Chapter 4 - The Sister Christopher Never Knew
Christopher looked at Estelle.
Then at the photograph.
Then back at Estelle.
“No.”
His mother did not move.
Arthur watched silently.
Christopher held the photograph closer.
Estelle was young.
Perhaps twenty-three.
Jonathan looked barely older.
The baby in her arms could not have been more than a few months old.
The handwriting on the back had faded.
Our little Juliette.
Christopher’s voice became hoarse.
“She’s my sister?”
Estelle’s eyes hardened.
“Half sister.”
Christopher stared.
Emma stood beside him.
Yvette slowly guided the child away.
Arthur spoke.
“Take Emma upstairs.”
This time Christopher agreed.
He kissed his daughter’s forehead.
“Stay with Mrs. Sloan.”
Emma looked at Estelle.
“Is Grandma coming?”
“No.”
Emma visibly relaxed.
Christopher noticed.
So did Estelle.
The connecting door closed.
Christopher turned toward his mother.
“You let me become engaged to my sister.”
“Half sister.”
Christopher crossed the room so quickly Gideon stepped between them.
“Do not correct me.”
Estelle flinched.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You knew when I met Juliette?”
“Yes.”
“You knew when you encouraged the relationship?”
“Yes.”
“You attended the engagement dinner.”
“Yes.”
“You helped me choose her ring.”
Estelle looked away.
Christopher shouted.
“You helped me choose her ring!”
Arthur slammed one hand against the wheelchair armrest.
“Enough.”
Christopher rounded on him.
“You don’t get to say enough.”
Arthur fell silent.
Christopher looked at Estelle again.
“Why?”
His voice had broken.
“Why would you do that?”
Estelle answered with terrible calm.
“Because you were never supposed to marry her.”
Christopher stared.
“You expected the engagement to end?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Estelle glanced at Arthur.
Christopher followed her gaze.
Arthur’s expression changed.
“Tell him.”
Estelle refused.
Arthur’s voice became sharper.
“Tell him.”
Estelle finally looked at Christopher.
“You were supposed to discover Juliette was unfaithful.”
Christopher almost laughed.
“That was your plan?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Public sympathy.”
He stared.
Estelle continued.
“Your image had suffered after Rachel.”
“Rachel had been dead six years.”
“People remembered.”
Christopher could barely believe what he was hearing.
“You engineered my engagement to Juliette so you could engineer a betrayal?”
“You needed an acceptable reason to remain unmarried.”
“Why?”
“Because marriage changes inheritance structures.”
There it was.
Again.
Inheritance.
Christopher had spent his entire life surrounded by people who could reduce love, death, children, marriage, loyalty, and murder into financial instruments.
“What inheritance structure?”
Arthur answered.
“The founder’s covenant.”
Christopher looked at him.
“What covenant?”
Arthur laughed bitterly.
“Something my father created because he trusted no one.”
Christopher knew his grandfather, Theodore Pierce, had founded Pierce Industries.
He did not know about a covenant.
Arthur continued.
“Control of the family voting shares passes through direct descendants.”
“I know that.”
“No.”
Arthur looked at him.
“You know the version Estelle allowed you to know.”
Christopher’s eyes narrowed.
“If the current heir has a legally recognized biological child before the heir turns forty-five, control shifts automatically into a protective trust divided between the heir and that child.”
Christopher looked toward the door where Emma had disappeared.
Arthur nodded.
“Emma changed everything the day she was born.”
Christopher whispered.
“She owns part of the voting trust?”
“She will.”
“How much?”
“Forty-nine percent when properly acknowledged.”
Christopher’s heart thudded.
“And me?”
“Fifty-one.”
“What happens if I die?”
Arthur’s eyes shifted to Estelle.
“Emma receives your fifty-one.”
Christopher went cold.
“What happens if Emma dies?”
Arthur said nothing.
Christopher already knew.
“Mother?”
Estelle’s voice was quiet.
“The trust reverts to the collateral family branch.”
“Jonathan.”
“Yes.”
Christopher staggered backward.
Juliette had said it on the recording.
If she stays in the will, none of this will ever belong to us.
Not me.
Us.
Juliette and Jonathan.
And Estelle.
Christopher stared at his mother.
“You weren’t trying to protect my inheritance.”
Estelle’s eyes filled with frustration.
“You oversimplify everything.”
“You wanted Emma removed so Jonathan’s branch would inherit.”
“I wanted stability.”
“You wanted control.”
“I wanted this family to survive.”
“By killing a child?”
“I never told Juliette to kill Emma.”
Arthur laughed.
Estelle spun toward him.
“You find this amusing?”
“No.”
Arthur’s smile vanished.
“I find it predictable.”
Christopher looked at his father.
“You knew all of this?”
“I learned after my stroke.”
“And instead of telling me, you hid underground for eleven years.”
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“I was not hiding.”
“What would you call this?”
“Surviving.”
Arthur lifted his left hand.
It trembled badly.
“My stroke was not natural.”
Christopher stopped.
Halden closed his eyes.
Christopher looked at him.
“What happened?”
The doctor spoke reluctantly.
“Arthur was poisoned.”
Estelle snapped.
“That is speculation.”
Halden looked at her.
“You paid me to alter the blood report.”
Christopher stared at his mother.
Estelle’s control finally shattered.
“You miserable coward.”
Halden’s face reddened.
“You threatened my children.”
“And you took the money anyway.”
“I took the money because I was terrified of you.”
Christopher stepped closer to Halden.
“What poison?”
“A blood-thinning compound combined with medication that elevated his blood pressure.”
