Chapter 4 - THE GIRL WHO DISAPPEARED
Police examined the flash drive before allowing William to watch it.
The recording was damaged.
But part of the video survived.
A teenage girl appeared on screen.
William immediately covered his mouth.
“Clara.”
She looked sixteen.
Terrified.
Behind her was a wooden wall covered in scratches.
The same scratches we had seen behind the painting.
Clara whispered toward the camera.
“If anyone finds this, Dad knows about the rooms.”
Static interrupted the recording.
Then her face returned.
“He says punishment keeps the Sterling name clean.”
William stared at the screen.
His father had been admired publicly.
Charles Sterling had donated millions to children’s charities.
He had built hospitals.
Schools.
Scholarship programs.
But Clara described another man.
Controlling.
Violent.
Obsessed with protecting the family reputation.
Then she said something none of us expected.
“There’s a woman helping me.”
Static.
“She says her name is Elena.”
The screen jumped again.
“If I disappear, find her daughter.”
The recording ended.
Detective Brooks leaned forward.
“Do you know an Elena?”
William shook his head.
I did.
My mother’s name was Elena.
I felt suddenly cold.
“What was Clara’s full name?”
“Clara Margaret Sterling.”
I pulled out my phone.
My mother had died when I was twenty-three.
She rarely discussed her teenage years.
But she had once told me about a wealthy girl she had helped hide.
A girl escaping an abusive family.
I had always assumed it was one of Mom’s dramatic stories.
“What was the year Clara disappeared?”
William told me.
My stomach dropped.
“My mother was seventeen.”
William looked at me.
“Claire?”
I opened an old photograph stored on my phone.
My mother stood beside another teenage girl.
William took the phone.
His knees nearly buckled.
“That’s Clara.”
Detective Brooks looked between us.
Suddenly, my presence inside Sterling Manor no longer seemed accidental.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman spoke.
“Claire?”
“Yes?”
“You found Ethan.”
My blood ran cold.
“Who is this?”
“You need to leave William Sterling.”
“Why?”
“Because Isabella isn’t running from the police.”
The woman paused.
“She’s going back for the evidence Rebecca hid.”
“What evidence?”
“The evidence that proves Clara Sterling never ran away.”
The line went quiet.
Then she whispered.
“And Claire?”
“Yes?”
May you like
“Your mother didn’t die from natural causes.”
The call disconnected.
