Chapter 5 - The Call Everyone HeardDetective Kim took Victoria’s phone before she could decline the call.
That fact alone should tell you what my family had become.
My younger sister and I had once been close.
Then, after Emma died, something changed.
Caroline became angry whenever Victoria was around.
She warned me I was moving too quickly.
She accused Victoria of isolating me.
The last time we spoke, Caroline told me Grant was helping Victoria “get too comfortable” around company matters.
I called her paranoid.
She called me blind.
Three months later, when she insulted Victoria during dinner, I told her not to come back until she apologized.
She never did.
Now she was standing in my ballroom.
And she looked terrified.
Grant recovered first.
“Caroline, this is not the time.”
She laughed once.
A broken sound.
“That’s exactly what you told me when I found the first transfer.”
The ballroom fell silent.
Victoria released my hand.
“What transfer?” I asked.
Caroline looked at me.
“I tried to tell you.”
“Tell me now.”
Grant stepped between us.
“Julian, she’s been obsessed with this for months.”
“Move.”
He stared at me.
I had never spoken to my brother like that.
Finally, he moved.
Caroline handed me the envelope.
Inside were bank records.
Consulting fees.
Shell companies.
Payments from a Sterling subsidiary to an entity called Harlow Strategic.
“Harlow?” I said.
Caroline nodded.
“Victoria’s mother’s maiden name.”
Victoria’s face remained still.
Grant said, “Coincidence.”
Caroline turned on him.
“Three point eight million dollars is not a coincidence.”
Murmurs spread through the guests.
Grant looked furious.
I held up one statement.
“Who authorized these?”
Caroline looked at my brother.
“Grant.”
My chest tightened.
“And you knew?”
“I found them four months ago.”
“Why didn’t you go to Daniel?”
“I did.”
Daniel had never mentioned it.
Caroline saw my confusion.
“He told me I needed evidence linking the payments to fraud before he could act on company funds. I started collecting it.”
“Why didn’t Daniel tell me?”
“Because I asked him not to.”
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“Because I thought someone was watching me.”
Grant laughed.
“Oh, come on.”
Caroline ignored him.
“My apartment was broken into two days after I requested archived invoices. Nothing valuable was taken. Only my laptop.”
My anger sharpened.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“The night you told me never to come back.”
That hit me.
I remembered.
Victoria crying.
Grant telling me Caroline was jealous.
Me ordering my own sister out of my house.
Caroline’s voice broke.
“You didn’t believe me.”
I could barely look at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Grant slammed his glass onto a table.
“This is insane. We are standing in the middle of a wedding while Caroline performs some revenge fantasy because Julian chose Victoria over her.”
Caroline looked at him.
Then she pulled one more item from her purse.
A photograph.
She handed it to me.
Grant and Victoria sat together at a restaurant.
Not remarkable.
Except the timestamp.
Fourteen months earlier.
Two months before Victoria and I supposedly met.
I stared at it.
Victoria said quietly, “Julian—”
“When did we meet?”
She didn’t answer.
“Say it.”
“At the Harrison Foundation gala.”
“Twelve months ago.”
“Yes.”
I held up the photograph.
“Then why were you having dinner with my brother two months earlier?”
Grant stepped forward.
“We knew each other socially.”
“You introduced us.”
“I thought you’d like her.”
“You told me you had just met her.”
He didn’t answer.
I looked at Victoria.
“Did you know who I was before the gala?”
Silence.
That silence ended whatever small part of me still wanted an explanation.
A woman near the bar whispered something.
Phones were appearing.
People were recording now.
Grant noticed.
“Everyone, please. There has been a misunderstanding.”
“No,” I said. “Nobody leaves.”
Victoria’s face changed.
“Julian.”
“You wanted witnesses for a wedding.”
I looked around the room.
“Now we have witnesses for something else.”
She came toward me.
“Please don’t humiliate us in front of everyone.”
“Us?”
“I love you.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Before or after Harlow Strategic received three point eight million dollars?”
Her eyes filled.
Beautiful tears.
Perfect timing.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then help me.”
She looked at Grant.
That was the mistake.
Not at me.
At him.
For guidance.
My brother gave the smallest shake of his head.
Don’t talk.
I saw it.
So did Caroline.
“So he tells you when you’re allowed to speak?” she asked.
Victoria snapped, “Stay out of this.”
Caroline smiled bitterly.
“I’ve been in this longer than Julian has.”
I turned.
“What does that mean?”
Caroline looked at Victoria.
“Tell him.”
Victoria said nothing.
“Tell me what?”
Caroline took a breath.
“Emma knew.”
The world went silent.
I heard the words.
