Chapter 1: The Echo of the Past
The voice that cut through the stunned silence of the Sterling Tower lobby didn’t belong to the woman I expected.
“Step away from the children, Alex.”
I froze, the wrinkled envelope still clutched in my trembling hand. I looked up to see Victoria Vance walking briskly across the marble floor. Victoria was my chief legal counsel, a brilliant, cutthroat attorney, and for the last two years, the woman my family—and the media—assumed I would eventually marry. Behind her stood three stone-faced security guards.
“Victoria? What is the meaning of this?” I demanded, slowly rising to my feet, keeping Lucas and Noah instinctively behind my back.
“I’m protecting you, Alex,” Victoria said, her eyes flashing with a mix of anger and calculation as she glared at the two boys. “Look at the scene they’re causing. This is a corporate headquarters, not a daycare. And frankly, it looks like a textbook extortion plot. Security, take the children to the holding room upstairs until Child Protective Services arrives.”
“No!” Noah cried out, gripping the fabric of my trousers. Lucas buried his face into my side. The sheer terror in their voices snapped something inside me.
“Stand down!” I roared, my voice echoing off the glass walls. The security guards immediately stopped. I had never raised my voice like that in my own building. I looked down at Victoria, my expression icy. “Nobody touches them. Margaret, clear my schedule for the rest of the day. Secure my private elevator. We are going to my office.”
As I led the boys away, I finally looked down at the paper I had pulled from the envelope. It wasn’t a long letter. It was a birth certificate. Two of them. Born exactly seven years ago in a small town in Maine.
The mother’s name: Elena Wright.
My chest tightened so hard I could barely breathe. Elena. The girl from my college days, the artist who loved rainy days, the only woman I had ever truly given my heart to before my family’s pressure and my own obsession with building an empire drove her away eight years ago.
But it was the bottom of the page that made the room spin. Under the section for Father, the name printed in bold ink was: Alexander Sterling.
Once inside the safety of my top-floor office, the boys immediately ran to the floor-to-ceiling windows, marveling at the yellow cabs below, their fears instantly forgotten with the fleeting attention span of seven-year-olds.
“They have your eyes, Alex,” Margaret whispered gently from the doorway before closing it to give us privacy.
I sat at my desk, my mind racing. Seven years old. The accident that supposedly left me sterile happened three years ago. If Elena had gotten pregnant right before we broke up... mathematically, it was possible. They were conceived before the tragedy on the rain-soaked highway.
“Hey,” I called out softly. Lucas and Noah turned around. “Where is your Mama? Why did she send you here alone?”
Lucas reached into his small backpack and pulled out a second piece of paper, folded into a tight square. “Mama said we had to be brave. She said some bad men were looking for her, and that Sterling Tower was the safest place in the world because you own it.”
My blood ran cold. I unfolded the note. Elena’s elegant handwriting was frantic, the ink smeared in places as if written in a hurry.
Alex, I am so sorry. I never wanted to drag you into our reality, but I have no choice. They found us. If they take me, they will use the boys to get to you. Please, protect our sons. Don’t trust anyone. Not even your own circle. I love you.
Before I could process the threat, my office door burst open. Victoria walked in, holding a tablet. Her face was pale, but her eyes were sharp.
“Alex, we have a massive problem,” she said, ignoring the children. “The paparazzi just leaked photos of these boys hugging you in the lobby. The internet is exploding. Sterling Industries stock is already fluctuating. But that’s not the worst part.”
May you like
She turned the tablet toward me. It was a live news feed from a local station in Maine. A small, familiar-looking cottage was surrounded by police tape. The headline scrolling across the bottom read:
“LOCAL ARTIST ELENA WRIGHT MISSING AFTER APPARENT HOME INVASION; TWO CHILDREN SOUGHT BY POLICE.”
