Chapter 12 - THE TRUTH ABOUT THE STAIRCASE
The heavy silence in the vault was broken only by Margaret’s soft, comforting whispers to Hannah.
Richard Sterling swallowed hard, his eyes darting frantically toward the door.
Realization dawned on him: no guards were coming.
Dominic had neutralized them all.
“Fine,” Richard spat, his voice trembling with suppressed rage. “You want the truth? Elena was too smart for her own good. She found the ledger entries three days before she planned to go to the FBI.”
“You ordered her killed,” Dominic said, his voice dangerously low.
“I gave the order,” Richard admitted, glaring defiantly. “But I wasn't the one who pushed her.”
Dominic froze.
His grip on the Beretta tightened until his knuckles turned white.
“What did you say?”
“It wasn't me,” Richard sneered, shifting the blame with cowardly speed. “It was your precious brother, Adrian. And my daughter.”
Vanessa covered her face with her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Adrian did it because Elena threatened to cut him out of the family trust entirely,” Richard continued, desperate to save his own skin. “He cornered her on the landing of the back staircase. When she fought back, he shoved her.”
Dominic felt a sudden, crushing wave of grief and fury crash over him.
For four years, he had blamed himself for not paying enough attention.
For four years, he had believed it was a tragic accident.
And all the while, his own flesh and blood had murdered the woman he loved.
“You’re lying,” Dominic whispered, stepping forward and pressing the barrel of the gun against Richard’s forehead.
“Ask her!” Richard shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at Vanessa. “Ask Vanessa! She was standing right at the bottom of the stairs watching!”
Dominic slowly turned his gaze toward Vanessa.
She shrank back against the concrete wall, sliding down until she was sitting on the cold floor, weeping hysterically.
“It’s true,” Vanessa sobbed into her hands. “Adrian did it… and I helped them cover it up. They made me look away.”
Margaret Vale looked up from hugging Hannah, her eyes burning with righteous anger.
“She’s lying about being forced,” Margaret spoke up, her voice steady and clear. “Vanessa helped forge the coroner’s report. She paid the medical examiner off with foundation funds.”
Dominic stared at Vanessa.
The woman he had planned to marry.
The woman who had ordered Hannah to move the antique mirror, completely unaware that the mirror’s damaged bracket would reveal the very secret she had spent four years trying to bury.
Irony, dark and absolute.
“Viktor,” Dominic said without breaking eye contact with Richard.
“Boss?”
“Secure them both in the transport vehicle. We’re taking them back to New York.”
May you like
“And the federal authorities?” Viktor asked.
“Send the encrypted files to every major news outlet and federal prosecutor simultaneously as soon as we take off,” Dominic ordered coldly. “Let the whole world watch the house of cards fall.”
