Chapter 7 - My Father’s Last Year
My father died after collapsing during a board dinner.
Victoria said it was a heart attack.
Dr. Malcolm Voss signed the death certificate.
No autopsy was performed.
The body was cremated within forty-eight hours.
I had been in London negotiating a merger.
By the time I returned, the urn sat inside the Sterling family crypt.
At the time, Victoria said Dad had requested cremation.
I never saw that request.
The brass key Elena carried bore the initials C.S.
Charles Sterling.
Thomas recognized it.
“Your father kept a private archive inside the original Sterling Hotel.”
The building had been closed for renovation after a fire damaged the upper floors.
Victoria repeatedly delayed reopening it.
The hotel stood downtown, abandoned behind construction fencing.
The archive entrance was hidden inside the old manager’s office.
Police obtained a warrant after reviewing the executive-suite surveillance files.
Captain Mara Ortiz led the search.
I went with her.
The original Sterling Hotel smelled of dust, burned wood, and rainwater.
My father’s office remained behind a temporary wall.
The brass key opened a narrow cabinet built into the floor.
Inside were ledgers, medical records, and a digital recorder.
My father’s voice filled the dark office.
“Grant.”
“If Victoria gives you this recording voluntarily, then I was wrong about her.”
“She did not.”
“I have discovered transfers from employee pension accounts into private hotel projects.”
“Victoria authorized them through the Sterling Children’s Foundation.”
The same foundation receiving my five-thousand-dollar payments.
Dad continued.
“Marcus knows.”
“He believes the money will be returned after the hotel expansion.”
“It will not.”
“My attorney, Conrad Mills, prepared false board minutes.”
“Dr. Voss has been providing medication that leaves me disoriented.”
I gripped the recorder.
Thomas looked away.
“I have stopped taking the pills.”
“I am sending samples to an independent laboratory.”
“If I die before the results return, do not accept a natural cause without examination.”
The recording ended with a sound near the door.
Then Victoria’s voice.
“Charles, who are you talking to?”
A second file contained the laboratory report.
Dad’s medication had been replaced with a drug capable of causing fatal heart rhythm abnormalities.
It did not prove Victoria administered it.
It proved someone had planned the appearance of a heart attack.
The ledgers documented more than sixty million dollars stolen from pensions, trusts, and charities.
Sophia’s inheritance transfer was only the newest theft.
Captain Ortiz sealed the archive.
Outside, reporters had already gathered.
Someone leaked the search.
Victoria appeared on television before we reached the hospital.
She sat inside her ballroom surrounded by attorneys.
“My son assaulted me during a psychotic episode.”
“His wife suffers from a documented psychiatric condition.”
“My granddaughter has been coached to repeat disturbing lies.”
Then she announced that Sterling International’s board had removed me as chief executive.
Marcus would assume control immediately.
I looked at the screen.
My brother stood behind her.
The cut on his lip was covered with makeup.
May you like
He read a prepared statement.
“For the safety of the company and our family, Grant must be stopped.”
