Chapter 3 - CLAIRE’S RING
Isabella slowly covered the sapphire with her other hand.
“It was in the family safe.”
“No,” William said.
“I watched Claire’s coffin close.”
“You told me the funeral director placed it on her hand.”
Isabella’s expression tightened.
“The funeral director returned it afterward.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I knew how much pain it carried.”
“So you wore it?”
A murmur moved through the guests.
Isabella looked toward the security guards.
“Remove Emma.”
“No one moves,” William said.
His voice cut across the hallway.
The guards stopped.
Ethan clung to Emma.
William approached slowly.
“Son, I need you to come to me.”
Ethan looked at Isabella.
“She said you didn’t want me.”
William’s face broke.
“I never said that.”
“She showed me papers.”
“What papers?”
“She said you signed them.”
Isabella interrupted.
“He is heavily medicated.”
“He does not understand what he saw.”
Emma looked toward the IV tube.
“What did you give him?”
Dr. Wells stepped forward.
“A mild sedative.”
“For five days?”
The doctor did not answer.
William’s head turned sharply.
“Five days?”
Emma pulled the empty medication bag from beneath Ethan’s blanket.
“There were several bags inside the wall.”
“The labels were removed.”
William looked at his physician.
“What was in them?”
Dr. Wells swallowed.
“William, this is not the proper place.”
“My son was sealed behind my basement wall.”
“This is exactly the place.”
The ballroom doors opened.
Two emergency medical technicians entered.
Emma had pressed the mansion’s silent medical alert while climbing the stairs.
William allowed them through.
One paramedic examined Ethan’s pupils.
The other checked the bruises around his wrists.
“We need to transport him immediately.”
Isabella blocked the stretcher.
“I am his legal guardian.”
William stared at her.
“No.”
“I am his father.”
“You signed temporary medical authority three days ago.”
She removed a folded document from her dress.
William took it.
His signature appeared at the bottom.
“I never signed this.”
Dr. Wells looked away.
William noticed.
“You forged it.”
Isabella’s calm finally cracked.
“I prevented you from making an emotional mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“Keeping a disturbed child in this house.”
Ethan began crying again.
William stepped toward Isabella.
“You locked my son underground.”
“He is not your son.”
The words escaped before she could stop them.
William became still.
Emma felt Ethan stop breathing against her shoulder.
Isabella realized what she had said.
Then she smiled.
A crueler version of her polished ballroom smile.
“Claire lied to you.”
William’s face turned white.
Isabella continued.
“Ethan is not a Sterling.”
“Dr. Wells has the test results.”
William looked at the doctor.
“Is that true?”
Wells opened his mouth.
A loud crash came from the ballroom.
Every chandelier went dark.
Emergency lights flashed red.
The projection screen above the dance floor lowered automatically.
A video appeared.
Claire Sterling sat inside her bedroom.
She wore the sapphire ring.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
“If William is seeing this, then Isabella has already told him Ethan is not his child.”
Isabella looked toward the screen in horror.
“Turn it off.”
Claire continued.
“The DNA report is fake.”
May you like
“Dr. Wells made it for her.”
“And if anything happens to me, Isabella is responsible.”
