Chapter 12 - broken pearls
The silence that settled over the drawing room was so absolute that the low hiss of the dying embers in the hearth sounded like a roaring furnace.
"Sister?" I repeated, the word tasting strange and heavy on my tongue. "My elder sister died in the hospital fire in London when I was four years old. Arthur brought me her death certificate!"
"Arthur brought you a forged document created by Isabella's uncle at the municipal records office," Catherine said, stepping past the scattered pearls on the floor to hand me the rose gold signet ring. "Look at the inner band, Clara."
I held the heavy ring up to the amber firelight. Engraved along the interior curve were five microscopic numbers accompanied by two initials: 05-12-89 — C.V.
"My birthdate," I whispered, tears welling up in my eyes as the fragments of my fractured childhood began to align into a terrifying picture. "Arthur told me I was an only child after our parents died."
"Arthur needed you to believe you were alone," Catherine explained, her dark eyes flashing with anger. "Because under our grandfather's original corporate charter, the Blackwood estate cannot be divided if a direct female heir remains unmarried on her thirtieth birthday. It transfers entirely to the eldest daughter. Isabella didn't marry Arthur because she loved him, Clara. She married him because her family’s bank was insolvent, and they needed Arthur to sign over your share of the trust."
May you like
Isabella lunged forward, her nails clawing at the air toward Catherine's face. "Shut up! You crazy, delusional beggar! Guards! Call the estate security!"
Before Isabella could reach the heavy velvet bell pull near the door, the drawing room doors swung open with a bang. Standing in the threshold, holding a leather briefcase and flanked by two state constables, was Arthur Sterling, our family's former chief legal advisor whom Isabella had dismissed three years ago.
