Chapter 3
The man threw Sophie onto the motorcycle.
She kicked and screamed.
Richard crashed through the trees as the engine started.
“Let her go!”
The motorcycle lurched forward.
Sophie twisted in the stranger’s arms and bit his wrist.
He shouted.
The motorcycle struck a root and tipped sideways.
Sophie rolled across the wet ground.
Richard reached her first.
He lifted her and turned his body as the kidnapper lunged.
A knife flashed.
The blade cut Richard’s sleeve.
Eleanor appeared behind the man with a heavy branch.
She struck him across the shoulders.
He fell to one knee.
Richard kicked the knife away.
Two officers reached the woods and pinned the kidnapper to the ground.
Sophie wrapped herself around Richard.
“I knew you would come.”
He held her so tightly she could barely move.
“I will always come.”
Eleanor stood nearby, breathing hard.
Mud covered her gray suit.
Blood ran from a cut on her forehead.
Richard looked at her.
“You saved us.”
“I saved my granddaughter.”
It was not warmth, but it was close enough.
Maya arrived and removed the kidnapper’s mask.
Richard did not recognize him.
The man carried no identification.
A serpent tattoo curled around his neck.
Eleanor recognized it.
“Vale Security.”
Richard looked at her.
“Vanessa’s family company?”
“They use private contractors for work they do not want connected to them.”
Maya searched the man.
She found a syringe.
The label had been removed.
Sophie buried her face in Richard’s chest.
“What was that for?”
“No one is touching you,” he said.
The arrested man laughed.
“You should ask who the girl belongs to.”
Richard moved toward him.
Maya blocked his path.
The man grinned through bloodied teeth.
“Vanessa knows.”
Richard wanted to break every bone in his body.
Instead, he carried Sophie back toward the road.
The court order still required her to stay with Eleanor.
After the attack, Judge Monroe allowed Richard to remain at the estate under police supervision.
Eleanor’s home became a fortress.
Officers guarded every entrance.
Sophie refused to sleep alone.
Richard sat beside her bed until her breathing steadied.
Before closing her eyes, she reached beneath her shirt and pulled out a silver necklace.
A small heart-shaped pendant hung from it.
“Mommy gave me this.”
Richard touched it.
He remembered placing that necklace around Emily’s neck on their first anniversary.
“Mrs. Harper said I had to keep it on.”
“Did she tell you why?”
“She said Mommy was still protecting me.”
Richard examined the pendant.
A faint seam ran along one side.
He pressed it.
The heart opened.
Inside was a tiny strip of paper.
Three numbers had been written in Emily’s handwriting.
418.
Richard closed his fist around the pendant.
The key Sophie had given him opened Emily’s safe-deposit box.
Now they had the box number.
Emily had prepared this before she died.
She had known she was in danger.
Richard kissed Sophie’s forehead.
“I’ll be right downstairs.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
He joined Eleanor, Maya, and Helen in the library.
Rain struck the windows.
Eleanor had changed clothes, but the cut on her forehead remained.
Richard placed the key and paper on the desk.
“Box 418.”
Eleanor nodded.
“The box is at Sterling Federal.”
“You knew the bank?”
“I helped Emily open it.”
“And you remained silent for four years.”
“She told me to remain silent unless someone threatened Sophie.”
“Emily died. Was that not enough?”
Eleanor’s face tightened.
“I was trying to keep Sophie alive.”
Richard struck the desk with his palm.
“By letting me invite Vanessa into our home?”
“I warned you about her.”
“You said she was socially ambitious. You never told me she might have murdered my wife.”
Maya stepped between them.
“We do not know that Vanessa caused Emily’s death.”
Eleanor looked toward the rain.
“I know she was involved.”
Richard stared at his mother.
“Tell me everything.”
Eleanor sat down.
“Two weeks before the crash, Emily came here. She said someone had accessed Sophie’s trust.”
“Sophie was two.”
“The trust held shares that would mature when she turned twenty-five. Together, those shares and yours created controlling ownership of Sterling Global.”
Richard understood.
“If I died, Sophie’s guardian would vote them until she became an adult.”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa planned to become the guardian.”
“Not at first.”
Eleanor opened a desk drawer and removed an old photograph.
It showed Emily at a charity gala.
Vanessa stood in the background, watching her.
“Emily discovered unauthorized transfers from a company account,” Eleanor said. “The money went through shell corporations linked to Graham Cole.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She tried. You were in Singapore. Your calls were monitored.”
