart medication was for?”
“Robert said he only wanted to frighten her.”
“By removing medicine that could save her?”
“I was stupid.”
“You were paid.”
Bell looked down.
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Five million.”
Emily felt sick.
A life priced at five million dollars.
Bell continued.
“I’ve spent twelve years waiting for Robert to kill me.”
Nathan’s voice turned quiet.
“You should have spent them telling the truth.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
Nathan almost hit him again.
Emily stepped forward.
“Why was my baby taken?”
Bell looked at Jamie.
His face crumpled.
“I didn’t know at first.”
“You signed paperwork.”
“I owned the funeral home. Preston used it.”
Emily’s voice hardened.
“Who took him from the hospital?”
“A nurse named Helen Ward.”
Marcus handed documents to federal agents.
Bell continued.
“She gave the baby a drug under a doctor’s supervision. Something that slowed breathing and pulse.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“He could have died.”
“Yes.”
Jamie moved closer to her.
Emily put an arm around him.
Bell looked ashamed.
“Mara took him that night.”
“To Switzerland?”
“Eventually.”
“And Robert?”
“He wanted Daniel’s son because of the voting trust.”
Nathan asked, “What voting trust?”
Bell looked at him.
“Your grandfather changed the family trust before he died.”
Nathan frowned.
“Daniel received first succession rights to certain Class A shares.”
Claire nodded.
“If Daniel had a lawful descendant, those rights might pass to the child.”
Bell continued.
“Robert discovered Daniel had a son.”
Emily whispered, “How?”
Bell hesitated.
Nathan noticed.
“How?”
“Samuel told someone.”
Claire’s face hardened.
“My father?”
“No.”
Bell shook his head.
“Samuel told Victoria.”
Emily nodded.
That made sense.
“Victoria told one other person.”
Nathan asked, “Who?”
Bell looked toward the floor.
“Marcus.”
Everyone turned.
Marcus froze.
Emily stared.
“No.”
Bell spoke quickly.
“Marcus was trying to protect the child.”
Nathan looked at Marcus.
“Is that true?”
Marcus’s face went pale.
“Yes.”
Emily stepped backward.
“You knew I was pregnant.”
Marcus swallowed.
“Yes.”
“You knew about Jamie.”
“Not after he was taken.”
“You knew!”
Her scream echoed through the station.
Jamie flinched.
Emily immediately lowered her voice.
“When did you know?”
“Daniel told me.”
“Why?”
“He wanted me to protect you if something happened.”
Emily stared at him.
“And when my son died?”
“I believed he died.”
“Did you investigate?”
“Yes.”
“What did you find?”
“Nothing.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Because everybody around me was apparently a professional liar.”
Marcus accepted it.
“Yes.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“When did you know Daniel was alive after the motorcycle crash?”
“From the beginning.”
Nathan stared.
Marcus’s voice broke.
“Daniel was my best friend.”
That was another secret.
Daniel and Marcus had served together briefly in a private security training program before Marcus worked for Victoria.
Daniel trusted him.
When the crash happened, Marcus helped Samuel move Daniel.
Nathan whispered, “You let me bury him.”
“There was no body.”
“I buried him anyway.”
“I know.”
“You stood beside me at the memorial.”
“I know.”
Nathan’s eyes burned.
“I told you I thought it was my fault.”
Marcus looked down.
“I know.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I wanted to.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“I know.”
For once Marcus had no defense.
Emily watched Nathan.
He had been lied to by everyone he loved.
His mother.
His brother.
Emily.
Marcus.
Not because they hated him.
Because they believed he could not survive the truth.
Perhaps that was the cruelest kind of love.
Bell cleared his throat.
“There is one more thing.”
Nathan turned.
“What?”
“Robert isn’t trying to win control through court.”
“Then why file?”
“To pressure the stock price.”
Claire frowned.
Bell continued.
“Price Capital has been shorting Sterling Global through offshore positions for months.”
Nathan’s eyes widened.
“If the stock collapses—”
“They make billions.”
“And then?”
“Robert buys distressed voting blocks through intermediaries.”
Claire whispered, “It’s a manufactured takeover.”
Bell nodded.
Nathan looked at the clock.
The market opened in less than two hours.
“We need to disclose everything.”
Claire shook her head.
“If you announce a kidnapping, fraud, falsified death records, and potential murder before federal investigators verify it, the stock could collapse faster.”
Nathan almost smiled.
“That’s already Robert’s plan.”
Emily looked at him.
“What are you thinking?”
Nathan pulled out his phone.
“I’m going to give him what he wants.”
“No.”
“Not the company.”
He looked at Bell.
“The meeting location.”
Bell’s face changed.
“What meeting?”
Nathan held up Jamie’s phone.
One unread message had arrived from Robert.
MIDNIGHT. OLD STERLING ESTATE. BRING THE BOY AND THE LEDGER. COME ALONE.
Emily shook her head.
“Absolutely not.”
Nathan looked at her.
“He believes I’m desperate.”
“You are.”
“Yes.”
Nathan’s smile was cold.
“That makes the lie easier.”
At 11:58 p.m., Nathan walked into the abandoned Sterling estate carrying the original ledger.
The mansion had been empty for nine years.
Dust covered the furniture.
The library smelled like old wood and rain.
The same room where Victoria Sterling had discovered the truth.
The same room where Emily’s life had been destroyed.
Robert Sterling stepped from the darkness.
He was older.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
Nathan stared at his father.
Robert smiled.
“Hello, son.”
Nathan placed the ledger on the table.
“Where is Preston?”
“Nearby.”
“And Eleanor?”
Robert laughed.
“She served her purpose.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
Robert approached.
“You look like me.”
“No.”
“You do.”
Nathan stared into his father’s eyes.
“I look like my mother.”
Robert’s smile disappeared.
“Where is the boy?”
“Safe.”
Robert sighed.
“Then you wasted my time.”
“No.”
Nathan looked toward the dark doorway.
“You wasted your life.”
Robert frowned.
Then lights exploded on around the mansion.
Federal agents entered from three directions.
Robert froze.
Nathan smiled.
“You taught me something, Dad.”
“What?”
“Never come alone.”
Robert reached inside his coat.
Nathan saw the movement.
So did the agents.
“Hands!”
Robert stopped.
Slowly raised them.
Then a gunshot shattered the window.
Everyone dropped.
The shot had come from outside.
Robert fell.
Nathan stared.
Blood spread across his father’s shoulder.
Agents rushed toward the garden.
Nathan looked through the broken glass.
A dark figure ran between the trees.
Marcus shouted from outside.
“Stop!”
Another shot.
Then silence.
Minutes later, Marcus returned dragging a man in an expensive coat.
Preston Price.
Eleanor followed behind the agents.
Hands cuffed.
Crying.
Preston saw Nathan.
“You have no idea what you’ve done.”
Nathan looked at Robert bleeding on the floor.
At Eleanor.
At Preston.
At the ledger.
Then he answered.
“I ended the family business.”
Preston laughed.
“No.”
His eyes moved toward Emily, who had entered behind the investigators despite Nathan’s orders.
“You still don’t understand.”
Emily stopped.
Preston smiled.
“Daniel is alive.”
The room went silent.
Jamie stood beside Claire in the doorway.
Emily stared.
May you like
Preston looked at the boy.
“And he knows exactly where to find his son.”
