Free Web NovelChapter 20: Pieces of the Past
For weeks, Victor Reyes had been investigating Chris St. Claire. But the more he dug deeper, the more it got complicated.
Now he decided to investigate the Sterlings instead.
More specifically, the Grandmother Sterling and the family surrounding her.
Victor wasn’t convinced of St.Claire Entertainment’s official statement.
He wanted to dig deeper. Because his instinct was telling him that there was something more between Chris and the Sterling’s.
Something beyond friendship. Especially that he got a photo of Chris entering the countryside home with the same woman from all the previous pictures. Without Grandma Sterling.
Inside his hotel room, Victor sat before his laptop.
Dozens of browser tabs filled the screen. Old newspaper archives. Business reports. Public records. Historical articles. Most of them contained nothing useful.
Until suddenly, something appeared.
An article published twenty years ago.
Victor sat upright. His eyes narrowed. Then he clicked.
The headline appeared.
"Tragic Accident Claims Lives of Sterling Corporation Chairman and his wife."
Victor frowned and immediately began reading.
As the details unfolded, the room grew quieter.
The article described a devastating car accident involving Lucia Sterling’s eldest son and his wife.
Both killed instantly. Leaving behind their only child, a four-year-old daughter.
Victor paused.
A four-year-old daughter.
His fingers moved quickly across the keyboard. Searching. Cross-referencing. Verifying.
Minutes later, another article appeared.
Then another. And another.
And slowly, the story began to emerge.
Decades ago, the Sterling Family had not been poor. Far from it.
They were powerful. Influential. Respected.
Lucia Sterling was a widow and had three sons Edward, Robert and Gideon Sterling. Edward became the most successful and built Sterling Corporation from scratch.
The owners of Sterling Corporation, Edward and Vanessa Sterling, had once dominated several industries.
Victor opened an archived business report.
The numbers were impressive. Even by modern standards.
The Sterling name had carried weight. Money. Influence. Status.
Then everything changed.
One accident. One tragedy. And the family began falling apart.
Victor continued reading.
After the deaths of the company’s chairman and his wife, instability spread throughout the corporation.
Investors withdrew.
Partners abandoned projects.
Executives left.
One problem became another. Then another. And another.
Within years, Sterling Corporation collapsed.
The assets were sold. The properties disappeared. One by one. Until almost nothing remained.
Except... Victor paused.
The final line caught his attention.
"The ancestral residence in Sterling Village remains under family ownership."
The house where Chris had stayed.
Victor leaned back. Thinking. Analyzing. And connecting pieces.
The story was becoming clearer. But important questions remained unanswered.
Several hours later, another article appeared.
A funeral report.
Old. Yellowed. Nearly forgotten.
Victor clicked immediately.
Photographs accompanied the article. Grainy photographs. Poor quality. But still recognizable.
The funeral had been attended by numerous influential figures. Business leaders, politicians, corporate executives and families connected to the Sterlings.
Victor studied each photograph carefully. Then one image made him stop completely.
A woman stood near a gravesite dressed entirely in black.
Her expression was filled with grief. Her posture was rigid. Strong. Dignified.
Victor recognized her immediately.
Lucia Sterling. But twenty years younger.
He enlarged the image. And noticed someone standing beside her.
A little girl. Tiny. Fragile. Wearing thick glasses. Her brown hair tied into pigtails.
Victor stared. His pulse accelerated.
It had to be. The resemblance was unmistakable.
The same eyes. The same features. The same quiet expression.
A four-year-old child standing beside her grandmother at her parents’ funeral.
For several moments, Victor simply looked at the photograph.
The image carried a sadness that transcended time.
A little girl who had lost everything.
Parents.
Family stability.
A future she had probably never understood was disappearing.
Victor swallowed.
Suddenly, this story felt less like an investigation. And more like a tragedy.
Then he noticed another photograph.
His eyes widened immediately.
Because standing several meters away from Grandmother Sterling were Matthew and Amanda St. Claire.
Victor leaned closer. His heart began pounding.
The article mentioned them by name.
"Among those attending were prominent businessman Matthew St. Claire and his wife Amanda St. Claire, longtime associates of the Sterling Family."
Victor stared. Then enlarged the image.
Matthew. Amanda. And...
His breath caught.
A young boy was standing beside them. Dark hair. Familiar features.
Victor recognized him instantly.
Chris St. Claire was standing at the funeral twenty years ago.
Victor slowly sat back. His mind raced.
This changed everything. Because it meant the connection wasn’t recent.
It wasn’t created five years ago. It wasn’t created during Chris’s rise to fame. It existed decades earlier.
The two families had known each other since childhood. Maybe longer.
Victor opened another notebook.
Then began writing.
Timeline
Twenty years ago:
Sterling couple die.
Daughter becomes an orphan.
Matthew and Amanda attend funeral.
Young Chris present.
Five years ago:
Matthew visits Sterling Village with son Chris.
Possible marriage discussion.
Present:
Chris returns to the village.
Strong familiarity with the woman with thick glasses.
Mysterious hidden relationship.
Victor stared at the timeline.
The pieces fit together too neatly. Too perfect. Almost suspiciously.
Then another thought occurred to him.
If the families had remained close after the tragedy, then Chris and the Sterling daughter might have known each other their entire lives.
His pulse quickened.
He immediately searched for school records.
"Aurelia Academy, the most expensive school for young children." He whispered.
He began searching the school’s previous photos. Then, he found a class picture with Chris St. Claire. He was in third grade around eight to nine years old.
He then searched for the younger students. He frowned at the photo of the first grade students. There stood a girl with thick glasses and hair in pigtails. The girl beside Lucia Sterling from the funeral.
"It’s her." His heart pounded. "Name. I need a name."
He read the names of the students one by one. Until one name caught his attention.
"Liliana Sterling."
Finally, he got a name!
Then he searched for more. Like social events and charity functions. Anything connecting the two families.
Most searches returned nothing. But then, another photograph appeared.
An old charity gala ten years ago.
The quality was terrible. But two children stood in the background. Easy to overlook and ignore.
Except Victor wasn’t ignoring anything anymore.
There they were. A teenage Chris and Liliana. Standing beside Matthew and Amanda St.Claire.
Not close. Not holding hands. Not behaving romantically. But present together.
Again.
Victor’s heartbeat accelerated.
One or two photographs could be a coincidence. But three photographs?
Not anymore.
Hours passed.
The sunlight outside gradually faded. Yet Victor remained seated surrounded by notes, photographs, timelines and questions.
The evidence wasn’t complete. Not yet. But he could feel himself getting closer. Much closer.
And somewhere far away, Chris was finishing another exhausting rehearsal.
While Liliana was watering flowers in her garden.
Neither realizing that the secret they had protected for five years was hanging by a thread.
And that thread was about to snap..
