Chapter 3 - The Bloodline LedgerThe crumpled piece of paper in Harrison’s hand was a page torn from a leather journal, stained with yellowed watermarks and dried mud. The handwriting was unmistakable: Eleanor’s tight, elegant script, written with frantic urgency.
If anyone finds this, the note read, know that Victoria Vance is not an outsider. She is my father’s illegitimate daughter. She came into our lives to take what she believes was stolen from her. If I do not survive the night at Blackwood Bay, look for Julian at the St. Jude’s timber estate. Do not trust my husband’s house.
Harrison read the lines twice. Three times. The words burned into his retinas.
He turned slowly toward Victoria. The warmth in his eyes—the affection he had carried for her over four years of marriage—had completely evaporated, replaced by the terrifying, lethal stillness that had made him the most feared shipping magnate on the Eastern seaboard.
"Your father’s illegitimate daughter?" Harrison asked, his voice dropping an octave into a low, rumbling growl. "Victoria Vance... Eleanor’s half-sister?"
Victoria backed away until her spine hit the grand piano. "Harrison, no! Listen to me! Eleanor was sick, she was delusional! She was paranoid! My mother and her father had a brief acquaintance forty years ago, that’s all! I never hid anything from you—"
"You told me you grew up in London," Harrison said, taking one slow, deliberate step toward her. "You told me you met Eleanor once at a charity gala in Paris. You told me you had no connection to the Vance estate."
"I... I was ashamed!" Victoria stammered, her eyes darting frantically toward the door, where two heavy security guards posted by Aldridge were now standing, their arms folded, blocking the exit. "I was ashamed of my mother’s past! I wanted a fresh start! I loved you, Harrison!"
"You loved my portfolio," Harrison hissed.
"Mr. Sterling," Aldridge interrupted smoothly, stepping between them with a fresh folder taken from his briefcase. "There is more. As per the terms of the sealed will, Eleanor Sterling left a secondary corporate directive. Because Julian Sterling has returned alive, the temporary executive stewardship you held over Sterling Logistics is hereby revoked. All voting shares, asset titles, and master accounts are frozen pending the court appointment of a neutral estate guardian."
Harrison didn't care about the shares. He didn't care about the company. All he saw was the boy standing beside him, shivering slightly in his damp coat, and the woman who had slept in his bed for four years while keeping his son’s survival a secret.
"Carter," Harrison called out without turning around.
His younger brother set his scotch glass down on the mantelpiece, looking pale and deeply uncomfortable. "Yeah, Harry?"
"Take Julian upstairs to the nursery," Harrison ordered, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Have the staff bring up dry clothes, warm soup, and call Dr. Evans to give him a complete medical evaluation. Lock the nursery doors from the inside. Put three security guards outside."
"Harrison, please!" Victoria cried out as Carter gently took little Julian by the hand and led him toward the grand staircase. The boy didn't look back; he walked up the marble steps with the steady, silent grace of a ghost leaving a graveyard.
Once the children and Carter had disappeared around the landing, Harrison turned back to the room.
He walked over to the heavy double doors, pushed them shut, and turned the brass key in the lock.
May you like
Click.
"Now," Harrison said, tossing the key onto the center table, looking directly at Victoria and her trembling mother. "Nobody leaves this room until I find out what happened to my wife six years ago."
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