Chapter 20 - THE NAME BENEATH MAYA’S
Maya read the will again.
I leave equal control of the Cross Legacy Trust to my grandchildren, Amelia Evelyn Cross and Julian Alexander Cross.
She looked at Vance.
“I have a brother?”
Evelyn sat in a wheelchair beside the archive table.
Her face had gone pale.
“I thought he died.”
“When?”
“Before the convoy attack.”
She explained that she gave birth to a son three years before Maya.
The child developed a severe infection.
Charles Sterling arranged private treatment.
Days later, doctors told Evelyn the boy had died.
There was no body.
No grave.
Only documents signed by a physician later connected to Vaughn.
The pattern was painfully familiar.
Children declared dead.
Children moved.
Children turned into leverage.
Agent Brooks opened a new investigation.
DNA databases were searched.
Hospital files were recovered.
A birth record showed Julian Cross had been transferred under another name.
The adoptive family was listed as confidential.
But a payment record led to the Sterling family.
Maya’s breath caught.
“Victoria took him?”
Vance examined the file.
“No.”
“Charles did.”
Charles Sterling had raised Julian under a different identity.
Not as a son.
As a company ward educated through Sterling scholarships.
The child grew into an adult and later joined Sterling Holdings.
Agent Brooks turned the final page.
A photograph appeared.
Maya recognized him immediately.
He had been standing in the banquet hall on the night Victoria slapped her.
He was one of Ethan’s closest business advisers.
His name was Lucas Vale.
Lucas had left the ballroom during the blackout.
He had not been seen since.
Maya remembered him watching when the medal fell.
He had not looked surprised.
He had looked relieved.
Vance searched Lucas’s company records.
He controlled several offshore entities tied to the missing Cross money.
He had known his identity for at least ten years.
“He was inside Sterling Holdings,” Maya said.
“He could have exposed them.”
“Why didn’t he?”
Ethan answered from the doorway.
“Because Lucas did not want justice.”
“He wanted the company.”
Maya turned.
Ethan handed her a message received minutes earlier.
It was from Lucas.
Sister.
You inherited a name you never earned.
I survived the family that abandoned us.
The Cross fortune belongs to me.
A second message arrived.
It contained a live video.
Lucas stood inside the desert house where Evelyn had been imprisoned.
Behind him were rows of sealed military containers.
He held Maya’s original red blanket in one hand.
In the other was a photograph of Rose sleeping inside Maya’s home.
Maya’s blood turned cold.
Rose was currently with a federal protection team.
At least, she was supposed to be.
Agent Brooks called the security detail.
No one answered.
Lucas smiled at the camera.
“Victoria thought the banquet ended when the doors were locked.”
“She was wrong.”
“That was only the moment I knew you had finally come home.”
The video shifted.
Rose’s empty crib appeared on-screen.
Maya ran toward the door.
Another message arrived before she reached it.
BRING THE MEDAL.
COME ALONE.
May you like
OR THE CROSS FAMILY LOSES ANOTHER CHILD.
TOBE CONTINUED
