Chapter 3 - The Fund Was Never Charity
Adrian moved Sophia into a private library away from the ballroom.
Security remained outside with Vanessa and Eleanor.
Sophia stood by the fireplace.
“You have five minutes.”
Adrian nodded.
He showed her the fund documents.
The account had been created nineteen years earlier by his father,
Charles Sterling.
Beneficiary: Anna Bennett.
Sophia’s mother.
Annual payments were scheduled for life.
If Anna died, the remaining balance transferred to her only child.
Sophia.
She stared at the numbers.
The original fund held $1.8 million.
Investments had grown it substantially.
Sophia laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
“I have thirty-seven dollars in my checking account.”
Adrian looked ashamed.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
She pointed at his tuxedo.
“You don’t know what that feels like.”
He accepted that.
Sophia continued reading.
Five years earlier, immediately after Anna’s death, the beneficiary
information changed.
The payments began flowing through a management company.
Price Consulting.
Eleanor’s company.
Sophia looked toward the door.
“She stole it.”
Adrian answered carefully.
“Money went through her account. That isn’t the same as knowing why.”
Sophia hated that he was right.
Then she found another name.
Authorized representative: Vanessa Sterling.
Sophia froze.
“Sterling?”
Adrian nodded.
Vanessa was his fiancée.
She also sat on the board of the family foundation.
Sophia stared at him.
“You were going to marry the woman who controlled my money?”
“I didn’t know she controlled this fund.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
That answer surprised her.
Adrian looked at the old photograph again.
“My father hid this account from me.”
“Why?”
His expression changed.
“That’s the question I should have asked years ago.”
Then the library door opened.
A security officer stepped inside.
May you like
“Mr. Sterling, Ms. Price says she has something belonging to Sophia’s
mother.”
