Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN ABOVE ISABELLA
Clara refused to speak until Detective Brooks closed the hospital blinds.
Then she told us everything.
Charles Sterling had created the hidden rooms decades earlier.
He used them to punish his children.
Clara had spent days inside them.
William had been too young to understand.
Their mother, Margaret Sterling, had known.
She did nothing.
When Clara threatened to expose Charles, he planned to send her away.
My mother, Elena, helped her escape.
For years, Clara lived under another name.
Then Rebecca found her.
Together, they began collecting evidence.
“Where does Isabella fit?” William asked.
Clara looked at him sadly.
“Rebecca trusted the wrong person.”
Isabella had approached Rebecca using a different name.
She claimed to be investigating Charles Sterling.
Instead, she was working for Margaret.
William stared at Clara.
“Our mother?”
“Yes.”
Margaret Sterling was eighty-one years old.
She lived in a private estate in Connecticut.
William spoke to her every Sunday.
She sent Ethan birthday presents.
She called him her little prince.
Clara’s voice hardened.
“She protected your father.”
“Dad has been dead for twelve years.”
“His secrets aren’t.”
William shook his head.
“This doesn’t explain Ethan.”
“Yes, it does.”
Clara leaned forward.
“Rebecca discovered financial records proving Charles used Sterling charities to hide illegal payments.”
“She wanted to expose them.”
“Margaret stopped her.”
William went pale.
“Rebecca’s fall.”
Clara said nothing.
She did not need to.
That evening, William called his mother.
Margaret answered calmly.
“William.”
“Where is Isabella?”
A pause.
“I don’t know.”
“Clara is alive.”
Silence.
Then Margaret laughed softly.
“So she finally came home.”
William’s expression changed.
“You knew.”
“I always knew.”
“You told me she ran away.”
“She did.”
“You knew where she was.”
“I knew enough.”
William gripped the phone.
“Did you have something to do with Rebecca’s death?”
Margaret’s voice became colder.
“Be careful what you accuse your mother of.”
“Answer me.”
Instead, Margaret said something else.
“Check on Ethan.”
William froze.
We ran toward Ethan’s room.
The police officer outside was unconscious.
The door stood open.
May you like
Ethan was gone.
On his pillow lay a brass key.