Richard remembered the trip.
Graham had arranged everything.
“Emily believed someone on the board wanted control.”
“Who?”
“She never gave me a name.”
“But she created the box.”
“She said it contained proof.”
Helen checked her watch.
“The bank opens at nine.”
“We go at eight.”
Maya shook her head.
“We need a warrant.”
“It is my wife’s box.”
“Emily listed Eleanor as co-owner. Eleanor can access it.”
Eleanor stood.
“Then I will.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Richard ran from the library.
Sophie’s bedroom door was open.
Her bed was empty.
The window stood raised.
Richard rushed toward it.
A rope hung from the balcony.
Then Sophie crawled from beneath the bed.
“Daddy?”
He dropped to his knees.
She ran into his arms.
“What happened?”
“A lady came through the window.”
The officers searched the balcony.
No one was there.
“What lady?” Maya asked.
“She wore a mask.”
“Did she say anything?”
“She said she was my real mother.”
Richard went still.
“Your mother was Emily.”
Sophie nodded.
“I told her that.”
“Then what happened?”
“I hid.”
She pointed under the bed.
“Grandma said Sterlings don’t wait for someone to save them.”
Eleanor appeared in the doorway.
Richard gave her a sharp look.
“That is not the lesson I wanted her using tonight.”
“But it worked,” Sophie whispered.
Richard could not argue.
An officer found a phone on the balcony.
A recorded message waited on the screen.
Maya played it.
Vanessa’s voice filled the room.
“Richard, you are making this much harder than necessary. Give me access to Sterling Global and the contents of Emily’s box. In return, I will disappear.”
Richard took the phone.
“You already disappeared from my life.”
Vanessa continued.
“If you refuse, the next person Sophie calls Mommy may be the last person she ever sees.”
The recording ended.
Sophie stared at the screen.
“She is lying again.”
“Yes.”
Richard handed the phone to Maya.
“Trace it.”
“She probably used a relay.”
“Try.”
His own phone rang.
It was Graham Cole.
Richard answered on speaker.
“You have five seconds to tell me where Mrs. Harper is.”
Graham breathed unevenly.
“I didn’t know Vanessa would hurt Sophie.”
“You watched her.”
“She had something on me.”
“Where is Mrs. Harper?”
“At the old clinic on Fairmont Road.”
Maya motioned for officers to leave immediately.
Richard kept Graham talking.
“What is Vanessa planning?”
“She needs the safe-deposit box.”
“What is inside?”
“Emily recorded a meeting.”
“With whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I never saw the recording. Vanessa said it could destroy her family.”
“Why did the intruder take Sophie’s birth certificate?”
Silence followed.
“Graham.”
“The trust only transfers through a legal heir.”
“Sophie is my legal heir.”
“Vanessa intended to challenge that.”
“On what grounds?”
Graham whispered his answer.
“She claims Sophie is not your biological daughter.”
Richard looked at Sophie.
She was watching his face.
He kept his expression calm.
“Where are you?”
“I’m trying to leave the country.”
“You helped terrorize my child.”
“I can testify.”
“You can confess.”
“If Vanessa finds me, I’m dead.”
“You should have considered that before closing the door on Sophie.”
Graham began to cry.
“I’m sorry.”
Richard felt nothing.
“Call Detective Brooks and surrender.”
The line went dead.
Maya sent officers to locate the signal.
At dawn, they found Graham’s abandoned car near the airport.
There was no sign of him.
The old clinic on Fairmont Road had been closed for years.
Police entered through a broken side door.
Richard waited outside with Eleanor and Sophie.
An ambulance arrived ten minutes later.
Two officers carried Mrs. Harper from the building on a stretcher.
Her face was bruised.
One arm hung at an unnatural angle.
Sophie cried out.
“Nora!”
Mrs. Harper opened her eyes.
She saw Sophie and began sobbing.
“You’re alive.”
Richard reached the stretcher.
“Who did this?”
“Vanessa’s brother.”
Vanessa had never mentioned a brother.
Eleanor looked shaken.
“She doesn’t have one.”
Mrs. Harper gripped Richard’s sleeve.
“She does. His name is Daniel.”
Richard’s half brother was named Daniel Sterling.
He had been estranged from the family for eight years.
“That’s impossible.”
Nora pulled him closer.
“Vanessa Vale is not her real name.”
Richard stopped breathing.
“Who is she?”
May you like
Nora’s voice became a whisper.
“Vanessa is Daniel’s wife.”
