Chapter 14 - THE HIDDEN SAFE
By eight o'clock that evening, rain was pouring heavily over the sprawling Sterling Estate in Greenwich, Connecticut.
The grand fifty-room mansion was dark, silent, and empty, guarded only by two state troopers parked at the front gate.
Clara bypassed the gate using a hidden estate key, entering through the conservatory glass doors she had unlocked years ago.
She carried a flashlight, its beam cutting through the dusty darkness of the grand hallway where she had grown up as a servant's child.
She walked directly to the library, stopping before a large oil painting of Eleanor Sterling hanging above the brick fireplace.
Using a small pocket knife, Clara sliced through the canvas along the frame, revealing a heavy iron safe built into the chimney wall.
She dialed a six-digit combination—her father's birth date—which she had found hidden in her mother's old Bible years ago.
The heavy steel door clicked loudly, swinging open to reveal stacks of original paper deeds, velvet jewelry boxes, and a thick leather ledger.
Clara pulled out the red leather ledger, her heart hammering against her ribs as she opened the first yellowed page.
Her eyes scanned the handwritten names, stopping abruptly at an entry dated November 14th, 1998.
May you like
The signature at the bottom of the page made her breath catch in her throat.
***
