Chapter 16 - The Bloodline Ledger
"Put it down, darling," Victoria said, stepping gracefully around the shattered glass.
Deputy Vance stepped into the kitchen, his shotgun barrel never wavering from Maya’s temple.
Maya’s fingers unclenched. The Glock fell to the floor with a hollow thud.
Vance immediately kicked it across the room into the dark corridor.
"Good girl," Victoria murmured, pulling off her leather gloves finger by finger.
Arthur walked over to Victoria, placing a possessive hand on the small of her back.
The woman who had tried to drown Maya on her wedding day leaned into the touch of the man she had supposedly murdered twenty years ago.
"You two were working together the entire time," Maya whispered, her mind racing to connect the horrifying pieces.
"Of course we were," Victoria scoffed, looking at Maya like a smudge of dirt on her shoe.
"Did you really think a dynasty like Sterling Enterprises lets seventy billion dollars slip into public trusts?"
"Julian signed the dissolution papers!" Maya countered, her voice trembling. "The assets went to renewable energy!"
Arthur laughed—a low, rumbling sound that vibrated through the quiet cottage.
"Julian signed what we told him to sign," Arthur said, looking down at his son with cold pity.
"The public trust was established in the Cayman Islands under a shell corporation owned by Vance Holdings."
Arthur reached into his coat and produced a thick, leather-bound ledger with brass corners.
"Sterling Enterprises didn't dissolve, Maya. It simply shed its public skin."
"Then why did you push me off the boat?" Maya demanded, turning her furious gaze back onto Victoria.
"If you had everything, why try to kill me?"
Victoria’s painted lips curled into a sneer of pure venom.
"Because Arthur’s will had a fatal clause," Victoria hissed, stepping closer until Maya could smell the mint on her breath.
"Arthur’s biological father wasn't an aristocrat. He was an immigrant dockworker from Boston named Lin."
Maya staggered backward against the kitchen counter, the breath completely knocked out of her lungs.
"Lin..." she whispered, her vision blurring.
"Your grandfather was Arthur’s secret half-brother," Victoria said, her eyes flashing with cold rage.
"When Arthur faked his death, his original trust mandated that seventy percent of the empire would bypass me and Julian..."
Victoria leaned in so close her nose almost brushed Maya’s cheek.
"...and pass directly to the oldest living descendant of the Lin bloodline."
"Me," Maya breathed, tears of sheer shock stinging her eyes.
"You," Victoria mocked. "A penniless little graphic designer who didn't even know she was an heiress."
"Julian knew," Maya said, turning her horrified gaze toward the man she loved.
Julian slowly lifted his head, his face bruised, his dark eyes filled with a torment that tore Maya's heart into shreds.
"I didn't know at first, Maya," Julian whispered, his voice cracking with emotion.
"They sent me to find you. They told me to marry you so the trust would merge under our joint names."
"And then?" Maya asked, her voice a fragile, dying ember. "What was supposed to happen after the wedding?"
Julian closed his eyes, unable to look into her face.
"After the marriage was certified," Arthur said with sickening calm, "the bride was supposed to have a tragic accident at sea."
Arthur pulled a silver syringe from his pocket, the clear liquid inside catching the pale moonlight.
"Victoria botched it on the yacht. She got emotional. She pushed you too early, before the paperwork cleared."
Arthur tapped the side of the syringe with his fingernail.
May you like
"Tonight, we do it properly."
***
