Chapter 4 - Anna Left a Second Photograph
Eleanor entered carrying a small leather envelope.
Vanessa remained outside.
Sophia did not take her eyes off Eleanor.
“What is it?”
Eleanor placed the envelope on the desk.
“Your mother gave me this the week before she died.”
Inside was another photograph.
Anna Bennett stood beside Charles Sterling.
But this photograph was different.
They were younger.
Anna was pregnant.
Charles had one hand on her shoulder.
On the back, Anna had written:
If anything happens to me, Sophia must know why Charles created the
fund.
Sophia felt cold.
She looked at Adrian.
He looked equally stunned.
Eleanor continued.
“Your mother wasn’t an employee in the ordinary sense.”
Adrian frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“She worked in your father’s private accounting office.”
Anna discovered irregular payments inside Sterling Development.
Charles asked her to investigate quietly.
Sophia stared.
“My mother was an accountant?”
“She trained as one.”
Sophia had known Anna as a hotel receptionist.
A woman who clipped coupons.
Worked weekends.
Bought secondhand clothes.
Eleanor nodded.
“She left the profession after you were born.”
“Why?”
Eleanor looked at Adrian.
“Because she found something that frightened her.”
Vanessa shouted from the hallway.
“Eleanor!”
Security stopped her.
Sophia turned.
“What did my mother find?”
Eleanor opened the envelope again.
A single photocopied ledger page remained.
At the top was a project name.
RAVENWOOD.
Adrian went pale.
Sophia noticed.
“You know it.”
He nodded.
Ravenwood was the development project that made the Sterling family
rich.
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And according to the ledger, millions had disappeared before the project
was completed.
