Chapter 5 - Edward Sterling Built His Fortune
Edward Sterling was remembered publicly as a real-estate visionary.
Victoria remembered him as a demanding father who believed reputation
was everything.
He died twelve years earlier.
His company had since passed to Victoria and her brother, Daniel.
Laura knew Sterling Properties well.
Everyone in Baltimore did.
Henry produced archived Rose House records.
Bellweather Services received payments for repairs, transportation, and
food deliveries.
Many services were never performed.
The company’s registered address led to a mailbox.
The original incorporation papers were missing.
Charles said he traced Bellweather to a lawyer who worked for Edward.
But he never found proof Edward controlled it.
“Why didn’t you tell Margaret?” Victoria asked.
“I did.”
“What did she do?”
“She begged me to stop.”
Victoria stared.
“She protected him.”
“She was terrified.”
Margaret believed exposing Edward would destroy the family and possibly
implicate her because she signed some checks.
Eleanor wanted to go to police.
Margaret refused.
Their final argument became legendary in both families, but neither
daughter had been told the real subject.
Then Henry showed Laura a letter.
Eleanor wrote it to Margaret in 1997.
I will keep the pearls until you are ready to tell the truth. They
belong to Rose House, not to you or me.
Laura’s eyes filled.
Her mother had not treated the necklace as personal property.
But she had worn it.
“Why?”
Henry smiled sadly.
“Eleanor wore them every year at the Rose House memorial dinner.”
After the center closed, former residents continued gathering privately.
The pearls became a symbol.
Laura had seen photographs from those dinners without knowing what they
were.
Then Victoria asked:
“If Eleanor kept the necklace, how did it end up with me?”
Nobody knew.
Victoria said it arrived six months earlier in a box from her late
mother’s storage unit.
Inside was a note in Margaret’s handwriting:
It is time this returns to our family.
Laura stared at her.
“You’ve had it six months?”
“Yes.”
“And you wore it tonight knowing I would be here?”
Victoria hesitated.
That tiny smile in the ballroom returned to Laura’s mind.
Victoria finally admitted:
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted you to see it.”
Sophie had been right.
May you like
Victoria knew exactly what she was doing.
But she had not known the whole truth either.
