Chapter 31 - THE VOICE IN THE DARK
Three days later, Clara and Ethan returned to Manhattan, stepping off the private plane into a cold midnight rain.
They drove straight to the empty Sterling mansion in Greenwich to retrieve the final personal items before the public auction.
The fifty-room mansion was pitch-black, silent, and echoing with the ghostly memories of thirty years of corruption.
They walked into the grand library, their flashlights illuminating the open wall safe where the red ledger had been kept.
Suddenly, the heavy double doors of the library slammed shut behind them with a deafening, metallic crash.
The lights in the library clicked on brightly, blinding them for a second as a slow, deliberate applause echoed from the balcony.
Clara and Ethan spun around, pointing their flashlights toward the upper mahogany railing of the two-story library.
Standing on the balcony, dressed in a sharp white tailored suit and holding a glass of champagne, was a woman who looked identical to Eleanor Sterling.
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"Did you really think Eleanor was the only Sterling matriarch born in 1968, my dear Clara?" the woman laughed softly.
She raised her champagne glass in a sinister toast as four armed men in dark tactical gear stepped out from the shadows of the library.
