Chapter 13 - THE LAST LOYALIST
Detective Brooks treated the list as an immediate threat.
Every employee connected to Sterling Manor was investigated.
Drivers.
Security officers.
Housekeepers.
Executives.
William refused to trust anyone.
Except me.
Then police discovered who had provided Isabella with William’s security code.
Thomas Reed.
William’s head of security.
The same man who had worked for the Sterling family for twenty-eight years.
Thomas disappeared before police reached him.
Ethan was moved again.
This time to Clara’s protected residence.
I stayed with him.
William remained awake all night.
At 3:17 a.m., the power failed.
Backup lights activated.
Then those died too.
William grabbed Ethan.
I heard glass breaking downstairs.
“Stay behind me.”
Footsteps entered the hallway.
Thomas appeared.
He held no weapon.
His hands were raised.
“Please.”
William stepped forward.
“Don’t move.”
“I’m not here to hurt Ethan.”
“You helped Isabella kidnap him.”
“I gave her the code.”
“Why?”
“Margaret had my daughter.”
Everyone froze.
Thomas explained that his daughter had discovered financial fraud at Sterling Foundation.
Margaret threatened to frame her unless Thomas cooperated.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Thomas began crying.
“I’ve been trying to find her for six months.”
Detective Brooks arrived minutes later.
Thomas surrendered.
His information led police to an apartment owned through one of Jonathan’s shell companies.
His daughter was found alive.
Inside the apartment, investigators discovered boxes containing decades of blackmail files.
Margaret had controlled dozens of people.
Judges.
Doctors.
Employees.
Politicians.
Some through money.
Others through fear.
The Sterling scandal became national news.
William resigned temporarily from the company.
He opened every corporate archive to investigators.
He sold the lake house.
And he ordered the hidden rooms inside Sterling Manor destroyed.
Before construction began, Ethan asked to see the room one final time.
William carried him upstairs.
The painting was gone.
Sunlight entered through the open windows.
Ethan looked inside the narrow compartment.
“I’m not scared anymore.”
William kissed his forehead.
“You never have to be.”
Workers began removing the wall.
Then one of them shouted.
“Mr. Sterling?”
Behind the final layer of brick was a human skeleton.
Around its neck hung a silver necklace.
Clara saw it.
May you like
She collapsed.
“That belonged to my babysitter.”
