Chapter 2 - THE MAN EVERYONE CALLED A TRAITOR WAS HIDING IN MY HOSPITAL—AND WHAT HE TOLD ME ABOUT MY UNBORN DAUGHTER MADE STERLING LOCK HIS OWN SISTER OUT OF THE FAMILY HOME
At 8:55 the next morning, Sterling entered the old Voss library.
He had not slept.
Neither had Colette.
Alden sat at the head of the table.
Article Seven required five witnesses.
Sterling.
Alden.
Marco Bell.
Victor Hale.
And Gianna.
Colette entered last.
Sterling stood automatically.
His sister did not.
Gianna looked immaculate.
Cream suit.
Pearls.
No apology.
Colette wore navy scrubs.
She'd showered at the hospital.
Her wedding ring remained on her finger.
For now.
Alden began.
“Dr. Voss—”
“Colette.”
He nodded.
“Colette has invoked Article Seven.”
“The testimony is privileged inside this room until the council determines otherwise.”
He looked at Sterling.
“No retaliation may occur against Kaio Rice based solely on the information presented here.”
Sterling nodded.
“Understood.”
Victor looked irritated.
Gianna looked bored.
Colette began.
“Kaio arrived in my emergency department thirteen days ago.”
Sterling leaned forward.
“What?”
“He wasn't registered under his name.”
“Why?”
“Because he had no identification and asked us not to contact police.”
“What injuries?”
“Three fractured ribs.”
“A dislocated shoulder.”
“Two burns.”
“Ligature marks.”
Gianna's expression shifted.
Colette noticed.
“So somebody tortured him,” Marco said.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Kaio didn't know their names.”
Sterling’s jaw tightened.
“What did they want?”
“The route schedule.”
Silence.
Alden frowned.
“But the ambush occurred after Kaio disappeared.”
“Exactly.”
Sterling understood first.
“They tortured the route out of him.”
“Yes.”
“And then blamed him.”
“Yes.”
Victor leaned back.
“Convenient.”
Colette looked at him.
“His injuries weren't convenient.”
Victor's mouth tightened.
“I photographed them.”
“I documented them.”
“And Kaio gave a statement before Daniel was shot.”
Sterling looked at Gianna.
She stared at Colette.
“Where is he?”
“Protected.”
“By whom?”
“Not you.”
Gianna laughed.
“You think you're powerful because you married my brother?”
“No.”
Colette placed a medical photograph on the table.
“I think I'm credible because I know what electrical burns look like.”
Nobody laughed.
Then she explained Daniel’s statement.
Dr. Evelyn Hart.
A file removed from Sterling and Colette’s home.
Colette's medical file.
Gianna’s name beneath hers.
Sterling slowly turned toward his sister.
Gianna stared back.
“Don't.”
“What file?”
“I don't know.”
“Gianna.”
“I said I don't know.”
Colette watched her pulse.
Fast.
Visible beneath her neck.
Nurses noticed things.
“She's lying.”
Gianna snapped:
“You don't know me.”
“I know pulse rates.”
Sterling stood.
“Sit down.”
Gianna looked at him.
“Sterling—”
“Sit.”
She did.
Sterling called Marco.
“Bring Hart.”
Colette stopped him.
“No.”
His eyes flashed.
“Why?”
“Because if she is involved, grabbing her tells everyone we know.”
“So?”
“So Kaio's attacker may run.”
Sterling stared.
Alden nodded.
“She's right.”
Gianna muttered:
“Of course she is.”
Colette looked at her.
“What did Dr. Hart take?”
“Nothing.”
“What did she take?”
“Nothing!”
Sterling slammed his palm against the table.
“Answer my wife.”
Gianna flinched.
The room froze.
Colette did too.
Sterling looked at her.
It was the first time in three years he'd publicly chosen her over Gianna.
But it had come one day too late to feel satisfying.
Gianna stood.
“I wanted to protect you.”
Sterling stared.
“From what?”
“Her.”
She pointed at Colette.
Sterling's expression became terrifyingly blank.
“Explain.”
Gianna’s eyes filled.
“Dad had you tested.”
Colette frowned.
“Tested for what?”
Gianna looked at her brother.
Sterling went pale.
“Gianna.”
“He deserves to know.”
“Know what?”
Colette's voice sharpened.
Sterling said:
“My father had a genetic condition.”
