Chapter 13 - velvet ribbons
"There is no need to call estate security, Mrs. Blackwood," Sterling said smoothly, stepping into the drawing room and setting his leather briefcase onto the mahogany side table. "The state constabulary has already secured the outer gates and the lower offices."
Isabella backed away toward the tall French windows, her chest heaving violently, her eyes darting between Sterling, Catherine, and myself like a trapped animal searching for an escape route. "Sterling... you have no standing here. Arthur terminated your retainer!"
"Your husband terminated my retainer using a forged power of attorney," Sterling countered calmly, opening his briefcase to pull out a stack of stamped legal parchments bound with red silk ribbon. "A power of attorney that was witnessed by a physician who passed away two months before the document was allegedly signed."
Sterling walked over to me, extending his hand with deep respect. "Miss Clara, I apologize for my long absence. Catherine and I have spent the last three years tracing the offshore shell accounts your brother and sister-in-law established in Zurich to drain your grandfather’s foundation."
"Where is my brother?" I demanded, my hands shaking as I clutched Catherine's signet ring against my chest. "Where is Arthur?"
May you like
Sterling's expression darkened, his old eyes filled with a solemn, heavy sorrow. "Your brother is currently at the county precinct, Miss Clara. He was apprehended two hours ago at the private airstrip in Andover while attempting to board a charter flight to Geneva with four million dollars in bearer bonds stolen from the estate vault."
I sank into the nearest armchair, feeling the ground dissolve beneath my feet. My brother—the man who had held my hand at our parents' funeral, the man who had promised to protect me—had spent five years preparing to abandon me to poverty while robbing our family blind.
