Chapter 5 - The Forty-Eighth Floor
Naomi’s eyes met mine.
She was terrified, but she gave the smallest possible shake of her head.
Do not enter.
Julian pressed the gun harder against her coat.
“Now, Clare.”
The boardroom doors stood thirty feet behind me.
Henderson and several officers were still inside.
If I screamed, Julian might shoot Naomi.
I stepped into the elevator.
The doors closed.
Julian pressed the button for the forty-eighth floor.
“You should be in custody,” I said.
“I was never in that hotel room.”
“The video?”
“Recorded two months ago. My mother believes in preparing for every outcome.”
“You planned to accuse me long before last night.”
“I planned to protect myself.”
Naomi stared straight ahead.
A thin line of blood ran from her temple.
“What did you do to her?” I asked.
“She surprised me in the records room.”
“Julian, the building is surrounded.”
“I don’t need to leave through the lobby.”
The elevator climbed.
“You’re going to the roof.”
A helicopter landing platform occupied the highest level of Sterling Tower. My father used it only a few times each year.
Julian smiled.
“Your family built excellent escape routes.”
“You won’t make it.”
“I don’t need to if you give me what I want.”
“I’m not signing anything.”
“This isn’t about your signature anymore.”
The doors opened onto the executive floor.
Julian forced us toward my father’s office.
The room had been destroyed during the break-in. Drawers remained open, and papers covered the carpet.
A man stood near the windows.
Martin Voss.
The Sterling family accountant.
He had managed our private trusts for eighteen years.
“You,” I whispered.
Voss lowered his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Clare.”
Julian shoved Naomi into a chair.
“Show her.”
Voss placed a laptop on my father’s desk.
The screen displayed financial transfers from Sterling Foundation accounts into dozens of offshore companies.
More than six hundred million dollars had disappeared.
Every transfer carried my digital authorization.
“You used my identity.”
“Your husband provided access to your devices,” Voss said.
Julian had always insisted on managing our home network.
He knew my passwords.
My identification numbers.
The answers to every security question.
“If these transactions become public,” Julian said, “you will appear to have stolen from a children’s medical foundation.”
“What do you want?”
“A public statement accepting responsibility. You will say your father knew about the theft and forced you to participate.”
“And then?”
“The board removes Arthur. The government freezes Sterling assets. My mother’s investment group purchases the damaged companies for a fraction of their value.”
“You destroy thousands of lives.”
“Your father has destroyed plenty.”
The office doors opened behind us.
Arthur entered alone.
His hands were visible.
“Let them go,” he said.
Julian turned the gun toward him.
“Where is Henderson?”
“On the floor below. He believes I’m negotiating.”
“You never negotiate.”
“I do when my daughter is involved.”
My father looked at me.
The anger between us remained, but beneath it was something stronger.
Love.
Imperfect.
Damaged.
Still there.
Julian motioned toward the laptop.
“Record the statement.”
“No,” my father said.
“Then I shoot Naomi first.”
Naomi closed her eyes.
I stepped toward the desk.
“I’ll do it.”
“Clare,” my father warned.
“I won’t let someone die because of me.”
Julian positioned a camera.
“Read the statement exactly as written.”
I looked at the words on the screen.
My name.
My confession.
My father’s destruction.
Then I noticed a small green light reflected in the glass wall.
The building’s emergency recording system.
Arthur had activated it from his watch.
Everything happening inside the office was being transmitted to security.
I began reading.
“My name is Clare Sterling. For the past three years, I have illegally transferred funds from the Sterling Foundation…”
Julian relaxed slightly.
“…under the direction of my father, Arthur Sterling.”
“Good,” he said. “Continue.”
I looked directly into the camera.
“Martin Voss created false authorizations using my stolen identity. Julian Hayes supplied my private passwords. Cecilia Hayes planned to purchase Sterling companies after causing their collapse.”
Julian lunged toward me.
My father moved first.
He struck Julian’s wrist.
The gun fired.
The glass wall behind them shattered.
Naomi dropped to the floor.
Voss ran toward the private exit.
I grabbed the heavy laptop and swung it into his chest. He stumbled backward.
Julian and my father struggled near the broken glass.
At sixty-two, Arthur was still strong, but Julian was younger.
Julian drove him into the edge of the desk.
“Stop!” I screamed.
Julian raised the gun.
Before he could fire, Henderson’s team burst into the office.
“Drop it!”
Julian seized my father and pressed the weapon beneath his jaw.
Everyone froze.
“You ruined everything,” Julian said to me.
“No,” I replied. “You did that yourself.”
The fire alarm began to scream.
Smoke poured from the records room.
Voss had ignited the stolen documents before Henderson’s men caught him.
Sprinklers erupted overhead.
Julian dragged my father toward the rooftop stairwell.
“Anyone follows, Arthur dies.”
The door slammed behind them.
I ran after them.
Henderson caught my arm.
“Miss Clare, you cannot—”
“He has my father.”
“We’ll handle it.”
“No. Julian doesn’t want to escape.”
Henderson stared at me.
I understood Julian better than anyone in that building.
“He wants my father to watch him kill me.”
May you like
I opened the stairwell door.
And from somewhere above us, a second gunshot echoed.
