Chapter 15 - The Sterling LockdownWithin eleven minutes, my estate became a military compound.
My father deployed two additional executive protection teams around the property.
Every employee was screened.
Every vehicle searched.
Every electronic access point isolated.
Aria slept peacefully upstairs, completely unaware that forty armed security professionals had transformed her home into a fortress.
I stood beside her crib.
For the first time since Dominic's betrayal, I felt genuine fear.
Not for myself.
For her.
My father entered quietly.
“I've arranged transportation.”
“Where?”
“Switzerland.”
I turned around.
“No.”
“Vivienne—”
“I am not hiding my daughter halfway across the world every time somebody threatens this family.”
“This isn't Dominic.”
“I know.”
“That should make you more afraid.”
Instead, it made me angry.
I walked toward him.
“You spent my entire childhood teaching me that Sterling never negotiates from fear.”
His expression tightened.
“So don't ask me to start now.”
An hour later, Parker arrived carrying preliminary findings.
He placed a folder on the dining table.
“We traced the phone.”
“To whom?”
“Disposable device. But the photographs were uploaded through a private server registered to a holding company.”
“Name?”
Parker looked directly at my father.
“Vale Strategic Capital.”
My father went completely still.
I opened the folder.
The company had been incorporated eighteen months earlier.
Its managing director was listed as:
Adrian Vale.
Age thirty-four.
Investment strategist.
London.
Son of Daniel Vale.
My father whispered the name.
“Adrian.”
“You know him?”
May you like
“No.”
“Apparently,” Parker said quietly, “he knows you.”
Related Stories
