Chapter 7 - The Housekeeper’s Warning
Mrs. Hoffman was alive.
Barely conscious, but alive.
Daniel called for an ambulance while Richard knelt beside her.
“Margaret. Can you hear me?”
Her eyelids fluttered.
“Mr. Sterling.”
“What happened?”
She tried to sit up and winced.
“Marcus.”
Richard’s stomach tightened.
“He did this?”
“He came asking for the spare car keys. I saw blood on his sleeve. I told him I was calling you.”
She swallowed.
“He took my phone. I had another one hidden in the potting cabinet.”
“The texts were from you?”
She nodded.
“What did Victoria want from Maya?”
Mrs. Hoffman closed her eyes.
“Control.”
Richard waited.
“She hated that everything in your estate plan goes through Maya if something happens to you.”
Richard stared at her.
Very few people knew the full details of his trust structure.
“You know about my estate plan?”
“I overheard Marcus and Victoria arguing last week.”
Daniel’s expression sharpened.
Mrs. Hoffman continued. “They thought the west hall was empty. Victoria said marriage wasn’t enough anymore. She said the trust protected Maya from her. Marcus said there was another way if Maya was living outside the country under a legal guardian.”
Richard felt sick.
“They planned to take her?”
“I think so.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
She gripped his wrist.
“But I heard Marcus say, ‘Once Richard signs the merger, we have seventy-two hours.’”
The merger.
Sterling Global was scheduled to finalize the largest acquisition in the company’s history the next morning.
A twelve-billion-dollar transaction.
Marcus had pushed it harder than anyone.
Richard stood.
Daniel said what both men were thinking.
“This isn’t only about Maya.”
Richard looked at Marcus’s phone on the greenhouse floor.
It was cracked but still powered on.
Daniel picked it up.
The screen displayed an unsent message.
V: HE KNOWS ABOUT THE ROOM. MOVE THE CHILD TONIGHT.
Richard’s face went numb.
“Can you open the rest?”
“I’ll try.”
A siren sounded in the distance.
Then Richard’s own phone rang.
Ella.
He answered immediately.
Her voice was a whisper.
“Mr. Sterling, someone is outside Maya’s bedroom.”
Richard started running.
“Who?”
May you like
Ella breathed once.
Then the line went dead.
