Chapter 6
Victoria didn’t make it through the south gate.
The guards boxed in her car before she reached the service road.
By the time the detectives arrived, she was sitting in the back of a patrol car, screaming that Arthur had lost his mind because of a maid.
I watched from the nursery window with Noah in my arms.
My nephew.
The word kept breaking me.
Nephew.
For seven months, I had soothed him, fed him, rocked him through fevers, and thought I loved him too much for a child who wasn’t mine.
Now I knew why.
Arthur came into the room quietly.
He had Grace’s folder under one arm.
He looked destroyed.
“I didn’t know,” he said.
I didn’t turn around.
“Neither did I.”
“My lawyers are verifying everything.”
I laughed, but it sounded like pain.
“Your lawyers. Of course.”
He flinched.
“Elena.”
“My sister died three years ago, Mr. Sterling. My family buried an empty box because officials told us there had been a mistake with remains.”
“I’m sorry.”
I turned then.
“Did she ever mention us?”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
That hurt worse than no.
“What did she say?”
He sat in the rocking chair like his legs couldn’t hold him anymore.
“She said she had a little sister who sang when she was scared. She said she left home because someone threatened your family if she didn’t disappear.”
My throat closed.
“What someone?”
Arthur looked at the folder.
“Margaret.”
I nearly dropped Noah.
Arthur stood, but I stepped away.
“No.”
“Elena, I won’t take him.”
“Your mother stole my sister.”
He nodded.
“She did.”
“Your fiancée tried to hurt her baby.”
“Yes.”
“And you brought them both into this house.”
The words hit him hard.
Good.
They needed to.
He looked at Noah.
“I failed him.”
I wanted to hate him.
It would have been easier.
But he looked like a man standing in the ruins of his own blindness.
Before I could answer, Detective Rachel Monroe came in.
She was in her forties, sharp-eyed, with rain on her coat and a voice that didn’t waste words.
“Mr. Sterling. Miss Rivera. We need to ask about the guardianship document.”
Arthur stood.
“It’s valid?”
“We’re still confirming. But the notary is alive and willing to speak.”
My knees weakened.
Detective Monroe looked at me.
“She says Grace came to her two weeks before the fall. She was afraid Noah would be taken if anything happened to her.”
I pressed my lips to Noah’s hair.
“Why didn’t she come to me?”
The detective’s face softened.
“She may have tried.”
Arthur opened another envelope from the folder.
Inside was a letter addressed to me.
Elena.
My hands shook so badly Arthur had to place it on the changing table.
I opened it.
My sister’s handwriting stared back at me.
Lena,
If this reaches you, I am sorry for every year I let you believe I was gone.
I thought staying dead would keep you and Mama safe.
I was wrong.
Noah is my heart.
If Arthur is too broken or too controlled to protect him, I trust you.
You were always braver than me.
Please don’t let them turn my baby into a Sterling possession.
I sank to the floor.
Noah cried because I cried.
Arthur knelt nearby but didn’t touch me.
“She trusted you,” he whispered.
I looked at him through tears.
“She didn’t trust you.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Downstairs, voices rose.
Then glass shattered.
Detective Monroe rushed out.
Arthur followed.
I stood with Noah and moved to the doorway.
Margaret was in the foyer, struggling between two officers.
Victoria had somehow gotten inside.
Her wrists were cuffed in front of her, but her face was triumphant.
“You think you found everything?” she shouted.
Arthur stopped at the stairs.
Victoria looked up at him.
“Grace wasn’t the first woman your mother erased.”
Margaret screamed, “Shut up!”
Victoria smiled.
May you like
Then she looked straight at me.
“Ask Elena what happened to her father.”
