Chapter 14 - SOPHIE’S CHOICE
“Sophie!”
Richard crawled through the opening.
Caroline followed.
On the other side was an old storm cellar.
Sophie stood beside Detective Brooks.
Richard almost collapsed with relief.
Brooks had followed Daniel after learning Sophie’s protection detail had been compromised.
Richard grabbed his daughter.
“What are you doing here?”
Sophie hugged him.
“Detective Lena said we had to move.”
Brooks pointed toward the road.
“We have thirty seconds before this structure becomes unsafe.”
They escaped through the cellar hatch.
Behind them, flames rose from the house.
Daniel’s car was gone.
But he hadn’t escaped.
Police found him two miles away after his vehicle crashed into a ditch.
The archive survived because Brooks’s team removed most of the boxes through the storm cellar before the fire reached the basement.
Daniel Mercer was arrested.
Arthur Sterling remained in federal custody.
Vanessa agreed to testify.
Months of investigations followed.
Sterling Industries lost contracts.
Executives resigned.
Reporters surrounded Richard everywhere he went.
One morning, his attorneys told him the easiest solution.
Resign quietly.
Sell his shares.
Move overseas.
Start over.
Richard looked through the glass wall of his office.
For years, Sterling Tower had represented everything he thought mattered.
Success.
Legacy.
Power.
Then he remembered Sophie on the kitchen floor.
“Sell it,” he said.
His attorney blinked.
“The company?”
“My controlling stake.”
“That’s nearly everything your family built.”
Richard shook his head.
“No.”
He looked at Sophie’s drawing taped beside his desk.
A house.
Three people.
A dog.
“That was never everything.”
That evening, Richard returned to Sterling House.
Caroline was packing.
He stopped in the doorway.
“You’re leaving?”
She nodded.
“I think Sophie needs stability. And I think you need time to decide what you want from me.”
Richard looked toward the suitcase.
“Where will you go?”
“Boston.”
“And Sophie?”
Caroline’s eyes filled.
“That’s up to you.”
Richard glanced upstairs.
Sophie had already lost three years with her mother.
He wouldn’t let the adults’ mistakes take more from her.
“Stay tonight.”
Caroline looked at him.
“Richard—”
“Not for me.”
He swallowed.
“For her.”
Before Caroline could answer, Sophie appeared at the top of the staircase.
She was holding something.
The silver lily necklace.
“Mommy?”
Caroline went pale.
“Where did you get that?”
Sophie looked confused.
“Grandpa gave it to me.”
Richard’s blood went cold.
Arthur was in federal custody.
May you like
Sophie continued.
“He came to my school today.”
