Chapter 10 - THE HOUSE MY FATHER LOCKED
My mother, Evelyn Sterling, died in a boating accident when I was nineteen.
Harbor House had remained closed since the funeral.
I believed my father could not bear to sell it.
The truth was more complicated.
Evelyn had served as legal counsel for several Sterling companies.
Before her death, she investigated irregular investments connected to Nathaniel Brooks.
The same man who created North Harbor Ventures.
My father explained that Evelyn suspected Brooks of using family investment vehicles to hide payments and political influence.
She planned to confront him.
She died the following weekend.
The accident was ruled weather-related.
My father locked the house because her files remained inside.
“Why didn’t you investigate?”
“I did.”
“Privately.”
“That was the mistake.”
He found nothing connecting Brooks to the accident.
He continued working with him because ending the relationship publicly might have destroyed Sterling Capital.
Years later, when I called Brooks for help with NexusCore, my father allowed the investment but monitored it through separate counsel.
Matthew eventually discovered the old files.
The storage unit contained copies.
He believed the originals at Harbor House could implicate my father in financial crimes.
That was his leverage.
Detective Ortiz obtained a warrant.
Police surrounded the property.
Matthew was not there.
Someone had entered recently.
Dust had been disturbed.
My mother’s office safe stood open.
Several folders were missing.
On the desk lay the antique cane’s matching presentation box.
Matthew had brought it there.
Inside was a note.
“Twenty was only the introduction.”
Arthur found an underground tunnel leading from the basement to the shoreline.
Fresh tire tracks marked the boat ramp.
Matthew had escaped by water.
A marina camera captured a boat heading toward Long Island.
Lauren owned the vessel through Larkspur.
She had claimed not to know Matthew’s location.
Detective Ortiz confronted her with the footage.
Lauren asked for a deal.
She offered Matthew’s offshore accounts, private phones, and hiding places.
In return, she wanted reduced charges and protection for her son.
The prosecutor refused to guarantee an outcome.
Lauren cooperated anyway.
“He will blame me for everything,” she said.
“He already started,” I replied.
Her face tightened.
“He told me you were cruel.”
“He said you mocked him.”
“He said you used your father’s name to control him.”
“He told me my father cut me off.”
Lauren looked surprised.
“He said Richard Sterling called him every month and threatened him.”
“Matthew told each of us the story that made the other woman seem powerful.”
Lauren lowered her head.
May you like
Then she revealed where Matthew was going.
He had arranged to meet Nathaniel Brooks aboard a yacht outside federal waters.
