Chapter 9 - The Ghost in the Ledger
Claire froze, the breath catching in her throat. Her gaze dropped to the spilled leather briefcase on the cabin floor. Among the stacks of currency lay a battered crimson notebook stamped with the initials E.S.—her mother, Eleanor Sterling, who had passed away five years prior.
Pierce’s eyes darkened. He knelt down, picked up the crimson ledger, and flipped through the handwritten pages. The signatures, the account numbers, and the dates were undeniably Eleanor's.
""What is this?"" Pierce demanded, his voice dangerously low.
Derek chuckled through his bruised lips, his cheek pressed firmly against the carpet. ""Eleanor wasn't the saint you thought she was, Pierce. She gambled tens of millions through clandestine gaming houses in Macau and Monaco before she died. She borrowed nine million from the Corsican underworld to cover her tracks, using Claire's trust as collateral.""
Derek raised his eyes, glaring venomously at Claire. ""I didn't steal your money to buy yachts, you pathetic fool. The Corsicans were coming to butcher you and that brat in your sleep! I transferred the nine hundred and twenty thousand as a down payment to keep their enforcers away!""
Claire stumbled back, her hand over her mouth. ""No... that's a lie. Mom would never...""
""She did,"" Derek hissed. ""And guess what? Because you froze my accounts tonight, the wire bounced. The syndicate didn't get their payment.""
Marcus Cross quickly scanned a contract pulled from the briefcase, his face turning completely ashen. He looked up at Pierce.
""Mr. Sterling,"" Marcus whispered gravely. ""The debt documentation is authentic. Eleanor executed a secondary lien against Claire’s estate under French private law.""
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Suddenly, the lights inside the private hangar blinked and died, plunging the runway and the jet into pitch darkness.
The low hum of approaching motorcycles roared from the perimeter fence.
