Chapter 5 - The Sister Who Was Buried
Margaret collapsed into the chair.
Sienna remained standing.
The woman on the screen looked terrified.
"Can you hear me?"
Sienna stepped toward the terminal.
"Who are you?"
The woman's eyes moved to Sienna.
"You must be Sienna."
"Name."
"Elizabeth."
Margaret sobbed.
Sienna didn't move.
"Prove it."
Elizabeth nodded as though she had expected nothing else.
"When I was six, I had a scar behind my left knee from falling through the greenhouse glass."
Margaret covered her mouth.
"Jonathan called me Birdie because I couldn't pronounce birthday. I called the blue bedroom the ocean room. Mom kept a music box in the top drawer of her dresser. Dad hid jelly beans in his desk."
Margaret was crying openly.
"Birdie."
Elizabeth closed her eyes.
Sienna's training fought with something deeper.
A sister.
A dead sister.
An impossible sister.
"Where are you?"
"I don't know exactly."
"Then how are you connected?"
"Adrian gave me access."
Sienna's hand tightened.
"Cross has you."
"He raised me."
Margaret whispered, "No."
Elizabeth looked at her.
"I grew up believing my parents abandoned me."
"Never," Margaret said. "Never."
Elizabeth cried harder.
Sienna forced herself to remain focused.
"Why contact us now?"
"Because Adrian knows you found Northstar."
"Why would he let you speak?"
"He didn't."
The video flickered.
Elizabeth looked over her shoulder.
"I don't have much time."
"Did Cross kidnap you?"
"I don't remember."
"Who told you your identity?"
"Jonathan."
Sienna froze.
"When?"
"Eight months ago."
The photograph.
Jonathan, Margaret, Richard and Cross.
Taken eight months earlier.
Maybe Cross had used Elizabeth to force Jonathan back into compliance.
"What happened after Dad found you?"
"He tried to get me out."
"Why didn't he tell Margaret?"
"He said Adrian would kill me if he knew."
Margaret leaned toward the screen.
"Where are you?"
Elizabeth looked frightened.
"There's water outside. Mountains. A landing strip."
Sienna thought.
Northstar facilities.
She had seen the asset map.
"Anything else?"
"A tower with a red light."
"Climate?"
"Cold at night."
"Language?"
"English. Everyone speaks English."
Not enough.
Elizabeth suddenly looked toward the door.
"I have to go."
"Wait."
"Sienna."
"Yes?"
"Don't trust Richard."
"I don't."
"No."
Elizabeth leaned closer.
"You don't understand."
The screen flickered.
"He didn't help Adrian after your father died."
Sienna waited.
"He helped him before."
The connection vanished.
Margaret stared at the black monitor.
"We're finding her."
"Yes."
"Now."
Sienna turned.
"I need you to do something harder."
"What?"
"Go home."
Margaret looked offended.
"I'm not leaving you."
"You need to make Cross believe we're divided."
"No."
"Mom."
Margaret stopped.
Sienna continued.
"He knows you tried to expose Northstar once. He knows Dad protected me. He has spent decades manipulating this family through fear."
Sienna pointed at the dark screen.
"He kept Elizabeth alive for a reason."
Margaret understood.
"Leverage."
"Exactly."
Sienna contacted Maya.
Within hours, they had narrowed possible locations to eleven Northstar-controlled facilities.
The landing strip reduced it to four.
Mountains and water reduced it to two.
One was in Alaska.
One in Montana.
Sienna studied satellite imagery.
The Montana property had a communications tower with a red aviation beacon.
She knew.
But before she could move, Richard Hale resurfaced.
He called her.
"Meet me alone."
"No."
"Sienna, I can help you find Elizabeth."
That got her attention.
"Where?"
"Your father's office. One hour."
"You'll be there in thirty minutes."
Richard arrived in twenty-seven.
Sienna waited behind Jonathan's desk.
Richard looked exhausted.
"Margaret?"
"Not here."
"Good."
"Talk."
Richard sat.
"Adrian Cross isn't running Northstar alone."
"Who is?"
"I don't know."
"Then you're wasting my time."
"I know what Jonathan discovered."
Sienna waited.
Richard placed a USB drive on the desk.
"Northstar changed after Adrian's supposed death. Someone began funding expansion through external accounts."
"Who?"
"Jonathan traced them."
"To?"
Richard swallowed.
"The Sterling family."
Sienna stared.
"Be specific."
"Your grandfather's trust."
Her grandfather had died nine years earlier.
"Impossible."
"Jonathan thought so too."
Richard pushed the drive toward her.
"Someone has been using dormant family trusts."
"Who has authority?"
"Jonathan. Margaret."
"Anyone else?"
Richard looked at her.
"You."
Sienna almost laughed.
"I've never touched those accounts."
"I know."
"Then forged authorization."
"Yes."
"By whom?"
"That's what Jonathan was trying to prove."
Sienna picked up the USB.
"Why did you help Cross?"
Richard looked away.
"Elizabeth."
Sienna's expression hardened.
"You knew she was alive."
"Not until twelve years ago."
"And you said nothing."
"Cross showed me proof. He said if I told Jonathan—"
"You let my parents bury an empty grave for years."
"I was afraid."
Sienna leaned across the desk.
"So was my father."
Richard flinched.
"He still did something."
Richard's eyes filled with shame.
"I know."
"Did you help create the agreement?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Jonathan ordered it."
That surprised her.
"Explain."
"He wanted everyone to believe you had surrendered Falcon Ridge."
Sienna slowly understood.
"A decoy."
"Once you signed, legal control would appear to transfer to Margaret."
"But?"
"The real controlling documents were amended months earlier. Falcon Ridge transfers directly to you upon Jonathan's death regardless of probate."
Sienna sat back.
"So the contract was meaningless."
"Legally, yes."
"Then why force me to sign?"
"To convince Adrian you didn't know."
Margaret hadn't known either.
Jonathan had used everyone.
Even after death.
Sienna looked at the pen on her father's desk.
17-4-9.
"He expected me to refuse."
Richard nodded.
"He said if you noticed the numbers, you'd understand."
Sienna almost smiled.
Of course.
Her father knew her.
Better than she had realized.
"Who killed him?"
Richard's face changed.
"I can't prove anyone did."
"Dr. Vale?"
"Cross's physician."
Sienna went still.
That was enough.
Richard reached into his coat.
He placed a sealed envelope on the desk.
"Jonathan gave me this on April eighteenth."
Sienna stared at her name.
"Why now?"
"Because he told me not to give it to you until you discovered Elizabeth."
Sienna opened it.
One page.
Birdie is alive.
If you found her, you are closer than I ever got.
But Northstar's final authorization does not belong to Adrian.
It belongs to the person whose signature appears on your birth certificate.
Sienna stopped.
Her birth certificate listed Jonathan Sterling.
Father.
Margaret Sterling.
Mother.
She looked at Richard.
"What does this mean?"
Richard stood.
"I don't know."
Sienna's phone vibrated.
A message from Maya.
SIENNA. YOU NEED TO SEE WHAT I FOUND IN YOUR ORIGINAL BIRTH RECORD.
A photograph followed.
Sienna opened it.
The father's name wasn't Jonathan Sterling.
It had been altered.
May you like
The original name was still faintly visible beneath the correction.
ADRIAN CROSS.