“What condition?”
“Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.”
Colette knew it immediately.
A disease that could thicken heart muscle.
Sometimes inherited.
Sometimes silent.
Sometimes deadly.
“You told me your father's heart attack was caused by stress.”
“I didn't know the diagnosis until after he died.”
“And you were tested?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Result?”
“Negative.”
Colette exhaled.
Then frowned.
“So what does this have to do with me?”
Gianna laughed once.
“Because Sterling wasn't the only one tested.”
Alden closed his eyes.
He knew.
Colette looked at him.
“What?”
Alden said quietly:
“Your prenatal genetic screening was expanded without your authorization.”
Colette stopped breathing.
Sterling stood.
“What?”
Gianna went pale.
Alden continued.
“Someone requested a broader panel.”
Colette looked at Gianna.
“You?”
Gianna said nothing.
Sterling’s chair struck the floor behind him.
“You accessed my wife's medical records?”
“I was protecting your child!”
“From what?”
“Her family!”
Colette stood.
“My family?”
Gianna pointed at her.
“Your mother died at fifty-six.”
“Cancer.”
“Your father at fifty-nine.”
“Car accident.”
“Your brother—”
“I don't have a brother.”
Gianna stopped.
Too late.
Colette stared.
“What did you say?”
Nobody moved.
“My brother?”
Gianna looked at Alden.
Alden looked sick.
Colette whispered:
“What brother?”
Sterling turned toward Alden.
“You know?”
The old attorney said nothing.
“Alden.”
“Yes.”
Colette gripped the table.
“My parents had another child?”
Alden spoke carefully.
“Your mother did.”
The room tilted.
“What?”
“Before she married your father.”
Colette sat.
Sterling moved toward her.
She held up a hand.
He stopped.
Choice.
At least he'd learned that much overnight.
Alden continued.
“His name was Samuel Mays.”
“Was?”
“He died when he was twenty-two.”
“How?”
Silence.
Colette already knew the answer would hurt.
“Working for the Voss family.”
Sterling turned.
“What?”
Alden closed his eyes.
“Your father recruited him.”
The truth came slowly.
Samuel Mays had been Colette's half brother.
Fourteen years older.
Their mother had been seventeen when she gave birth.
Samuel was raised by his grandparents.
Later he became a driver for Sterling’s father, Anton Voss.
Colette had been four when Samuel died.
Her parents told her the photographs of the young man occasionally appearing in family albums were of a cousin.
Samuel died during a warehouse fire.
Officially accidental.
It wasn't.
He'd discovered Anton was using a pharmaceutical distribution company to divert controlled medications.
Samuel threatened to report it.
The warehouse burned three days later.
Colette stared at Sterling.
“Your father killed my brother?”
Sterling looked destroyed.
“I didn't know.”
“Did Gianna?”
Alden said:
“She discovered the old file last year.”
Colette looked at Gianna.
“You knew for a year.”
Gianna's eyes filled.
“I was trying to determine whether you knew.”
“So you humiliated me?”
“I didn't trust you.”
“You accessed my medical records.”
“I needed to know whether your pregnancy was—”
She stopped.
Colette stood.
“Was what?”
Gianna's voice dropped.
“Real.”
Sterling whispered:
“What the hell does that mean?”
Gianna began crying.
“I thought she might be using you.”
Colette stared at her.
“By becoming eight months pregnant?”
“You don't understand our world!”
“No.”
Colette's voice shook.
“I understand it perfectly.”
She looked at Sterling.
“In your world, everybody calls control protection.”
Nobody spoke.
She looked at Gianna.
“You violated my medical privacy because you decided my body was a family security question.”
Then at Sterling.
“And yesterday your brother watched you pour wine over that same body and said your name.”
Sterling flinched.
Colette picked up her bag.
“Article Seven testimony is complete.”
“Colette.”
She looked at him.
“I need space.”
He nodded.
Then Gianna said:
“You can't leave.”
Colette turned.
Gianna’s face was white.
“Why?”
“Because Kaio wasn't tortured for the route.”
Everyone froze.
Gianna started shaking.
“He was tortured because he saw me meeting Dr. Hart.”
Sterling's voice became almost inaudible.
“Why were you meeting her?”
Gianna looked at Colette's stomach.
Then whispered:
“Because somebody offered her two million dollars to make sure your daughter was never born.”
