Chapter 2: What Was Inside the Briefcase
The paramedics had me on the stretcher when I heard Eleanor's voice in the corridor.
Not panicked.
Not sorry.
Furious.
"Who authorized this?
This is a private event!"
An officer answered her calmly.
"Ma'am, step back."
"Do you know whose property this is?"
"Yes.
That's why we're here."
I heard her go silent for the first time in nine years.
Julian was somewhere behind her.
I could hear him breathing fast, asking questions nobody was answering.
Then his voice cracked through the noise.
"Audrey."
I didn't turn my head.
"Audrey, what did you do?"
The paramedics kept moving.
I kept my hand on my stomach and my eyes on the ceiling.
Then I heard Seraphina.
Still in her wedding gown.
Still wearing the veil.
"Mom.
Mom, they're taking the computers."
Eleanor's voice dropped to something I had never heard from her before.
Fear.
"Julian.
The files in the east office.
Tell me you moved them."
A long silence.
"Julian."
His answer was so quiet I almost missed it.
"I thought we had more time."
That was the moment Eleanor Sterling finally understood.
She hadn't been betrayed by investigators.
She had been betrayed by the one person in that family she never once suspected.
The stretcher reached the door.
Cold night air hit my face.
Somewhere behind me, I heard Julian say my name one last time.
I didn't answer.
---
May you like
What Audrey had quietly built inside that briefcase was enough to bring down the entire Sterling family — but the moment that broke Julian completely hadn't happened yet.
Click the link below to read the full story.
