Chapter 5

“Your twenty-fifth birthday is approaching, and there is something your father left in my care. Something you need to know before it's too late.”

I gripped my phone.

“My father?”

“Yes, Elena. I know this call must come as a surprise. But I've waited a long time to speak with you.”

I stared through the car window. Sienna was driving, one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting near the gearshift.

“What did he leave me?” I asked.

“It's something I cannot explain properly over the phone. Can you meet me tomorrow morning?”

I hesitated.

After what had happened with Adrian, trusting anyone felt dangerous.

But this man knew my father.

“What is your name again?”

“Jonathan Reed. I was your father's lawyer.”

The name stirred something in my memory. I had seen it on old documents years ago, before my life changed forever.

“Tomorrow,” I said.

“Ten o'clock. I'll send you the address.”

When the call ended, I sat without moving.

Sienna glanced at me.

“Who was that?”

“My father's lawyer.”

Her foot lifted from the accelerator.

“Your father's lawyer? Elena, what did he want?”

“He said my father left something in his care. He wants to meet me tomorrow.”

Sienna looked at me again, then returned her eyes to the road.

“Do you know what it is?”

I shook my head.

For years, I had believed that everything my parents owned had disappeared after the accident. I had been too young to understand the details, and after losing them both, I had never asked many questions.

The Blackwoods became my home. Richard took care of me, and I grew up believing that I had been fortunate to have anyone willing to keep me.

I had never wondered what my own family might have left behind.

Sienna reached across the space between us and squeezed my hand.

“We'll go together.”

I looked at her.

“You don't have to.”

“Of course I do.” She gave me a look that dared me to argue. “After everything you've been through, you think I'm going to let you meet a stranger alone?”

A small smile touched my lips.

For once, I didn't argue.

***

Sienna's apartment was nothing like the Blackwood mansion.

There were books stacked beside the sofa, shoes near the entrance, and a half-empty cup of coffee on the kitchen counter. A blanket lay crumpled over one armchair.

It was ordinary.

It was warm.

And when Sienna showed me the spare bedroom, she had already placed fresh sheets on the bed.

“You can stay as long as you need,” she said. “And before you start worrying about money, don't. We'll figure things out.”

I looked at the bed.

Three years of marriage, and I had spent most nights alone in a house that never felt like mine.

Here, Sienna had made room for me without asking for anything in return.

My eyes burned.

She noticed immediately.

“Oh, Elena.”

She pulled me into her arms.

“You don't have to be strong every second. Not with me.”

I held her tightly.

For the first time since the warehouse, I let myself cry without trying to hide it.

I cried for my baby.

For the girl I had been before Adrian taught me to expect so little.

For the years I had spent believing that if I loved him enough, he would eventually love me back.

Sienna held me until the tears stopped.

Neither of us mentioned Adrian again that night.

***

At ten the next morning, Sienna and I stood outside a law office in Manhattan.

The building was tall and made of glass, with a polished brass sign beside the entrance. I followed her inside, my stomach twisting with nerves.

A receptionist led us to a private office.

The man who stood when we entered was in his mid-fifties, with silver at his temples and a pair of reading glasses in his hand.

“Miss Sterling.”

He looked at me for a long moment.

Then his expression softened.

“You have your mother's eyes.”

I forgot what I had planned to ask.

He gestured toward the chairs.

“Please, sit.”

Sienna settled beside me while Jonathan took the seat opposite us.

“I know you have questions,” he began. “And you deserve answers.”

He opened a leather folder.

Inside were documents bearing my father's name.

My fingers trembled as I touched the first page.

I recognized his signature.

For a moment, I was ten years old again, sitting beside him in his study while he signed papers at his desk. He used to let me draw on the backs of discarded documents when I grew bored.

I pulled my hand away before the memories could overwhelm me.

“Why did you wait until now?” I asked.

“Because your father gave me specific instructions. He wanted you to reach your twenty-fifth birthday before the controlling shares of his company passed into your hands.”

I stared at him.

“His company?”

Jonathan nodded.

“Sterling Group.”

The name hung in the air.

I knew it. Of course I knew it. My father had built that company with years of work, and I remembered the name appearing on the doors of his office.

But I had never imagined that it still had anything to do with me.

“I thought everything was gone after the accident.”

