Chapter 13 - THE CONFESSION AT THE HOSPITALEthan looked smaller in the hospital bed.
Tubes ran beneath his gown.
A monitor tracked every heartbeat.
Maya stood near the window with Noah in her arms.
She had not brought flowers.
She had not brought forgiveness.
She had brought questions.
“They found my father,” she said.
Ethan stared at her.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Relief appeared across his face.
“My mother said he died years ago.”
“Your mother has escaped.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“I should have expected that.”
“She took the ledger.”
“She will use it to bargain.”
“With whom?”
Ethan looked toward the door.
“Close it.”
Maya remained still.
A federal agent closed it instead.
Ethan took a slow breath.
“My father did not work alone.”
“Charles Sterling paid political officials, military contractors, and private doctors.”
“Some of them attended the banquet.”
“Names?”
“I only know one.”
“Senator Robert Hale.”
Maya remembered Hale laughing when Victoria mocked the medal.
He had disappeared from the ballroom before the doors were locked.
“Why would your mother need the ledger?”
“It contains payment codes.”
“Those codes identify everyone involved.”
Agent Ortiz was informed immediately.
Senator Hale’s home and office were placed under surveillance.
Maya moved closer to Ethan.
“You visited my mother thirty-seven times.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do during those visits?”
“At first, I watched from the observation room.”
“Later, I spoke to her.”
“Did she know who you were?”
“Not always.”
“Did you tell her about me?”
Ethan’s eyes filled with shame.
“Once.”
Maya’s voice became unsteady.
“What did you say?”
“I told her Amelia was alive.”
“She started crying.”
“She asked me to bring you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“My mother learned what I had done.”
“She increased Leah’s medication.”
“She showed me photographs of you walking alone near your office.”
“She said the next photograph would show your body.”
Maya looked down at Noah.
“And then you had a child with me while knowing she could threaten him too.”
“I believed marriage would make my mother protect you.”
“She needed me close.”
“I thought that made you safer.”
“You thought being owned by the Sterlings was protection.”
Ethan had no answer.
Maya placed Noah in the nearby bassinet.
Then she removed her wedding ring.
Ethan watched her set it on the table.
“I am not doing this because you were afraid.”
“I am doing it because you made my life a decision I never consented to.”
“I understand.”
“No.”
Maya met his eyes.
“You are beginning to understand.”
“You will testify.”
“Against my mother?”
“Against everyone.”
Ethan looked at the ring.
“Yes.”
Maya turned toward the door.
“Maya.”
She stopped.
“There is one more thing.”
Ethan struggled to sit higher.
“The night Noah was born, my mother asked me to sign guardianship documents.”
Maya slowly faced him.
“What documents?”
“They would have given her control if anything happened to us.”
“I refused.”
“Where are they?”
“In my private safe.”
“Why does that matter now?”
“Because she had another copy.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“She may have forged my signature.”
Agent Ortiz checked the legal database.
A sealed emergency guardianship petition had been filed that morning.
It claimed Maya was mentally unstable because of her childhood trauma.
It claimed Ethan was medically incapacitated.
It requested temporary custody of Noah Sterling.
The petitioner was Victoria Sterling.
The hearing was scheduled for noon.
Even while fleeing federal custody, Victoria was attempting to take Maya’s child through the courts.
Maya picked up her wedding ring.
She did not put it on.
May you like
She closed it inside her fist.
“Then we will meet her in court.”
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