Chapter 13: A Ghost from the Past
With Victoria in custody and Madison awaiting her sentencing, the Harrington estate was finally quiet. But the silence wasn't entirely peaceful. There was a lingering shadow over the company, a loose thread from my mother's past that I still hadn't pulled.
I sat in the center of the grand library at the estate, moonlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Spread across the massive oak table were Clara's old engineering journals and Victoria's original legal filings from twenty years ago.
"Arthur," I murmured, tracing a line of signatures on a yellowed contract. "Victoria was brilliant, but she wasn't an engineer. She couldn't have successfully transferred my mother's patents and integrated them into Harrington's legacy systems without technical help. Someone on the inside had to sign off on the technical handover."
Arthur, who was polishing a set of silver tea cups by the fireplace, paused. "You suspect an accomplice, Miss Emily?"
"Look at this," I said, sliding the document toward him. "The technical integration sign-off. The signature is mostly illegible, heavily redacted in the official company archives. But my mother kept a photocopy of the original."
Arthur adjusted his spectacles and leaned over the document. His eyes narrowed. "That... that is an old signature, but the loops on the letters are distinct. It belongs to Robert Sterling."
"Mr. Sterling," I breathed, sitting back in my chair.
Robert Sterling. The oldest member of the board of directors. The man who had feigned absolute shock and disgust when I exposed Victoria in the boardroom. He had played the innocent victim perfectly.
"He was the Head of Research and Development twenty years ago," Arthur recalled, a deep frown settling on his weathered face. "He was the one who claimed Clara's microchip designs were unstable, allowing Victoria the legal loophole to seize control of them for 'company safety.' They worked together."
A cold, calculating fury settled over me. Sterling had sat in my boardroom, smiling at me, pretending to be my ally, while knowing he was one of the men who drove my mother to ruin.
"He thinks he's safe," I said softly, picking up my phone. "He thinks Victoria is taking the fall for all of it. We need to draw him out before he realizes we have the original document."
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"How do you propose we do that, Miss Emily?"
A dangerous smile touched my lips. "We give him exactly what he wants. Power. Call Mr. Whitmore. Tell him I want to announce my search for a new Chief Operating Officer at tomorrow's executive meeting. And tell him to heavily imply to Mr. Sterling that he is my top choice."
