Chapter 49 - The Rebirth of Marina Bay
The Sterling family homestead was a Victorian manor sitting on a bluff overlooking the outer channel, three miles north of the city’s bustling docks. It was the house where I had grown up, where my mother had tended her hydrangeas before the sickness hollowed her out, and where my father had drafted his very first municipal proposals under the amber glow of a desk lamp.
The iron gates were unlocked, swinging gently in the ocean breeze.
I walked up the stone pathway, the scent of wild rosemary and salt spray heavy in the cold night air. The front door was slightly ajar, casting a single sliver of warm light onto the porch.
I pushed the door open, keeping one hand inside my coat pocket, resting against the small stun device Julian’s security team had given me.
"You took your time, Ava," a smooth, cultured voice came from the grand parlor.
Victoria Vance stood before the stone fireplace, holding a glass of amber scotch. She was thirty-two, possessing Julian’s striking grey eyes and aristocratic jawline, but her posture held none of his weary cynicism. She wore a tailored velvet coat and boots, looking every bit the Parisian curator—except for the heavy brass key resting on the mantelpiece beside her.
"Victoria," I said calmly, stepping into the center of the room. "I thought you were in Geneva liquidating the trust."
"I was," she said, taking a slow sip. "Until I realized Julian left ninety percent of the estate to the woman who walked out on him six months before he died."
"I didn't walk out on Julian," I said, my voice hardening. "Julian pushed me away. He locked me out of his life, slept at the office, and treated me like a decorative stranger in our own home for eight years. He made sure I hated him so that when the Circle came for his assets, I wouldn't be standing in the line of fire."
Victoria’s eyes softened, just for a second, before the cold armor returned. "He loved you in the only twisted way a Vance knows how to love. By fighting in the dark so his family stays in the light."
She reached for the brass key on the mantelpiece and tossed it across the rug. It landed with a soft thud at my feet.
May you like
"Downstairs. Behind the old boiler kiln," Victoria said. "Julian told me that if you defeated Eleanor in court, you were entitled to see what your father really sacrificed for this city."
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