At 1:17 in the morning, twelve phones rang across Texas.
One belonged to retired federal judge Samuel Reed.
Another belonged to Dr. Rebecca Sloan, chief trauma surgeon at St. Gabriel Medical Center.
A third belonged to Daniel Mercer, an attorney whose firm occupied thirty-two floors of a Dallas skyscraper.
Others belonged to retired officers, business owners, veterans, investigators, and people whose names I would not recognize until much later.
Every call began with the same sentence.
“Thomas Sterling’s daughter has used the medal.”
By 1:40, vehicles were moving toward Westlake.
I knew none of this.
I was losing consciousness again.
When I opened my eyes, Lauren was standing over me.
Alone.
She had removed her earrings.
The elegant red dress looked almost black in the basement light.
“You should have left,” she said.
I tried to sit up and couldn’t.
“From my own house?”
“From Edward.”
“You mean your boyfriend?”
She ignored that.
“Where’s the medal?”
So I had been right.
She knew.
“What medal?”
Lauren crouched.
“The one Thomas gave you.”
Hearing my father’s first name from her mouth made my skin go cold.
“How do you know about my father?”
“You have no idea who you married, Valerie.”
“Apparently neither do you.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You think Edward loves me?”
“I stopped caring.”
“He needs me.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
For one second, something wounded appeared in her expression.
Then it vanished.
“Edward married you because of your father.”
I stared at her.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?”
“Edward never met him.”
“Edward didn’t have to.”
She leaned closer.
“Your father left something behind.”
“Money?”
Lauren laughed.
“You really don’t know.”
“No.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Good.”
The basement door opened.
Edward stood there.
“What are you doing?”
Lauren rose.
“Checking on her.”
“I told you to stay upstairs.”
“She knows about the medal.”
Edward’s expression changed.
There it was.
Fear.
Small but unmistakable.
He crossed the room.
“What medal?”
Lauren folded her arms.
“Don’t play stupid.”
Edward looked at the torn suitcase.
Then at me.
“Where is it?”
I smiled despite the pain.
“You tell me. You seem to know more about my father than I do.”
He grabbed the front of my shirt.
Pain shot through my ribs.
Lauren stepped forward.
“Edward, stop.”
He released me.
“Where is the medal?”
“Gone.”
His face drained.
“Matthew.”
Edward rushed upstairs.
Lauren remained.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then she whispered, “You have no idea what you just started.”
“No.”
I closed my eyes.
“But apparently Edward does.”
Upstairs, alarms suddenly sounded.
Not security alarms.
Phones.
One after another.
Edward’s private line rang.
Then his cell.
Then the house line.
His chief financial officer called.
His attorney called.
The chairman of a bank Edward used called.
Nobody gave him explanations.
The west gate intercom activated.
“Mr. Vance, there are vehicles outside.”
“How many?”
“Seven.”
Edward went to the security monitors.
Black SUVs lined the road.
An ambulance was among them.
So were two police vehicles.
Edward called the gatehouse.
“Do not open that gate.”
A new voice came over the intercom.
“This is Dr. Rebecca Sloan from St. Gabriel Medical Center. We have reason to believe an injured woman is being denied emergency medical treatment inside this residence.”
Edward swore.
Then another man stepped toward the camera.
Silver hair.
Dark overcoat.
Calm eyes.
Julian.
“Edward Vance.”
Edward stared at the monitor.
Julian held my medal toward the camera.
“Open the gate.”
Edward whispered something Lauren couldn’t hear.
“What?”
“I said he’s dead.”
“Who?”
“Julian Sterling.”
Lauren stared at him.
“Sterling?”
Edward looked at her.
“He was supposed to be dead.”
At the gate, Julian waited.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then a police officer stepped forward.
“We have exigent circumstances involving an immediate threat to life.”
Edward understood what that meant.
He could delay them.
He could not keep them out forever.
He turned to one of his guards.
“Move Valerie.”
The guard stared at him.
“Sir?”
“Get her out through the service tunnel.”
Lauren grabbed Edward’s sleeve.
“Are you insane?”
Edward jerked away.
“If they find her here, I’m finished.”
“She needs a hospital!”
“So now you care?”
Lauren’s face changed.
“Yes.”
That surprised him.
It surprised me too when she told me about it months later.
Edward pointed toward the basement.
“You started this.”
Lauren stared at him.
“I wanted Valerie gone. I didn’t ask you to kill her.”
“You threw yourself down stairs.”
“I bruised my shoulder. You ordered men to beat her.”
Edward stepped close.
“Then you’re involved too.”
Lauren went silent.
The power suddenly went out.
Emergency lights came on.
Edward looked toward the security monitors.
Black.
Someone had disabled the estate’s external system.
Then came a sound Edward Vance had probably never expected to hear in his own home.
The front doors opening.
Not breaking.
Opening.
Matthew Herrera had returned.
And he had brought the master override.
Edward ran toward the foyer.
Julian entered first.
He was seventy-one years old, but nothing about him seemed fragile.
Dr. Sloan followed with a trauma team.
Two Westlake officers entered behind them.
Daniel Mercer carried a leather briefcase and looked as though he had walked out of a board meeting.
Edward stopped halfway down the marble staircase.
“This is private property.”
Julian looked up.
“So is a coffin.”
Edward’s face hardened.
“You have no authority here.”
“No,” Julian said. “The officers do.”
One officer stepped forward.
“We received a report of a critically injured person being held without medical treatment.”
Edward laughed.
“From whom?”
Matthew walked through the doorway.
“Me.”
Edward stared at him.
“You’re fired.”
Matthew removed his security badge.
“I figured.”
Then he dropped it onto the marble floor.
Julian looked at him.
“Where is she?”
“Basement.”
Edward moved.
The officer blocked him.
“Sir, stay where you are.”
Lauren appeared at the top of the stairs.
For once, she wasn’t performing.
She looked terrified.
Julian saw her.
“You must be Lauren Cruz.”
She gripped the railing.
“How do you know me?”
Julian didn’t answer.
He followed Matthew downstairs.
The moment he saw me, he stopped.
I had never met him.
Yet grief moved across his face as if he had known me all my life.
“Valerie.”
I struggled to focus.
“Julian?”
He knelt beside me.
“You have your father’s eyes.”
Something inside me broke.
“Who are you?”
His voice softened.
“Someone who made your father a promise.”
Dr. Sloan immediately began examining me.
My blood pressure was dangerously low.
My abdomen was rigid.
She looked at Julian.
“We move now.”
They lifted me carefully.
The pain was so intense that the ceiling disappeared.
Before I lost consciousness, I saw Edward standing at the basement entrance.
For the first time since I had known him, my husband looked afraid of me.
Not because I was strong.
Not because I had threatened him.
Because strangers had arrived when I called.
As they wheeled me past him, Edward leaned close.
“You don’t understand what your father did.”
Julian stopped beside him.
“No, Edward.”
His voice was quiet.
“She doesn’t understand what you did.”
Then he looked toward Daniel Mercer.
“Freeze everything connected to the Sterling Trust.”
Edward’s face went white.
I heard only two words before darkness took me.
Sterling Trust.
And suddenly I understood why Edward had married a tailor’s daughter.
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