Chapter 5: The Enemy Wearing a Familiar Face
Victor was still breathing when the estate's backup lights came on.
I pressed a folded linen cloth against his wound while Daniel shouted instructions into his phone. Eleanor knelt beside the desk, pale and trembling. Marcus sat against the bookcase with his hands bound using a length of curtain cord.
The shot had entered Victor's upper abdomen.
It was bad.
Possibly fatal.
“Stay with me,” I told him.
Victor gave a strained laugh.
“You always did enjoy giving orders.””
“Then stop being difficult and keep breathing.””
His eyelids fluttered.
“Still the same Mara.””
I tightened the cloth.
“You don't get to die twice.””
Daniel crouched beside us.
“The ambulance is coming.””
“Cancel it,” I said.
He stared at me.
“What?””
“The estate's communications have been compromised. We don't know who controls the security perimeter, and someone just fired into this room. We need a medical team we can trust.””
“You expect me to leave him bleeding on the floor?””
“No. I expect you to help me keep him alive until someone trustworthy arrives.””
Daniel swallowed his anger.
“What do you need?””
“Clean towels, bottled water, and the first-aid kit from the service corridor. Nothing from the estate medical room.””
He ran.
Victor gripped my wrist.
“Mara.””
“Don't talk.””
“I need you to listen.””
“I'm listening.””
“The boy is not Ethan.””
I froze.
“What?””
“The photograph. The message. It's bait.””
He coughed, and blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“Someone wants Daniel to believe his brother is alive because they know he'll go looking for him.””
“Who sent the message?””
“I don't know.””
“Victor.””
His grip weakened.
“I don't know, Mara. But the person who sent it has access to the original operation records.””
Daniel returned with the supplies.
I focused on Victor's injury while he helped me position the towels. We worked in silence for several minutes, following the simplest principles of emergency care: pressure, monitoring, and keeping him still.
Then I heard Eleanor speak behind us.
“Marcus, tell them what you know.””
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Why? So you can pretend you didn't know?””
Eleanor rose.
“You told Robert the child had been moved to safety.””
“I told him what he wanted to hear.””
“You said the records were destroyed!””
“They were copied.””
“By whom?””
Marcus looked at her.
“Your husband.””
Eleanor took a step backward.
Daniel stopped moving.
“Explain.””
Marcus shifted against the bookcase.
“Robert Sterling wasn't the mastermind you think he was. He was greedy, arrogant, and convinced he could buy his way out of anything. But the operation was designed by a private intelligence contractor who supplied security teams to governments and corporations.””
“Name the contractor,” I demanded.
Marcus hesitated.
Victor answered from the floor.
“Blackridge.””
The name meant nothing to Daniel.
It meant everything to me.
Blackridge had operated in the shadows of legitimate security firms, recruiting former military personnel and intelligence specialists for assignments that official organizations preferred not to acknowledge. Its contracts were often routed through layers of subsidiaries.
Eight years earlier, Blackridge had provided the extraction team at the warehouse.
And Adrian had discovered that the team was not there to rescue anyone.
They were there to erase the evidence.
“Who ran Blackridge?”” Daniel asked.
Victor closed his eyes.
“Your father's oldest friend.””
Eleanor whispered, “No.””
Daniel looked at her.
“Who?””
She didn't answer.
I already knew.
“Graham Voss,” I said.
Victor opened his eyes.
“You remember.””
“I remember his voice on the radio that night.””
Graham Voss had been a senior operations director at Blackridge. He was also the man who had approved my first protective assignment, the man who had praised Adrian's instincts, and the man who had sent us into the warehouse with incomplete intelligence.
After the explosion, he had appeared at the hospital and told me that Adrian's death was an unavoidable tragedy.
He had stood beside my bed while I cried.
He had held my hand and promised that the company would support me.
I had believed him.
For years, I had carried his words like a verdict.
Now I understood that the man who had comforted me after Adrian's death might have been the one who arranged it.
Daniel looked at me.
“Do you know him?””
“I worked under him.””
“Then why are you here as a housekeeper?””
“Because Thomas Reed received evidence that someone inside this estate was helping Blackridge access the old operation records. He needed someone who could investigate without alerting the security team.””
Daniel's eyes widened.
“You were investigating my family?””
“Yes.””
“And you didn't think I deserved to know?””
“I didn't know whether you were involved.””
He flinched.
I regretted the bluntness, but I couldn't take it back.
Then I added, “I'm still trying to determine that.””
Daniel looked away.
For a moment, the only sound in the room was Victor's uneven breathing.
Then Eleanor spoke.
“Graham Voss came to this house last month.””
Everyone turned toward her.
“When?””
“Six weeks ago.””
The same week I had arrived.
“What did he want?”” Daniel asked.
“He said there had been a breach involving your father's old records. He wanted me to sign a document authorizing the permanent destruction of the remaining files.””
“Did you sign it?””
Eleanor's eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.””
Daniel stared at her.
“Why?””
