Chapter 4 - The Price of Pride
Back in the Sterling corporate headquarters, the morning sun rose over the glass spires of the city without offering any warmth to the executive floor.
Daniel sat behind his sprawling mahogany desk, his tuxedo replaced by a crumpled dress shirt, his tie hanging loose around his collar. Empty coffee cups littered the desk beside a dozen private investigator dossiers. Across from him sat Marcus Vance, his chief of personal security and a former federal investigator.
"What do you mean, there's no trace?" Daniel roared, slamming his fist onto the mahogany. "A woman eight months pregnant does not evaporate into thin air in the middle of a metropolitan city! She had no passport, no car, no credit cards!"
"Which is precisely why she's impossible to track through standard financial surveillance, Mr. Sterling," Marcus replied calmly, completely unfazed by Daniel's outburst. "Her bank accounts haven't been touched. Her phone was discovered in the rear seat of a hired rideshare that went around the city block three times and dropped the device in a trash can near Central Station. It was a planned diversion."
Daniel raked his fingers through his unwashed hair. "Planned? She planned this?"
"For at least six weeks," Marcus confirmed, opening a blue folder. "Subtle cash withdrawals from grocery stores over the past three months. Small sums—two hundred dollars here, three hundred there. Completely invisible against your family's daily expenses. Whoever helped her knew exactly how our surveillance networks operate."
The office door opened, and Evelyn walked in, wearing an immaculate ivory pantsuit. She carried a leather-bound folio and a file containing the morning's financial news.
"Daniel, you need to look at the market," Evelyn said smoothly, setting the papers down. "Someone leaked the scene at the gala to the press. The headlines are already claiming the Sterling heir's mother has fled due to marital infidelity. The stock dropped four percent at opening bell. We need to release a statement saying Amy is taking medical bedrest at a private family estate."
Daniel looked at Evelyn. For the first time in three years, the veil of her calculated charm was completely transparent to him. Every word out of her mouth was about protection, but never about Amy. Never about the child. It was always about the brand, the shares, the image.
"Did you know?" Daniel asked, his voice low and dangerous.
Evelyn paused, tilting her head. "Know what, Daniel?"
"Did you know she had a high-risk diagnosis?" Daniel slid the red-stamped hospital slip across the desk. "She went to the clinic inside the medical center your family owns. You oversee all executive medical clearances."
Evelyn's eyes flickered, just for a fraction of a second, before settling back into practiced innocence. "Daniel, thousands of files cross my desk. I don't micromanage your wife's prenatal appointments."
"Get out," Daniel said.
"Daniel, be reasonable—"
"I said get out of my office!" he screamed, sweeping the coffee cups and dossiers off his desk in a single violent motion. Ceramic shattered against the Italian marble.
Evelyn's mouth tightened into a thin, venomous line. She didn't flinch. She picked up her leather folio, turned on her heel, and walked out without another word.
Just as the heavy doors clicked shut, Daniel’s personal phone buzzed on the floor among the broken ceramic. The screen showed an unregistered private number from a regional hospital code three counties north.
May you like
He lunged for it, his hands shaking as he hit accept. "Amy?"
A harsh, unfamiliar voice answered: "Is this Daniel Sterling? We have an Jane Doe admitted via emergency helicopter under your corporate insurance override. You need to come now. We cannot find the fetal heartbeat."
