Chapter 4: The Confrontation
The Vane estate was a fortress of privilege, but Arthur Sterling didn’t care about trespassing laws anymore. He arrived with the police, with the evidence, and with a heart full of fire.
The Vanes, caught off guard by the sudden intrusion and the evidence of the illegal adoption/trafficking, crumbled quickly under the pressure of the law. They hadn’t known the girl was stolen; they had been told she was an orphan Helena wanted to get rid of.
When the police led Arthur to the conservatory, he saw her.
She was painting, her back to the door. She looked exactly like Elara. The way she held the brush, the way she tilted her head—it was like seeing a ghost.
“Sophie?” Arthur said, using the name she went by.
She turned, startled. She looked at the man in the doorway—the powerful, sad man she had served tea to two years ago.
“Mr. Sterling?” she asked.
Arthur didn't speak. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, silver rattle Leo had found. He placed it on the table.
Sophie froze. She reached out, touching the rattle, her fingers trembling. A memory, suppressed by years of forced forgetting, sparked in her eyes. “My mother… she used to shake this. She told me to sleep.”
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The dam broke.
Arthur collapsed to his knees, and for the first time in twenty years, the titan of industry sobbed. He didn't care about the witnesses, the police, or the cameras. He had his daughter back.