But they made no sense.
“Knew what?”
Caroline’s eyes filled.
“About Grant.”
My brother’s face drained.
I stepped toward Caroline.
“Emma knew what about Grant?”
“That he was stealing from the company.”
Grant exploded.
“That is a lie!”
Caroline shouted back.
“She found the Harlow accounts before she died!”
I could feel the room tilting.
Emma.
My wife.
My dead wife.
“What are you talking about?”
Caroline’s hands trembled.
“Emma called me two weeks before Leo was born. She told me she had found payments that didn’t make sense. Grant had access to your electronic signature for emergency filings.”
I looked at him.
He shook his head.
“She’s making this up.”
Caroline continued.
“Emma thought Grant was moving money through outside vendors.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She planned to.”
“When?”
“After Leo was born.”
My throat tightened.
Emma never came home from the hospital.
Caroline’s tears spilled.
“She was afraid the stress would affect the pregnancy. She made me promise not to tell you until after the delivery.”
“And after she died?”
“I tried to find the records. They were gone.”
Grant laughed wildly.
“This is unbelievable.”
Caroline looked straight at him.
“You deleted them from her laptop.”
“You have no proof.”
“I do now.”
She reached into the envelope.
And pulled out a flash drive.
“I found Emma’s backup.”
Grant lunged.
Everything happened at once.
I stepped between them.
Two guests shouted.
Caroline stumbled backward.
Grant grabbed my arm.
“Julian, listen to me.”
I shoved him away.
Security entered the room.
But I didn’t know which guards I could trust.
“Back off!” I shouted.
Everyone froze.
Caroline held the drive tight.
“Emma kept automatic backups on a private cloud account. I found the password in a notebook last week.”
“What’s on it?” I asked.
“Emails. Financial records. Notes.”
“About Grant?”
“And Victoria.”
My blood chilled.
“That’s impossible.”
Caroline looked at Victoria.
“No.”
Her voice dropped.
“It isn’t.”
I turned slowly toward my fiancée.
Caroline continued.
“Emma knew Victoria before you did.”
I could barely speak.
“How?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Grant whispered, “Don’t.”
Caroline answered for her.
“Victoria worked for the private medical concierge company Emma used during her pregnancy.”
I stared at the woman in the wedding dress.
Memories crashed together.
Victoria knowing Leo’s pediatric preferences.
Victoria knowing details about Emma I thought I had told her.
Victoria always understanding my grief just a little too perfectly.
“Were you around Emma?”
Victoria whispered, “Yes.”
“When?”
“Before Leo was born.”
“How much before?”
“Julian—”
“How much?”
She looked at me.
“Five months.”
My heart pounded.
“And you never told me?”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Of how it would look.”
I laughed.
“How does it look?”
She started crying harder.
“I cared about her.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You cared about access.”
“That isn’t true.”
I held up the flash drive.
“Then we’ll find out.”
Grant stepped backward.
Toward the hallway.
Caroline saw him.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m done with this circus.”
He turned.
Then Detective Sarah Kim walked through the ballroom doors with two plainclothes officers.
“Nobody is going anywhere.”
Grant stopped.
Sarah looked at me.
“Mr. Sterling?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel Cross contacted me about a threat involving your child.”
The guests erupted into whispers.
Victoria stared at me.
“You called the police?”
I looked at her.
“You threatened my son.”
“I never threatened Leo.”
“You said accidents happen.”
Her face went pale.
Sarah heard that.
“What accidents?”
Victoria shook her head.
“Nothing.”
Sarah stepped closer.
“Mrs. Hale, I’d suggest you stop saying ‘nothing.’”
Grant interrupted.
“This is private family business.”
Sarah turned.
“And you are?”
“Grant Sterling.”
“I know.”
The way she said it frightened him.
She pulled out her phone.
“We’ve been reviewing security footage from the east garage.”
Grant’s breathing changed.
Sarah continued.
“The person who entered the main garage wearing catering clothes wasn’t a caterer.”
She turned the screen toward us.
A grainy image showed a man leaving through the service corridor.
Caroline gasped.
Victoria whispered, “No.”
I stared at the screen.
I knew the man.
He had been sitting three tables from the altar at rehearsal dinner the night before.
Grant’s longtime driver.
Michael Reese.
Sarah looked at Grant.
“Would you like to explain why your employee was near the baby?”
Grant’s face hardened.
Then a phone began ringing.
Not mine.
Not Grant’s.
Victoria’s.
She looked at the screen.
And froze.
Sarah said, “Answer it.”
Victoria didn’t move.
“Who is it?” I asked.
Her lips parted.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“Michael.”
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