Chapter 7 - The Matriarch Disappears.
Victoria Sterling had vanished from her own estate while police officers stood outside.
That should have been impossible.
Yet the Sterling family had spent decades designing buildings with private entrances, concealed service corridors, and security systems that answered to them alone.
Ethan called Maya seventeen times.
She ignored every call.
Marcus did not tell her what to do.
He simply sat beside her in the police vehicle while Grace slept in the back seat.
Finally Maya answered.
“What?”
Ethan sounded breathless.
“My mother is gone.”
“I know.”
“Did Hale tell you?”
“Yes.”
“Maya, listen to me.”
She stared through the rain-covered window.
“I’m listening.”
“There’s a tunnel beneath the east greenhouse.”
Marcus looked over.
Maya activated speakerphone.
Ethan continued.
“My father built it during renovations.”
“It leads to an old maintenance road.”
“Why didn’t you tell the police?”
“I just did.”
“Where does the road go?”
“Toward the lake property.”
Marcus’s expression hardened.
The lake house.
The place Eleanor Vance had disappeared.
Maya felt suddenly nauseated.
“Ethan, did your mother know we found something?”
Silence.
“Answer me.”
“She asked what you were doing.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her you were with Vance.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“You told her.”
“I didn’t know she would run.”
“After everything tonight, you still gave her information.”
“I was trying to get her to surrender.”
“No.”
Maya whispered.
“You were still trying to manage everyone.”
“Maya—”
She ended the call.
Marcus said nothing.
After a moment Maya spoke.
“I loved him.”
“I know.”
“I still do.”
Marcus looked toward her.
“That does not require you to trust him.”
The statement hurt because it was true.
Police units raced toward Sterling Lake.
The property stood forty minutes north of the city.
By the time they arrived, flames were visible through the trees.
The lake house was burning.
Maya stared in horror.
“She’s destroying evidence.”
Fire crews were already approaching from the opposite road.
Marcus jumped from the vehicle.
Hale stopped him.
“You are not entering that building.”
“My daughter died in there.”
“And I’m not losing you too.”
Maya stood beside Marcus.
The old lake house looked enormous against the night sky.
Flames burst through the upper windows.
Then something exploded inside.
A firefighter shouted for everyone to move back.
Maya’s heart hammered.
She looked at the second-floor balcony.
For a fraction of a second she saw a figure.
A woman.
Then smoke swallowed it.
“There!”
Marcus turned.
“What?”
“Someone is inside.”
Firefighters rushed toward the entrance.
Minutes felt like hours.
Finally two firefighters emerged carrying a woman.
It was not Victoria.
It was a housekeeper named Agnes Bell.
She was unconscious but alive.
Maya recognized her from the Sterling estate.
“Why was she here?”
Ethan’s voice came from behind them.
Maya turned.
He had arrived alone.
His suit was soaked from the rain.
Hale immediately confronted him.
“How did you get here?”
“The tunnel road.”
“Where is your mother?”
“I don’t know.”
Marcus stepped between them.
“You better start knowing.”
Ethan looked toward the burning house.
“She keeps emergency documents here.”
“What documents?”
“Family trusts.”
“Old contracts.”
“My father’s personal records.”
Maya watched him.
“You knew that too?”
“I knew records existed.”
“Did you know what was in them?”
“No.”
She wanted to believe him.
That frightened her.
The rescued housekeeper coughed.
A paramedic leaned close.
Agnes opened her eyes.
Maya approached.
“Agnes?”
The older woman saw her.
Fear flashed across her face.
“Mrs. Sterling.”
“Victoria?”
Agnes shook her head weakly.
“She made me come.”
“Why?”
Agnes struggled for breath.
“Safe.”
Marcus leaned closer.
“What safe?”
“Basement.”
Agnes began coughing again.
“Victoria wanted the box.”
“What box?”
Agnes’s hand grabbed Maya’s wrist.
“The Vance box.”
Maya’s pulse stopped.
“Was Victoria here?”
Agnes nodded.
“She left before the fire.”
“Did she start it?”
Another weak nod.
“Where did she go?”
Agnes’s eyes fluttered.
“Airport.”
Then she lost consciousness.
Hale immediately called state police.
Ethan stared after the ambulance.
“My mother would never hurt Agnes.”
Maya turned toward him.
“She slapped the mother of your child while I was holding your daughter.”
“She helped hide my identity.”
“She spent decades paying the man who abandoned me.”
“And now you’re still telling yourself what she would never do.”
Ethan looked destroyed.
Before he could answer, a firefighter approached carrying something inside a wet evidence bag.
“We found this near the basement stairs.”
Inside was a charred metal box.
The lock had melted.
Hale carefully opened it.
Most documents were burned.
One object had survived.
A small videotape.
Marcus looked at the label.
October 17.
Security Camera 2.
Maya stared at it.
Her mother’s death might have been recorded.
Then Hale’s phone rang again.
He listened.
“No.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“What?”
Hale lowered the phone.
“Victoria Sterling did go to the airport.”
Maya’s stomach dropped.
“Did she get away?”
“No.”
Hale looked confused.
“She never boarded a plane.”
“Then where is she?”
“Security footage shows her meeting a man in the parking garage.”
Marcus’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Hale turned the phone around.
The image showed Victoria climbing into a black SUV.
Behind the wheel sat an elderly man with silver hair.
Marcus stared.
Twenty-seven years had changed the face.
But not enough.
“David Rowan.”
Maya felt the past reaching into the present again.
May you like
The dead man was alive.
And now he had Victoria Sterling.