“Your parents' deaths changed many things, Elena. But the company was never yours to lose as a child. Your father made arrangements to protect your inheritance until you were old enough to take control.”

I looked down at the documents.

“How much did he leave me?”

Jonathan paused.

Then he turned another page toward me.

“Your father left you his controlling shares in Sterling Group. You are the sole heir.”

I couldn't speak.

Sienna's hand found mine beneath the desk.

“Wait,” she said. “Are you telling us that Elena owns the company?”

“Legally, the transfer of control is tied to her twenty-fifth birthday. That date is approaching, and the arrangements are ready.”

I looked at Jonathan.

“How big is the company now?”

“Sterling Group has grown considerably since your father's death. It has interests in several industries, and it remains one of the most valuable privately controlled business groups in the country.”

The room seemed to shrink around me.

I had walked out of Adrian's house with a suitcase and a pair of divorce papers.

I had thought I was starting over with nothing.

Now a lawyer was telling me that my father had left me an empire.

“Why didn't anyone tell me?” I whispered.

Jonathan's expression became more serious.

“Your guardian was aware that arrangements had been made for your future. Richard Blackwood was entrusted with protecting your interests until the time came.”

Richard.

The man who had taken me in after my parents died.

I wanted to ask more, but another question pressed harder against my chest.

“Who has been running the company?”

Jonathan closed the folder.

“Charles Whitmore has served as interim chairman since your parents' deaths.”

I knew the name only faintly. I remembered hearing it when I was young, though I couldn't recall the details.

“Will he remain chairman when I take control?”

“That depends on what you decide after the transfer. Your shares will give you the authority to make decisions about the company's leadership, subject to its governing documents.”

I looked at the papers again.

For the first time in years, my future seemed to stretch beyond the walls of the Blackwood mansion.

I could build something of my own.

I could make a life where nobody had the power to decide whether I was worth choosing.

But Jonathan hadn't finished.

He removed a second folder from his briefcase.

This one was thinner, and the paper inside looked older.

“There is another matter,” he said.

Something in his voice made me sit straighter.

“What matter?”

“Your father asked me to keep a separate record of certain company decisions made after his death. I wasn't authorized to show you those records until now.”

“Why?”

“Because he wanted you to have access to them when you were old enough to protect yourself and your interests.”

Jonathan opened the folder.

Inside was a list of company transactions, dated over several years.

He placed one page in front of me.

My eyes moved over the figures. I didn't understand every detail, but I recognized the company name at the top.

Sterling Group.

Below it was a large transfer of funds, followed by another and another.

I looked up.

“What am I looking at?”

“Payments authorized during Charles Whitmore's tenure as interim chairman. Some of these transactions require further investigation.”

My stomach tightened.

“Are you saying he stole from my father's company?”

“I'm saying that you should not take control without understanding what has happened to it.”

He slid another sheet across the desk.

At the bottom was a signature.

Charles Whitmore.

I stared at it.

Then Jonathan said something that made the blood drain from my face.

“There's one more thing you need to know, Elena. Three days before your parents' accident, your father instructed me to investigate a series of payments connected to Mr. Whitmore.”

I couldn't move.

Three days.

My parents had been alive, making plans, building their future.

And my father had been investigating the man who took control of his company after his death.

I looked at Jonathan.

“Do you think he had something to do with the accident?”

Jonathan didn't answer immediately.

“I don't have proof of that,” he said carefully. “I won't accuse a man of something I cannot establish. But your father's instructions were clear, and I believe you deserve to know what he was investigating.”

He closed the folder.

“Before you take control of Sterling Group, we need to find out what your father discovered.”

I looked down at the signature again.

Charles Whitmore.

A name from my childhood.

A man who had controlled my family's company for fifteen years.

And a man my father had wanted investigated just days before he died.

I had spent three years trying to understand why Adrian never loved me.

Now I was beginning to understand that there were questions about my own life I had never thought to ask.

I raised my eyes to Jonathan.

“Find out everything.”

He nodded.

Then he reached into the folder and pulled out one final document.

“This was the last instruction your father left me.”

He placed it in front of me.

My father's handwriting was unmistakable.

I read the first line.

And my breath caught.

**If anything happens to me, do not let Charles Whitmore know that Elena is the sole heir.**