Chapter 8 - The Son with the Wrong MotherCatherine dropped her glass.
Unlike Vivian's earlier champagne glass, this one didn't shatter.
It landed on thick carpet and rolled beneath a table.
“Lucas?”
The voice on the phone went silent.
Catherine stepped closer.
“Lucas?”
Scarlett held the phone toward her.
The man finally answered.
“Who is this?”
Catherine's face crumpled.
“I'm Catherine.”
A pause.
Then:
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Lucas, I—”
“Vivian is my mother.”
Catherine looked at her sister.
Vivian couldn't meet her eyes.
Richard whispered:
“What did you do?”
Vivian's voice was almost inaudible.
“Father made the decision.”
Catherine walked toward her.
“What decision?”
“You were seventeen.”
“I was eighteen.”
“You had no money.”
“I had a child.”
“You were unstable.”
“I had postpartum depression!”
Vivian flinched.
Catherine's voice broke.
“You told me he died.”
“I didn't.”
“Our father did.”
“And you let him.”
Vivian started crying.
“You don't know what he was like.”
Catherine laughed through tears.
“I know exactly what he was like.”
On speaker, Lucas said:
“What the hell is happening?”
Adrian took the phone.
“Lucas.”
“Who are you?”
“Adrian Sterling.”
Silence.
“Vivian's son?”
“Yes.”
Lucas laughed bitterly.
“Then I guess we're brothers.”
Adrian looked at Catherine.
“No.”
He swallowed.
“I think we're cousins.”
Another long pause.
“What?”
Adrian looked at Vivian.
“Where are you?”
Lucas didn't answer.
“Please.”
“Why?”
“Because there are things you need to hear from someone other than Vivian.”
Lucas's voice hardened.
“She raised me.”
Adrian stared at his mother.
“How?”
Vivian finally spoke.
“My father arranged it.”
Catherine looked ready to strike her.
Vivian continued.
“He said Catherine couldn't keep the baby.”
“So you took him?”
“I couldn't have children yet.”
Richard stared.
“You told me you miscarried.”
Vivian looked at him.
“I did.”
“When?”
“Six months earlier.”
Adrian understood slowly.
Vivian lost a pregnancy.
Catherine gave birth soon after.
Their father saw a solution.
Catherine's child became Vivian's.
Except Adrian had never known an older brother.
“Where was Lucas when I was born?”
Vivian sat down.
For the first time, she looked old.
“He was sent to boarding school.”
Richard stared.
“You told me he was your cousin's child.”
“I know.”
Adrian felt sick.
“You raised another child in this family and then erased him?”
“No.”
“He disappeared before I was old enough to remember him.”
Vivian looked down.
“When Lucas was twelve, Father moved him to Switzerland.”
Catherine whispered:
“Why?”
Vivian looked at her.
“Because he discovered the adoption papers.”
The phone remained silent.
Lucas was listening.
“He confronted Father,” Vivian continued.
“Father told him Catherine had abandoned him.”
Catherine made a broken sound.
“He told Lucas I took him in out of charity.”
Lucas finally spoke.
“That part I remember.”
Vivian closed her eyes.
“Lucas hated me after that.”
“You lied to me.”
“I was protecting you.”
Lucas laughed bitterly.
“Do you say anything else?”
Noah looked up at Adrian.
Adrian felt the weight of that sentence.
Every generation.
Same justification.
Protection.
Always meaning control.
Lucas continued.
“When Grandfather died, you cut me out.”
“You left.”
“You threatened to have me arrested.”
“You stole company documents.”
“I copied them.”
Richard looked interested.
“What documents?”
Lucas went silent.
Adrian stared at the phone.
“The shell-company records?”
Another pause.
“Who told you?”
“My father.”
Lucas's tone changed.
“Richard is alive?”
Adrian looked at him.
Richard nodded.
Adrian answered:
“Yes.”
The silence on the line became total.
Lucas finally whispered:
“That son of a bitch.”
Richard winced.
Adrian almost smiled despite everything.
Lucas continued.
“I spent fifteen years trying to prove Vivian and Grandfather were laundering company money.”
