Chapter 15 - The Ultimatum
The next forty-eight hours were an agonizing blur of paranoia and silent, desperate preparation.
I could not trust my father’s security team, knowing their ultimate loyalty belonged to the man who had orchestrated this massive lie.
I secretly contacted Thomas and Marcus, instructing them to establish a private, heavily armed safe house outside the city limits.
I needed an extraction plan for Emma, a way to disappear entirely if the impending war between my parents turned instantly lethal.
On the morning of the deadline, I walked into my father's private home office and locked the heavy oak doors behind me.
Arthur looked up from his massive mahogany desk, surprised by the sudden, intense intrusion.
I didn't say a single word; I simply walked forward and threw the wooden box and the silver locket directly onto his keyboard.
My father stared at the locket for a long, agonizing moment, the color rapidly draining from his authoritative face.
"Where did you get this?" he asked, his voice barely more than a ragged whisper.
"She called me, Dad," I replied, crossing my arms to hide the violent trembling in my hands.
"She gave me forty-eight hours to return the Sterling trust, or she is coming to take it by force."
Arthur closed his eyes, letting out a long, heavy sigh that seemed to age him a decade in a matter of seconds.
He didn't deny it, he didn't try to formulate a lie, he just looked at me with a profound, terrifying sorrow.
"I did what I had to do to protect you, Sarah," my father finally said, standing up from his leather chair.
"Victoria wasn't committed because of the money, she was committed because she tried to drown you in the bathtub when you were six months old."
The shocking revelation hit me like a freight train, completely derailing my entire perception of the situation.
"She suffered from severe, violent psychosis, and she believed you were a demon that needed to be cleansed," Arthur explained, tears welling in his fierce eyes.
"I took control of her assets to build an empire strong enough to keep her locked away forever."
He walked around the desk and tried to place a comforting hand on my shoulder, but I instinctively stepped back.
"She is not a victim, Sarah, she is an apex predator, and she does not want the money," my father warned grimly.
"She wants Emma, to finish the twisted cleansing she started thirty years ago."
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A sudden, deafening explosion ripped through the front gates of the beach house, violently rattling the bulletproof windows of the office.
Victoria's forty-eight hours were up, and she hadn't come to negotiate.
