Chapter 5 – THE GHOST OF ARTHUR STERLING

Sebastian hung up the phone.

The silence in the cabin was suffocating.

Anna pulled her knees to her chest.

“Arthur Sterling,” she muttered. “Camille’s father. He’s the one who paid for my foster care. He used to visit me on my birthdays.”

Sebastian stared at her.

“He visited you?”

“He told me he was an old friend of my late parents,” she said. “He bought me coats. Books. He paid for my culinary school.”

I felt sick to my stomach.

The man who helped kidnap her had funded her entire life.

He hadn’t thrown her away. He had kept her like a pet. A piece of leverage kept in a glass box, waiting for the day he needed to break it.

“Why now?” Sebastian whispered, staring at the fireplace. “He’s hidden you for twenty-nine years. Why reveal you now?”

“Because he’s dying,” a voice said from the doorway.

We all spun around.

Standing in the open doorway of the cabin was a man in a tailored gray suit.

He was in his late sixties, leaning heavily on a silver-tipped cane.

His face was gaunt, his skin gray.

Two massive bodyguards stood behind him.

It was Arthur Sterling.

Sebastian immediately pulled his gun, aiming it directly at Arthur’s chest.

“Give me one reason not to put a bullet through your heart, Arthur.”

Arthur didn’t flinch.

He slowly limped into the cabin.

“Because if you kill me, you’ll never find out who paid me to take her.”

Sebastian’s gun didn’t waver.

“You took her. Your daughter brainwashed her.”

“Camille is an idiot,” Arthur sneered, leaning on his cane. “She found out about the girl five years ago by accident. She thought she could play the long game. Marry you, take over your assets, and keep the girl as an insurance policy. My daughter is greedy, but she isn’t the mastermind.”

“Then who is?”

Arthur coughed, a wet, rattling sound.

“I have stage four lung cancer, Sebastian. I have three months to live. I want to make peace with God. So I sent Margaret the buckle. I set this all in motion.”

Anna stood up, tears in her eyes.

“You ruined my life. You made me think I was garbage.”

Arthur looked at her with genuine sorrow.

“I saved your life, Anna. The night of the fire at the orphanage? That wasn’t an accident. Someone was trying to burn you alive to tie up loose ends.”

Sebastian lowered his gun a fraction of an inch.

“Who?”

Arthur reached into his suit jacket.

Sebastian raised the gun again.

“Slowly,” Sebastian warned.

Arthur pulled out a small, leather-bound ledger.

He tossed it onto the coffee table.

“Twenty-nine years ago, your father was murdered. Two weeks later, your sister was kidnapped. I was paid two million dollars to arrange the kidnapping and hide her.”

“By who?” Sebastian roared.

“Look at the ledger.”

I was closest to the table.

I picked up the book.

I opened it to the bookmarked page.

It was a bank transfer record from 1997.

Two million dollars.

Transferred to Arthur Sterling.

I looked at the signature on the authorization line.

My breath caught in my throat.

I looked up at Sebastian.

My hands were shaking.

“Olivia,” Sebastian demanded. “Whose name is on it?”

I couldn’t speak.

I just turned the book around so he could see.

The signature was undeniable.

It was written in neat, elegant cursive.

Margaret Hayes.

Share