Vivian snapped:
“We were not laundering money.”
Lucas laughed.
“Hello, Mother.”
Catherine looked ill at the word.
Vivian stood.
“The accounts were designed for political contributions.”
“Illegal contributions.”
“Strategic contributions.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Of course.
Even crimes became business language.
Lucas said:
“I have the ledgers.”
Richard stared at the phone.
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere Vivian can't reach.”
Scarlett whispered:
“Then why call tonight?”
Lucas answered:
“Because Vivian sent me a message.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Vivian looked confused.
“I didn't.”
Lucas laughed.
“Your number.”
Scarlett checked the recovered phone logs.
“What did it say?”
Lucas replied:
COME HOME. ADRIAN SIGNS TONIGHT. AFTERWARD WE FIX THE SUCCESSION.
Adrian stared at Vivian.
She looked genuinely surprised.
Catherine whispered:
“I didn't send it.”
Richard looked around the room.
“Someone wanted Lucas here.”
Adrian felt cold.
“Why?”
Scarlett looked at the trust codicil.
“If Lucas is Catherine's biological son…”
She began calculating.
“He is also a Sterling descendant.”
Richard nodded.
“And older than Scarlett.”
Adrian's pulse accelerated.
“So if Noah is excluded…”
“Lucas could challenge Scarlett.”
Vivian whispered:
“No.”
Scarlett looked at her.
“You didn't plan that?”
“No.”
For the first time, Adrian believed her.
Someone had hijacked Vivian's scheme.
Someone knew about Lucas.
Knew about Scarlett.
Knew about Noah's conception.
Knew Richard was alive.
And wanted every potential heir in the same place.
Adrian looked toward Catherine.
“You?”
She shook her head.
Richard.
He shook his head.
Scarlett.
“No.”
Then Noah whispered:
“The man.”
Adrian looked down.
“What man?”
“At Grandma's office.”
Vivian went still.
“What man?”
Noah frowned.
“He had the funny ring.”
Adrian crouched.
“Who?”
“The man who gave Grandma the red papers.”
Everyone stared at Vivian.
She looked horrified.
“No one gave me those.”
Noah shook his head.
“I saw him.”
“When?”
“Before Grandma put me outside.”
Adrian's heart pounded.
“What did he look like?”
“Old.”
“Hair?”
“White.”
“Tall?”
Noah shrugged.
“He had a lion ring.”
Richard's face drained.
Catherine grabbed the back of a chair.
Vivian whispered:
“No.”
Adrian looked between them.
“What?”
Richard's voice was barely audible.
“My father wore a gold lion signet ring.”
Adrian stared.
“Your father is dead.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Twenty-three years ago.”
Noah shook his head.
“I saw him.”
Vivian rushed forward.
“You saw a ring. That's all.”
Noah backed into Adrian.
Adrian lifted him immediately.
Richard looked toward the hallway.
“My father's ring was buried with him.”
Catherine whispered:
“No.”
Everyone turned.
She looked at Vivian.
“You didn't bury it.”
Vivian said nothing.
Catherine's face changed.
“You gave it to him.”
Adrian's pulse quickened.
“To who?”
Catherine stared at her sister.
“The only man Father trusted more than his own children.”
Richard whispered the name.
“Edmund Shaw.”
Adrian knew it.
Every Sterling did.
Edmund Shaw had served as family attorney for forty-five years.
He had drafted the original trust.
He was eighty-one.
Retired.
And according to Vivian—
too ill to attend tonight's gala.
Scarlett went pale.
“He trained me.”
Adrian stared.
“What?”
“When Vivian hired me, Edmund supervised my review of the trust.”
Richard looked horrified.
“He knows every succession weakness.”
Scarlett nodded.
“He knows all of them.”
Adrian's phone buzzed.
A security-camera alert.
Movement detected in the east office.
Everyone looked toward the dark corridor.
Adrian opened the live feed.
An elderly man in a black tuxedo stood inside Vivian's office.
White hair.
Straight posture.
Gold lion ring.
Edmund Shaw looked directly into the hidden security camera.
Then smiled.
In one hand, he held a red folder.
May you like
In the other—
a lit match.
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