Chapter 10 - The False Victory
The entire week following the massive fire felt like waking up from a long, terrifying nightmare into an absolute dream.
I moved directly into the sprawling, heavily guarded Sterling estate, a massive mansion overlooking the beautiful ocean.
Eleanor's recovery was nothing short of miraculous, her strength rapidly returning as she spent every waking moment with me.
We spent hours walking through the pristine gardens, making up for the twenty-five years we had violently lost.
Arthur officially transferred a massive portion of the Sterling Enterprises executive power directly into my name.
I was no longer Mariana Montgomery, the barren, pathetic, discarded wife of a manipulative, mid-level analyst.
I was Mariana Sterling, the sole heir to a multi-billion dollar empire, and a very proud mother-to-be.
The local news completely confirmed that the charred remains of Rebecca and Ryan Montgomery were successfully pulled from the ashes.
The nightmare was definitively, permanently over.
I stood on the beautiful balcony of my new master suite, gently resting my hands on my slightly rounding stomach.
I felt completely safe, entirely loved, and incredibly powerful for the first time in my entire adult life.
The soft chime of my new, encrypted cell phone interrupted the peaceful silence of the early morning.
I picked up the device, completely expecting it to be Arthur calling from his corporate boardroom downtown.
Instead, the screen displayed a completely blocked, untraceable international number.
I answered the call hesitantly, pressing the cool glass directly against my ear.
"You really look beautiful standing on that balcony, Mariana," a familiar, chilling voice whispered softly through the speaker.
The blood instantly froze in my veins, and my heart completely stopped beating in my chest.
It was Ryan's voice.
He was absolutely not dead.
"Did you honestly think my mother and I would die in a fire we intentionally set?" Ryan mocked cruelly.
"We easily escaped through the underground panic room twenty minutes before the roof collapsed."
"We left two completely untraceable medical cadavers in the bedroom to fool your father's pathetic security team."
I aggressively backed away from the balcony, violently pulling the heavy curtains completely shut.
"What do you want, Ryan?" I demanded, my voice trembling with absolute, raw terror.
"I want exactly what I have always wanted, sweetheart," Ryan replied, a sick, arrogant smile entirely evident in his voice.
"I want the Sterling fortune, and I am going to completely tear your new family apart to get it."
"Check your email, Mariana, and see what your wonderful father has actually been doing behind closed doors."
The phone clicked dead, completely leaving me in absolute, terrifying silence.
I desperately opened my secure email account, my hands shaking violently as I clicked on a message from an unknown sender.
It was a highly classified, heavily encrypted medical document from twenty-five years ago.
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The document completely proved that Arthur Sterling had ordered the car crash that put Eleanor in a coma.
Arthur had paid Rebecca to kidnap me, completely orchestrating the entire nightmare to steal full control of Eleanor's massive inherited wealth.
