Chapter 5 - What Octavia Was Afraid OfOctavia looked smaller in the interview room.
Without the mansion around her, she seemed less powerful.
Sterling sat across from her.
Detective Brooks remained beside the door.
“You hit my son.”
Octavia looked down.
Sterling waited.
No excuse came.
Finally:
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I lost my temper.”
“He’s one.”
“I know.”
“Did you hit him before?”
Her eyes shifted.
Sterling caught it.
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
His fists tightened under the table.
Lena spoke.
“Mr. Hale.”
A warning.
Sterling breathed.
Octavia whispered:
“Not often.”
“That answer is worse.”
“I know.”
Sterling stared at her.
“Now tell me about Vivian.”
Octavia looked toward the observation glass.
“She paid me.”
“For what?”
“To report on the boys.”
Sterling went cold.
“How long?”
“Since Caroline died.”
“Report what?”
“Your travel.”
“Callum’s school.”
“Bennett’s appointments.”
“Who visited.”
“How much time you spent home.”
Sterling stared.
“You were building a custody case.”
Octavia nodded.
“She said Bennett belonged with Caroline’s family.”
“And Callum?”
Octavia hesitated.
Sterling’s voice hardened.
“What about my older son?”
“Vivian said Callum complicated things.”
“Because Caroline adopted him.”
“Yes.”
Sterling sat back.
There it was.
“Where were you supposed to take them?”
“Two places.”
He stopped.
“What?”
Octavia’s voice became smaller.
“Bennett was going to Vivian’s estate in Connecticut.”
“And Callum?”
Silence.
“Octavia.”
“A school.”
“What school?”
“North Ridge.”
Sterling frowned.
He knew the name.
Private residential behavioral program in upstate New York.
“Callum doesn’t have behavioral problems.”
“I know.”
“You were going to put my eleven-year-old in a residential program?”
“I wasn’t supposed to keep him there.”
“What does that mean?”
“Vivian’s lawyer said the separation would be temporary.”
Sterling laughed in disbelief.
“You believed that?”
“No.”
“Then why agree?”
Octavia’s face crumpled.
“Because she knew what I’d done.”
“After Caroline died.”
Octavia looked at him.
Sterling remembered her words on camera.
Vivian will tell the police what I did after Caroline died.
“What did you do?”
Octavia began crying.
Not dramatically this time.
“I changed a document.”
“What document?”
“Caroline’s medical release.”
Sterling frowned.
“Why?”
“Vivian asked me to.”
“When?”
“The night Caroline died.”
Sterling went still.
“Explain.”
Octavia swallowed.
“Caroline had been seeing a therapist.”
Sterling knew.
Grief after Bennett’s difficult birth.
Anxiety.
Nothing secret.
“Vivian wanted access to the notes.”
“Why?”
“She believed Caroline had said things about the trust.”
Sterling stared.
“You forged my wife’s signature?”
Octavia nodded.
“I signed a release.”
“After she was dead?”
“Yes.”
Lena immediately began writing.
Sterling’s voice dropped.
“What did Vivian find?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I swear.”
Octavia shook her head.
“She never showed me.”
“Then what does she have on you?”
“The forgery.”
Sterling leaned closer.
“You abused my children because you were afraid Vivian would expose a forged medical release?”
Octavia cried.
“No.”
“Then why?”
“I hated Callum.”
Silence.
Even Lena stopped writing.
Octavia looked ashamed.
“He watched everything.”
Sterling stared.
“What?”
“He noticed every time I changed something.”
“When I moved Caroline’s things.”
“When Vivian called.”
“When I took papers.”
“He kept asking questions.”
“So you punished Bennett?”
Octavia looked sick.
“I was angry.”
Sterling stood.
He could not remain seated.
Lena moved closer.
Octavia said:
“Vivian told me none of it would matter after tomorrow.”
Sterling turned.
“What was tomorrow?”
“The emergency hearing.”
“What hearing?”
“She filed for temporary guardianship.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Octavia shook her head.
“That petition is only the first one.”
Sterling stared.
“There’s another filing.”
“What?”
“To challenge Callum’s adoption.”
His face went blank.
Octavia continued:
“If the adoption is invalidated, Callum loses his claim under Caroline’s trust.”
Sterling’s jaw tightened.
“And Bennett?”
“Vivian becomes temporary guardian.”
“Meaning she controls Bennett’s trust.”
“Yes.”
Lena asked:
“How much?”
Octavia whispered:
“Not eighty million.”
Sterling looked at her.
“What?”
“That was Caroline’s personal estate.”
Octavia swallowed.
“Her Mercer shares were transferred separately.”
“How much are they worth?”
Octavia looked at Sterling.
“Vivian said if she controls Bennett’s shares…”
Pause.
“…she controls Mercer Hospitality.”
Sterling had known Caroline owned family stock.
He had never asked the exact percentage.
Caroline hated discussing money.
“How much?”
Octavia answered:
“Forty-one percent.”
Sterling stopped breathing.
That was enough to control the family company if combined with Vivian’s existing shares.
This wasn’t only custody.
It was corporate control.
“Where’s the blue envelope?”
Octavia looked toward Lena.
Then back to Sterling.
“I gave it to Vivian.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
“How?”
“She sent someone.”
“Who?”
Octavia hesitated.
Then said a name Sterling did not expect.
“Your attorney.”
Sterling stared.
“My attorney?”
“Grant Holloway.”
For fifteen years, Grant had handled Sterling’s business.
His will.
Caroline’s estate.
Callum’s adoption.
Everything.
Sterling felt cold.
May you like
Octavia whispered:
“Vivian didn’t build this alone.”
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