“Because I was afraid.””
“Of Graham?””
“Of what he would reveal.””
I stood slowly.
“What would he reveal?””
Eleanor looked at me.
“Your mother.””
The words landed with the force of a physical blow.
I had not heard anyone mention my mother in connection with the Sterling family.
She had died when I was nineteen, years before the warehouse operation. I remembered her as a quiet woman who worked two jobs, who kept old photographs in a biscuit tin, and who never spoke about my father.
I had been told he left before I was born.
“What does my mother have to do with this?”” I asked.
Eleanor's face crumpled.
“She worked for Robert Sterling before you were born.””
“No.””
“She was his personal assistant. She discovered that he was moving money through Blackridge, and she threatened to expose him.””
I shook my head.
“My mother was a receptionist.””
“That was the position he gave her publicly.””
“Why would you know that?””
“Because I was the one who arranged her departure.””
I stepped toward Eleanor.
“What did you do to her?””
“Nothing. I swear to you, Mara, I never harmed her.””
“Then why did she leave?””
“Robert paid her to disappear. He told her that if she stayed, people would discover what she knew.””
I felt the room closing around me.
“My mother never had money.””
“He paid her through an account she never used. The account was discovered after her death.””
I thought of the small apartment where I had grown up, the unpaid bills hidden beneath the kitchen calendar, the nights my mother pretended she wasn't hungry so I could have the last piece of bread.
If Robert Sterling had paid her to disappear, where had the money gone?
“Who controlled the account?”” I asked.
Eleanor hesitated.
“Graham Voss.””
Victor stirred.
“That's not the worst part.””
I turned toward him.
“What do you mean?””
He swallowed painfully.
“Your mother didn't leave because she was afraid of Robert. She left because she had discovered a child.””
Daniel went still.
“What child?””
Victor's gaze moved between us.
“Your mother knew about Robert's first son. She helped hide him before the warehouse operation.””
Eleanor shook her head.
“No. She couldn't have.””
“She did,” Victor said.
“She knew the boy's foster family. She helped create the new identity.””
I could barely form the words.
“Are you saying my mother knew where the boy went?””
“Yes.””
“Did she tell anyone?””
“She gave the information to Adrian.””
My knees felt weak.
Adrian had known my mother.
He had carried a secret that connected my family to the Sterling family, and he had died before I could ask him about it.
“Why didn't you tell me this eight years ago?”” I demanded.
“Because I believed you were safer not knowing.””
“Safer?””
I laughed once, a terrible, empty sound.
“You let me believe Adrian died because we made a mistake. You let me blame myself for eight years.””
Victor's eyes glistened.
“I know.””
“No, you don't.””
I stood over him, my hands shaking.
“You don't know what it's like to wake up every morning and remember the moment you let go of someone's hand.””
Victor looked at me.
“I do, Mara.””
His voice broke.
“I was holding Adrian when he died.””
I stopped.
Victor turned his face toward the ceiling.
“He didn't ask me to save him. He asked me to save you.””
I couldn't speak.
“He said you were the only person who could find the truth. Then he gave me a name.””
“What name?””
Victor looked directly at me.
“Your mother's.””
Before I could ask another question, Daniel's phone rang.
He answered it.
A woman's voice came through the speaker, frantic and breathless.
“Mr. Sterling, this is the night manager at the Westbridge Hotel. There's a man here asking for you. He says he's your brother.””
Daniel gripped the phone.
“Put him on.””
A moment later, a young man's voice filled the room.
“Daniel?””
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Ethan?””
“Listen to me. I don't know what's happening, but two men followed me home tonight. They said my real name was Daniel Sterling's brother.””
Daniel's face drained of color.
“Where are you?””
“Westbridge Hotel. Room 614.””
“Stay there. Don't open the door for anyone.””
A loud crash came through the phone.
Then a man's voice shouted in the background.
“Get away from the window!””
The call ended.
Daniel stared at the screen.
I reached for my jacket.
“I'm going after him.””
Victor grabbed my wrist.
“No.””
“He could be in danger.””
“He is in danger. That's why you can't go.””
“Then what do you suggest?””
Victor's eyes shifted toward Marcus.
“Ask him who knew the boy's new identity.””
Marcus lowered his head.
For the first time that night, he looked genuinely defeated.
“Graham Voss,” he whispered.
“He was the one who arranged the placement.””
Daniel took a step toward him.
“Then Graham knows where Ethan is.””
Marcus nodded.
“And if Graham has contacted him tonight, it means the old operation is starting again.””
I grabbed my keys.
“Then we're out of time.””
Victor tightened his grip on my wrist.
“Mara, there's one more thing.””
I bent closer.
“What?””
He looked at Daniel, then back at me.
“The man you think is Ethan Sterling isn't the child from the warehouse.””
My breath caught.
“Then who is he?””
Victor's eyes closed.
“The boy from the warehouse was never Robert Sterling's son.””
May you like
He opened his eyes again.
“He was yours.””
