Chapter 12 - The Unopened Box
“What are you doing in Ohio, Marcus?” Claire asked, stopping a few feet away from him near a large oak tree.
“I brought something that belongs to your father,” Marcus said, holding out the small wooden box toward her.
“When my legal team audited my mother’s private safe in Greenwich, we found this tucked behind the corporate bonds.”
Claire took the wooden box, her thumb tracing the antique brass latch before she carefully unclipped the lock and opened the lid.
Inside lay a collection of handwritten letters, a vintage silver pocket watch, and a small, worn leather journal from 1982.
She picked up the journal, opening it to the first page, reading the signature written in faded black ink: Arthur Sterling.
Arthur Sterling was Marcus’s grandfather—the founder of the Sterling shipping dynasty who had passed away twenty years ago.
Claire’s eyes scanned down the yellowed page, her heart rate accelerating as she read the opening sentence written in Arthur’s handwriting.
May you like
“If my family ever tries to destroy the Vance family, let it be known that Thomas Vance is not just an engineer from Dayton...”
“He is my biological son, born before I married into the Sterling estate in Boston.”
