Chapter 3 - The Reconstruction of Ryan Montgomery
While I spent the next few months healing and preparing for the arrival of my children, my father’s legal and financial teams went to work behind the scenes.
Ryan Montgomery believed he was on top of the world. With the house secured in the divorce and Vanessa Carter—the daughter of a mid-tier logistics supplier—by his side, he felt untouchable. He applied for a massive fifty-million-dollar corporate expansion loan for Montgomery Architecture, using our Beverly Hills home and his company stock as collateral.
What Ryan didn't know was that the anonymous private equity firm that approved his loan within twenty-four hours was Vance Capital—a wholly owned subsidiary of Sterling Global.
I gave birth to Leo, Christian, and Evelyn on a beautiful summer morning. They were perfect. Healthy, loud, and possessing the distinct hazel eyes of the Sterling bloodline.
For four years, I chose complete privacy. I changed my legal name back to Sterling. I raised my triplets in the safety of our estate, watching them take their first steps, speak their first words, and grow into vibrant, beautiful children. I became a partner in my father’s company, proving myself in the business world, completely erasing the ghost of the broken woman I used to be.
Then, the trap snapped shut.
On a Tuesday morning, exactly one month before Ryan and Vanessa's high-society wedding, my father handed me a document in our executive office.
"Montgomery Architecture has officially defaulted on their third-quarter payment, Mariana," Arthur said, a cold satisfaction in his eyes. "We now legally own his company, his personal bank accounts, and the very Beverly Hills mansion he threw you out of. He has spent every dime he had trying to give Vanessa the wedding of the century to impress the city's elite."
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I looked at the elegant, silver-embossed wedding invitation sitting on my desk. Ryan had sent it to my old email address, a petty, final attempt to rub his new life in my face.
"It's time, Father," I said, a serene, unbreakable calm washing over me. "Let's go to a wedding."