“Could it cause a stroke?”
“Yes.”
“Who administered it?”
Halden looked at Estelle.
Estelle shook her head.
“You cannot prove anything.”
Arthur laughed quietly.
“That phrase has protected you for decades.”
Christopher’s head began to pound.
Rachel.
Arthur.
Emma.
Three people.
Three threats to the Pierce inheritance.
One dead.
One hidden.
One nearly drowned.
Christopher looked at Gideon.
“Call the police.”
Estelle stepped forward.
“You cannot.”
“Watch me.”
“You call the police and this family becomes a public crime scene.”
“It already is.”
“The company will collapse.”
“I don’t care.”
“Twenty-seven thousand people work for Pierce companies.”
Christopher paused.
Estelle saw hesitation and moved closer.
“Factories.”
“Pensions.”
“Healthcare.”
“Families who have nothing to do with us.”
“You think exposing this only punishes me?”
“It punishes every employee whose retirement depends on stability.”
Arthur’s voice cut through the room.
“She has used that speech since 1998.”
Estelle turned.
“And it was true then too.”
Christopher took out his phone.
No signal underground.
“Gideon.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go upstairs.”
Estelle looked at the security chief.
“If you make that call, your career is over.”
Gideon stared at her.
“I watched Mr. Pierce pull his daughter out of a swimming pool because your other daughter tried to kill her.”
Estelle’s face tightened.
Gideon continued.
“I’ll risk the career.”
He left.
Estelle’s breathing quickened.
Christopher noticed.
“You’re not worried about the company.”
“I am.”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“You’re worried about police searching the house.”
Estelle’s eyes flicked toward Arthur.
Again.
Too fast.
But Christopher saw it.
“What else is here?”
Nothing.
“Mother.”
Estelle remained silent.
Arthur answered.
“Records.”
Christopher turned.
“What records?”
“Everything.”
Arthur looked toward a locked door at the back of the underground room.
“Your grandfather kept copies of every transaction.”
Christopher walked toward it.
Estelle moved faster.
“No.”
Christopher stopped.
That one word told him enough.
Arthur removed a key from around his neck.
He tossed it.
Christopher caught it.
Estelle’s face went pale.
“Arthur.”
“What?”
“You promised.”
Arthur looked at her.
“I promised to keep quiet as long as Christopher and Emma were safe.”
He pointed toward the ceiling.
“Your daughter threw our granddaughter into a pool.”
Estelle whispered.
“She panicked.”
Christopher stared.
“Panicked?”
“She misunderstood what was expected.”
Christopher felt sick.
“Expected?”
Estelle realized her mistake.
Christopher slowly walked toward her.
“What was expected?”
“Nothing.”
“You said Juliette misunderstood what was expected.”
“I misspoke.”
“Expected by whom?”
Estelle backed away.
Christopher grabbed the locked door handle.
“What was Juliette supposed to do?”
Estelle’s voice disappeared.
Arthur answered for her.
“She was supposed to get Emma declared psychologically unstable.”
Christopher turned.
Arthur continued.
“Then remove her from Pierce House.”
“Where?”
“A private residential facility.”
Christopher stared.
“For a seven-year-old?”
Estelle snapped.
“It was a therapeutic school.”
Arthur laughed.
“It was a psychiatric institution in another country.”
Christopher looked at his mother.
“What country?”
Estelle did not answer.
Arthur did.
“Switzerland.”
Christopher went cold.
The same country where Arthur had supposedly died.
He unlocked the records room.
Rows of filing cabinets filled the space.
Shelves.
Boxes.
Old tapes.
Hard drives.
Financial documents.
Christopher stepped inside.
One drawer was labeled MONROE, RACHEL.
He stopped breathing.
Estelle appeared behind him.
“Christopher.”
He pulled the drawer open.
Photographs.
Medical files.
Bank statements.
Private investigator reports.
And surveillance pictures.
Rachel at grocery stores.
Rachel outside her apartment.
Rachel carrying infant Emma.
Rachel meeting with an attorney.
Christopher’s hands began shaking.
Then he found a photograph taken on the morning Rachel died.
She was walking beside a man.
Christopher recognized him.
The man had attended Rachel’s funeral.
He had introduced himself as Daniel Monroe.
Rachel’s older brother.
Christopher remembered him blaming Christopher for abandoning her.
He remembered the hatred.
He remembered Daniel disappearing after the funeral.
Christopher turned the photograph over.
A handwritten note covered the back.
D.M. CONFIRMED COOPERATING.
PAYMENT AUTHORIZED.
Christopher stared.
“Daniel worked for you?”
Estelle said nothing.
Arthur’s voice came from behind them.
“He sold his sister.”
Christopher felt nauseated.
“For what?”
“Three million dollars.”
Christopher looked at the surveillance photo again.
“Where is he?”
Arthur hesitated.
Christopher noticed.
“Where is Daniel Monroe?”
Arthur’s eyes moved toward Halden.
The doctor whispered.
“Christopher…”
“Where is he?”
Halden swallowed.
“Daniel is the man who took Emma from the library.”
Christopher’s head snapped toward him.
“No.”
“You didn’t recognize him.”
“Because he was wearing a mask.”
“No.”
Halden shook his head.
“Because he changed his name.”
Christopher stared.
Arthur finished the sentence.
“You know him as Gideon Shaw.”
Silence.
Christopher slowly looked toward the empty doorway.
Gideon had just gone upstairs.
Alone.
To call the police.
And Emma was upstairs too.
May you like
Christopher ran.
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