Chapter 2 - Her Secret Marriage Was Exposed Overnight—Then Amelia Learned Her Dead Father Had Left Her a Key to a Criminal EmpireBy six the next morning, my face was everywhere.
ETHAN STERLING'S SECRET WIFE REVEALED AFTER CHARITY GALA ATTACK.
MYSTERY MRS. STERLING WAS WORKING AS WAITRESS.
WHO IS AMELIA GRANT?
The internet did what it always did.
Invented what it couldn't discover.
Some claimed I had been Ethan's housekeeper.
Others called me an escort.
One particularly creative account claimed Ethan had purchased me at a private auction in Monaco.
I threw my phone onto bed.
"Apparently I'm Romanian now."
Ethan looked up from laptop.
"What?"
"Nothing."
We were in a secure penthouse owned through three holding companies.
Marcus had doubled security.
Vanessa was under protection.
Lucas was recovering after surgery.
Gregory Hale had vanished.
And Northstar had seventy-one hours remaining on its deadline.
Ethan closed laptop.
"Tell me about your father."
I looked toward window.
"Daniel Grant."
"I know his name."
"Then you know enough."
"No."
He stood.
"I know what newspapers printed."
My father had been deputy secretary of commerce.
Eleven years earlier, federal investigators accused him of accepting bribes tied to port contracts.
Before indictment, his car went over bridge.
Body recovered three days later.
Case closed.
My mother never recovered.
She died four years afterward.
I spent years trying to escape surname.
Then Ethan met me.
Loved me anyway.
But I had never told him everything.
"There was a notebook."
His expression sharpened.
"What notebook?"
"Dad gave it to me night before he died."
"Where is it?"
"I burned it."
Ethan stared.
"Why?"
"Because he told me to."
That wasn't entirely true.
Dad had said:
If something happens to me, destroy the blue notebook.
So I did.
Or thought I did.
"The phrase Northstar was inside?"
"Once."
"What context?"
"I don't remember."
"Amelia."
"I was seventeen."
My voice rose.
"My father was being called a traitor on every television station. Reporters were outside our house. My mother couldn't stop crying. He came into my bedroom at two in morning, gave me notebook and told me if anyone ever said Northstar I should run."
Ethan became quiet.
"I wasn't conducting forensic analysis."
"I'm sorry."
I looked away.
He approached.
Stopped.
"Can I?"
I nodded.
He took my hands.
That simple question was one reason I married him.
Ethan had enormous power.
But with me, he asked.
"What else?"
"A key."
"What key?"
I froze.
Oh God.
I hadn't thought about it in years.
"Dad's watch."
Ethan frowned.
"He left me his watch."
"Where?"
"Our house."
Marcus retrieved it.
An old steel Hamilton.
Nothing unusual.
Until I opened back.
Inside, taped beneath mechanism, was tiny brass key.
Ethan looked at me.
"You never knew?"
"No."
Number engraved:
314.
Bank box?
Locker?
Room?
Lucas woke before we solved it.
I insisted seeing him.
Ethan disliked idea.
He came anyway.
Lucas looked terrible.
"You look worse," I said.
"Thanks."
"Who shot you?"
"I don't know."
"Lie."
He closed eyes.
"Amelia—"
"Twenty-three million dollars."
Silence.
"Northstar."
His heart monitor accelerated.
Ethan stood behind me.
Lucas opened eyes.
"I was trying to protect family."
Ethan's voice hardened.
"By stealing from it?"
"I didn't steal."
"Then what?"
"They contacted me nine months ago."
"Who?"
"I never met leader."
"How?"
"Encrypted messages."
"Why pay them?"
Lucas looked at me.
"They knew about her."
Ethan went still.
"What?"
"They knew Amelia was your wife."
My stomach dropped.
"They sent photographs. Marriage certificate. Her old Justice Department files."
I looked at Ethan.
Only a handful knew marriage.
Lucas continued.
"They said if I didn't pay, they'd expose her and reopen Daniel Grant story."
"So you stole sixty-eight million?" Ethan demanded.
"I panicked."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Lucas laughed bitterly.
"Because I spent my entire life trying to prove I'm not useless cousin you rescue."
That landed.
Ethan's anger changed.
Lucas looked at me.
"Then demands changed."
"How?"
"They wanted access."
"To what?"
"Sterling Global's port network."
Ethan's expression became lethal.
"I refused."
"So they increased pressure?"
"Yes."
"Gregory?"
Lucas swallowed.
"He approached me."
"He works for Northstar?"
"I don't know. He said he could negotiate."
"And Vanessa?"
"She knew nothing."
For first time, I believed him.
Vanessa was cruel.
But cruelty and conspiracy aren't same thing.
"What is 314?" I asked.
Lucas frowned.
"No idea."
Marcus called.
He had found something.
My father's last government office was in Federal Plaza.
Room 314 had been records archive.
Cleared after death.
But before government service, Dad rented private box at Manhattan Continental Bank.
Box number?
We went.
Box had remained paid for eleven years through prepaid trust.
Inside:
A photograph.
A flash drive.
A letter.
And wedding ring belonging to my mother.
My hands shook opening letter.
Amelia,
If you're reading this, I failed to come home.
I stopped.
Ethan sat beside me.
I continued.
Dad admitted accepting payments.
But not personally.
He had infiltrated Northstar.
A private network connecting executives, politicians, organized crime groups and intelligence contractors.
They manipulated public infrastructure contracts worth billions.
Dad became informant.
The "bribes" were controlled payments.
But his federal handler was compromised.
Northstar discovered him.
The flash drive contained partial membership list.
One name stunned Ethan.
Richard Sterling.
His father.
Dead twelve years.
Ethan stood.
"No."
I understood reaction.
"It's only a name."
"My father knew yours?"
"Apparently."
Another file.
Photograph showed Daniel Grant and Richard Sterling shaking hands.
Date:
Fourteen years earlier.
Our fathers knew each other.
More documents revealed truth.
Richard Sterling had helped Daniel collect evidence.
They planned expose Northstar.
Richard died of supposed heart attack.
Dad died two years later.
Both deaths connected.
Then final file opened.
A video.
Dad appeared.
Older.
Afraid.
"If you're watching this, Northstar survived."
He looked directly into camera.
"The person controlling it isn't Gregory Hale."
Ethan and I leaned closer.
"Gregory is financier."
"Not leader."
Dad swallowed.
"The leader is someone inside Sterling family."
Video ended.
Silence.
Ethan stared.
"Inside my family."
I thought of Lucas.
No.
Too young fourteen years ago.
Ethan's uncle?
Aunt?
Then phone rang.
Vanessa.
I almost ignored.
Answered.
Her voice shook.
"Amelia."
"What?"
"My father called."
Ethan moved closer.
"What did he say?"
"He wants to surrender."
"Where?"
"He won't tell me unless I come alone."
"You're not going alone."
Vanessa began crying.
"He said Northstar will kill him."
I looked at Ethan.
Then Vanessa said:
"He told me something else."
"What?"
"He said Ethan's father wasn't murdered because he helped your father."
My skin chilled.
"Then why?"
"Because Richard Sterling discovered who actually created Northstar."
Ethan took phone.
"Who?"
Vanessa whispered:
"Your mother."
Ethan stopped breathing.
May you like
His mother, Eleanor Sterling, had been dead for eight years.
At least, that's what everyone believed.
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