Chapter 16 - The Inmate's Bargain
By dawn, the manor was crawling with state investigators and private security contractors. Arthur Vance had not fled; instead, he had sat in my study with David Cole, laying out thick stacks of historical filings, corporate charters, and international trusts bearing the Sterling crest. The men who had breached my home were mercenaries dispatched by a holding syndicate known as *The Consortium of Saint-Cloud*—a conglomerate Charles Sterling had borrowed fifty million dollars from before the economic crash.
The collateral for that loan was not real estate. It was the sole voting rights of the Sterling bloodline.
To verify Vance's incredible story, I drove three hours north to the federal correctional institution where Richard Sterling was serving his ten-year sentence for fraud. Sitting across from him in the sterile, glass-divided visiting booth, I watched a broken, hollow man pick at his orange jumpsuit.
"You look tired, Julian," Richard sneered, though his bloodshot eyes darted nervously to the guard standing near the door. "Did Victoria’s appeals bother your sleep?"
"Someone broke into my home last night, Richard," I said, leaning in close to the perforated metal speaker. "They came with military discipline, looking for the Zurich safe key. Does the name Saint-Cloud ring a bell?"
Richard went completely white. His smug sneer dissolved into sheer, unadulterated terror. He gripped the metal shelf beneath the partition so hard his knuckles turned blue.
"You... you shouldn't have brought that name here," Richard whispered, his voice trembling violently. "They listen to everything. Julian, you think Victoria and I wanted Lily for her child support? We didn't want the girl! We wanted her custody papers to hand over to Saint-Cloud so they wouldn't slaughter my entire family!"
"Who runs it, Richard?" I demanded, pressing my palm against the glass. "Give me a name!"
"Charles didn't just borrow money!" Richard sobbed, hyperventilating as panic overtook him. "He gave them Sarah’s birth certificate as a pledge! The floral handbag... did Sarah leave the brass key? Did you find it?!"
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"Tell me what is in the vault!"
"The original adoption ledger," Richard gasped out just as two guards moved in to pull him back from the barrier. "Lily isn't Charles's biological granddaughter! She’s the rightful daughter of the French Duke who founded Saint-Cloud! They don't want to raise her, Julian... they want to erase her so the empire defaults to the board!"