Sterling stopped breathing.
Colette's hand flew to her belly.
“And I was trying to find out who.”
Gianna's story changed everything.
Three months earlier, Dr. Hart contacted her.
Not because they were friends.
Because Hart was frightened.
Someone had offered money through an intermediary.
Two million dollars.
The instruction was simple.
Create a late-pregnancy complication.
Something believable.
A medication error.
A concealed contraindication.
An emergency delivery that went wrong.
Mother could survive.
Child could not.
Gianna assumed Colette had enemies.
She didn't tell Sterling because she feared he'd react violently and expose the investigation.
Instead, she began watching Hart.
Kaio saw one of their meetings.
Then Kaio saw Hart remove a duplicate medical file from Sterling's house during a family dinner.
Kaio followed her.
Someone followed Kaio.
He was abducted.
Tortured.
The attackers demanded the route schedule because they needed the ambush to look like retaliation over Voss business.
Kaio eventually gave them the route.
Garrett died.
Daniel nearly did.
Gianna had been investigating the same conspiracy.
But instead of trusting Colette, she treated her like a suspect.
“Why the wine?” Sterling asked.
Gianna looked ashamed.
“I was angry.”
“That's your explanation?”
“I thought Colette had told Kaio things.”
“So you poured wine on my pregnant wife?”
Gianna's eyes filled.
“I wanted her to react.”
Colette stared.
“You wanted to see whether I would invoke Article Seven.”
“Yes.”
“You used me as bait.”
“Yes.”
Sterling moved.
Colette stepped between them.
“No.”
He stopped.
“Move.”
“No.”
“She endangered you.”
“Yes.”
“She endangered our daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Then move.”
Colette looked into her husband's eyes.
“This is exactly the problem.”
He froze.
“You think because you're angry, violence becomes leadership.”
Sterling breathed hard.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Listen.”
“To her?”
“To me.”
That stopped him.
Colette turned to Gianna.
“Who hired Hart?”
“I don't know.”
“Who was the intermediary?”
Gianna swallowed.
“Victor.”
Silence.
Sterling slowly turned.
Victor Hale's chair was empty.
He'd left the library while everyone was focused on Samuel.
Marco reached for his phone.
Then the lights went out.
Colette heard glass break.
A gunshot.
Someone screamed.
Sterling's arms came around her instinctively.
This time she didn't object.
Because the second shot came from the hallway.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Marco shouted:
“Down!”
Sterling pulled Colette behind the heavy table.
Gianna crawled toward them.
Another gunshot.
A man entered.
Not Victor.
Dr. Evelyn Hart.
She held a pistol.
Her hands shook.
“I'm sorry.”
Colette stared.
Hart was crying.
“I'm so sorry.”
Sterling shifted in front of Colette.
Hart raised the gun.
“No!”
Gianna lunged.
The gun fired.
Gianna collapsed.
“Gianna!”
Sterling caught her.
Blood spread across her burgundy blouse.
Hart stared at what she'd done.
Marco tackled her.
The pistol slid away.
Colette moved instantly.
Nurse.
Not wife.
Not sister-in-law.
Nurse.
“Pressure!”
Sterling pressed his hands over Gianna's shoulder.
Colette checked the wound.
“Through-and-through.”
“She's bleeding!”
“I know.”
“Colette—”
“Sterling, look at me.”
He did.
“Keep pressure.”
His hands steadied.
Gianna opened her eyes.
“Did I…”
She gasped.
“Did I finally protect her?”
Colette looked at the woman who had poured wine over her less than twenty-four hours earlier.
“Yes.”
Gianna started crying.
“So we're even?”
“No.”
A weak laugh escaped her.
“Worth trying.”
Sirens approached.
Colette kept pressure on the wound.
Then Dr. Hart began screaming from the floor.
“You don't understand!”
Marco restrained her.
“Victor isn't running!”
Everyone looked.
Hart's face twisted with terror.
“He's going to the hospital!”
Colette froze.
“Why?”
Hart stared at her.
“Because that's where Kaio is.”
And Daniel Mercer.
Sterling was already standing.
Colette grabbed his sleeve.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
Her expression changed.
Sterling caught himself.
Then corrected:
“Do you want to come?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“Then stay beside me.”
For the first time in their marriage, those words meant exactly what they should have.
Not behind me.
May you like
Not beneath me.
Beside me.
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