Chapter 3 - The Brother at the Elevator
The elevator doors opened before we reached them.
Marcus Sterling stepped into the basement wearing a white dinner jacket.
He looked almost exactly as he had when I left.
Expensive haircut.
Perfect smile.
No visible shame.
Then he saw Elena.
His smile disappeared.
“You opened the room.”
I moved Sophia behind me.
Elena leaned against the wall because her injured ankle could not support her weight.
Marcus lifted both hands.
“Grant, this looks worse than it is.”
I crossed the distance between us.
He stepped backward.
“You put my wife in a locked basement.”
“She was stealing from the hotel.”
“What?”
“She took food.”
Sophia made a small sound behind me.
My brother had just described a starving woman taking food as theft.
I grabbed the front of his jacket.
Thomas moved closer but did not interfere.
“Where did the money go?”
Marcus glanced toward the security cameras.
“Not here.”
“Answer me.”
“Mother invested it.”
“In what?”
“The hotel renovation.”
“The political foundation.”
“Some private debt.”
I tightened my grip.
“You stole twenty million dollars from my daughter.”
“It was not stealing.”
“The trust still belongs to the family.”
“It belongs to Sophia.”
“She is six.”
“That does not make it yours.”
Marcus pushed my hand away.
His fear turned to anger.
“You abandoned everything.”
“You flew across the world and left the company collapsing.”
“Mother and I saved it.”
“I spoke to you every week.”
“You told me revenue was improving.”
“Because you would have returned if you knew the truth.”
Elena stared at him.
“You intercepted his calls.”
Marcus looked at her.
His expression carried the casual cruelty of someone speaking to a person he no longer considered equal.
“You should have stayed quiet.”
I hit him.
The punch sent him into the elevator wall.
Blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Sophia screamed.
The sound stopped me.
I turned immediately.
My daughter’s eyes were wide with terror.
I had promised myself I would protect her.
Instead, I had brought more violence into the room.
I knelt.
“I am sorry.”
“I should not have done that in front of you.”
Marcus wiped his mouth.
“You just assaulted two members of this family in one night.”
“Every camera in the hotel has it.”
Elena’s voice remained quiet.
“Not every camera.”
She reached into the pocket of her uniform.
A small memory card lay in her palm.
“I copied five months of security recordings.”
Marcus froze.
Elena looked at me.
“The basement.”
“The office.”
“The night they forced me to sign the medical papers.”
“The night Marcus hit me.”
My brother lunged toward her.
Thomas stepped between them.
“Do not,” he said.
Marcus stared at the security chief.
“You work for my mother.”
Thomas removed the Sterling hotel pin from his lapel.
“Not anymore.”
The service elevator chimed again.
Two uniformed police officers appeared with Victoria’s attorney.
May you like
The attorney held a court order.
It granted Victoria emergency custody of Sophia.
