Chapter 10
I moved Charlotte out of the gallery.
No more.
She had heard enough adult ugliness.
Emma took her to my private suite.
I gave one order.
“She eats.”
Emma nodded.
“Anything she wants.”
A tiny smile.
“Yes, Boss.”
Then:
“Stay with her.”
“I will.”
Charlotte looked at me.
“Daddy coming?”
“Yes.”
Isabella laughed behind me.
I turned.
She smiled.
“Every time.”
“What?”
“Every time she asks, you promise.”
“Yes.”
She shook her head.
“She'll own you by ten.”
I stared.
“You still think love is ownership.”
“Everything is ownership.”
Her words.
Her worldview.
Marcus looked away.
I returned to the letters.
One remained sealed.
Different paper.
Thicker.
My name on the front.
Underneath:
READ ONLY IF CHARLOTTE IS SAFE.
My hands stopped.
Vivian had planned ahead.
I opened it.
William,
Marcus thinks the river route is about money.
It isn't.
Isabella thinks it is about replacing me.
It isn't.
Grant Vale wants something beneath Sterling House.
I looked up.
Marcus frowned.
Isabella stared.
Interesting.
They didn't know.
Good.
The letter continued.
Your father sealed more than tunnels.
There is a chamber beneath the east gallery that Vale cannot enter without a Sterling signet.
I looked at my ring.
Marcus stepped forward.
“What?”
I ignored him.
Vivian:
Do not give anyone the ring.
If they cannot get yours, they will eventually try to use Charlotte.
My blood went cold.
I reread the sentence.
Charlotte.
Three.
My daughter was not only leverage over Vivian.
Not only leverage over me.
Her blood.
Her access.
Something beneath the house.
I looked at Marcus.
“Grant Vale wanted beneath this gallery.”
His face changed.
“What?”
“You didn't know.”
“No.”
For once, believable.
Isabella looked furious.
At being excluded.
“What chamber?”
I smiled without humor.
“You don't know either.”
She stared.
Good.
Their betrayal had been someone else's tool.
Marcus had reopened a route for profit.
Isabella wanted Vivian gone.
Vale wanted both to happen because they weakened the Sterling house from inside.
I looked at Luca.
“Did Grant ever ask about my ring?”
His face changed.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Lake house.”
Marcus turned.
“He asked about the river key.”
Luca shook his head.
“No.”
Marcus stared.
“He asked whether William still wore his father's signet.”
Silence.
Another layer.
Vale had been studying access.
And Vivian noticed.
I looked down at the letter.
One last paragraph.
If anything happens to me, do not assume Marcus and Isabella are the only betrayal.
Someone inside the Sterling capos gave Vale the old floor plans.
My chest tightened.
I looked around the gallery.
Senior capos.
Older men.
People my father trusted.
One of them had given a rival the map to my home.
Isabella laughed.
“Good.”
I looked at her.
She smiled bitterly.
“So Vivian's little letters finally accuse someone else.”
Even now.
Jealous of dead attention.
I folded the page.
“You sound relieved.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“Because maybe you'll stop staring at me like I'm the worst thing in the room.”
I stepped closer.
“No.”
Her smile faded.
“Someone else being guilty doesn't make you less guilty.”
Silence.
Then a voice came from behind the capos.
Older.
Calm.
“You want the traitor?”
Everyone turned.
My father's former adviser, Henry Sloan, stepped forward.
Seventy-one.
At Sterling tables longer than I had been alive.
He looked at me.
“I gave Vale the floor plans.”
The room froze.
Marcus stared.
Isabella whispered:
“What?”
Henry smiled sadly.
May you like
“You two never understood what you were actually opening.”
And suddenly the oldest man in the room had just confessed to the betrayal Vivian died trying to expose.
