Chapter 4 - What Margaret Had Done
Sienna turned toward her mother.
"What did you do?"
Margaret stared at the phone.
"I don't know what he means."
"Cross thinks you do."
"I told you. I barely knew him."
Sienna believed Margaret believed that.
It wasn't the same as truth.
She spent the next two days reconstructing Jonathan's final months.
The results were ugly.
Northstar had been moving assets.
Falcon Ridge had been buying them back.
Jonathan had quietly dismantled the organization he'd helped create.
Someone had noticed.
Someone had accelerated the inheritance transfer.
And someone had prepared legal documents designed to remove Sienna from control.
Richard disappeared before Sienna could question him.
His office claimed he was ill.
His home was empty.
His phone was off.
Peter Sloan called at 6:40 Tuesday morning.
"I found the original draft."
"Where?"
"Richard's archive."
"Author?"
"That's the problem."
"Peter."
"It was created using your mother's credentials."
Sienna looked across the breakfast room at Margaret.
Her mother was drinking coffee.
"Send it."
Seconds later, the metadata arrived.
User: MSTERLING.
Margaret saw Sienna's expression.
"What?"
Sienna turned the screen.
Margaret read it.
"No."
"Your login."
"I didn't create that."
"Who had your password?"
"No one."
"Think."
Margaret stood.
"Jonathan."
Sienna froze.
"Why would Dad draft a contract stripping me of Falcon Ridge?"
"I don't know."
But Jonathan had warned her not to trust appearances.
Sienna checked the timestamp.
April 18.
The morning after his mysterious 9 p.m. appointment.
17-4-9.
Something had happened that night.
Sienna returned to Falcon Ridge.
This time Margaret came with her.
"You stay behind me."
Margaret gave her daughter a look.
"I'm your mother."
"And I'm the person who knows how to clear a building."
Margaret stayed behind her.
The hangar had been searched.
Drawers were open.
The safe was empty.
Sienna examined the old aircraft.
Her father had owned it for decades.
A Cessna.
She climbed into the cockpit.
The logbook remained in the side compartment.
April 17.
One flight.
Departure 8:12 p.m.
Return 11:48 p.m.
Destination listed only as NR-6.
Sienna checked the coordinates.
Northern Ridge Six was an abandoned military communications facility.
Maya found the property records.
Falcon Ridge owned it.
They drove there.
The facility looked dead.
It wasn't.
The brass key opened the gate.
Inside the main building, backup power still operated.
Sienna found a control room.
Servers.
Old surveillance systems.
And a wall covered in photographs.
Margaret stopped behind her.
"Oh my God."
Sienna stared.
Photographs of her.
Hundreds.
West Point graduation.
First deployment.
Promotion ceremony.
Airport terminals.
Restaurants.
Outside her apartment.
Some had been taken within the last month.
Margaret covered her mouth.
"Jonathan knew about this?"
"He found it."
Sienna noticed one photograph separated from the others.
Her father.
April 17.
He was entering this facility.
The timestamp read 20:57.
Nine o'clock.
17-4-9.
Another image showed him leaving at 23:31.
He wasn't alone.
Richard Hale walked beside him.
Sienna studied the photograph.
Richard had lied.
He knew about Northstar.
Margaret whispered, "Look."
A third figure appeared behind them.
Adrian Cross.
Sienna felt the pieces shift.
Jonathan met Cross and Richard here.
The next morning, the inheritance agreement was created.
Three weeks later, Jonathan died.
Sienna searched the control room.
One terminal still worked.
Password protected.
She entered Jonathan's birthday.
Wrong.
Her birthday.
Wrong.
Then Margaret spoke.
"Try Elizabeth."
"Who?"
"Your sister."
Sienna turned.
"I don't have a sister."
Margaret looked as though she wanted to take the words back.
Sienna's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Who is Elizabeth?"
Margaret sat down.
"She died before you were born."
"You never told me."
"Your father couldn't talk about her."
Sienna entered ELIZABETH.
Access granted.
The screen filled with files.
Sienna didn't look at them.
She looked at her mother.
"Tell me."
Margaret's eyes filled with tears.
"Elizabeth was six."
"What happened?"
"She was kidnapped."
Sienna stopped breathing.
"Your father had just started working with Adrian. They were building Northstar. Jonathan thought someone had targeted us because of it."
"Was she found?"
Margaret shook her head.
"Not alive."
The words hollowed the room.
"Afterward, your father changed. He became obsessed with security."
"And you?"
"I wanted Northstar destroyed."
There it was.
Cross had said Jonathan left out what Margaret did.
"What did you do?"
Margaret wiped her face.
"I gave information to federal investigators."
Sienna stared.
"About Northstar?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Seventeen years ago."
The same year Falcon Ridge was created.
Margaret continued.
"Jonathan discovered it. He stopped the investigation before it reached Adrian."
"Why?"
"Because Adrian threatened you."
Sienna looked toward the wall of photographs.
Seventeen years.
Her father hadn't simply been monitoring Northstar.
He had been keeping it alive enough to keep Cross satisfied.
Protecting Sienna.
Margaret whispered, "I thought Jonathan forgave me."
Sienna turned back to the terminal.
A folder waited.
ELIZABETH.
Inside was a scanned police report.
Kidnapping.
Ransom demand.
Recovery.
Sienna read the suspect section.
No arrests.
Then she found another file.
DNA REVIEW - 2025.
Her father had reopened Elizabeth's case.
Why?
She opened it.
The recovered child's DNA had been retested.
The report contained one sentence highlighted by Jonathan.
THE REMAINS ATTRIBUTED TO ELIZABETH STERLING ARE NOT BIOLOGICALLY RELATED TO JONATHAN OR MARGARET STERLING.
Margaret made a sound behind her.
"No."
Sienna reread it.
Elizabeth hadn't died.
Someone had buried another child.
The terminal beeped.
A new file appeared.
Live connection.
Someone was accessing the system remotely.
Sienna reached for the keyboard.
A video window opened.
A woman appeared.
Late thirties.
Dark blonde hair.
Tears already in her eyes.
Margaret stumbled backward.
The woman stared directly into the camera.
May you like
Then she whispered one word.
"Mom?"
