Chapter 5 - Why They Really Wanted Me in the Family
I had spent six years believing Valérie Vance hated me because she thought I was beneath her son.
The truth was much colder.
She had wanted me close.
Not because she loved me.
Because of my name.
Marc uncovered the first connection shortly after midnight.
One of the earliest companies in the Northstar network had experienced serious financial trouble seven years earlier.
At the same time, Vance Construction was trying to expand internationally.
They needed shipping access.
Security contacts.
Legal expertise.
Financial credibility.
The Sterlings had all four.
“They couldn't buy us,” Léo said.
“So they married into us,” I whispered.
Julien shook his head.
“Careful. We don’t know that yet.”
He was right.
But by morning, we knew more.
Valérie had met privately with Isaac several times before he supposedly “accidentally” met me at a charity auction.
I remembered that night perfectly.
Isaac had bumped into me near the silent-auction tables.
Champagne spilled.
He apologized.
We laughed.
He asked me to dinner.
I had spent years calling it fate.
Apparently, fate had an appointment book.
The discovery hurt differently from the affair.
The affair destroyed my trust in my husband.
This threatened my trust in my own memories.
Was every romantic gesture calculated?
Had Isaac ever loved me?
Or had I been an asset from the beginning?
I needed the answer.
Caleb found it.
Not in corporate records.
In an old email account Isaac had lawfully provided to investigators as part of his attempt to cooperate.
One message was from Valérie.
Sterling girl attended the Halston benefit. You missed your opportunity. She’ll be at the museum gala Thursday. Don’t miss twice.
Isaac replied:
Mother, I’m not marrying a stranger for business.
Valérie:
Nobody asked you to marry her. Meet her.
Two months later came another message.
I actually like her. Please stay out of this.
I stared at those words.
Strangely, they comforted me.
The beginning had been manipulated.
But not everything had been fake.
Isaac had fallen in love with me.
Then, somewhere along the way, he had decided loving me did not require respecting me.
That was his failure.
Not mine.
Valérie called again that afternoon.
This time, I answered immediately.
“Did you arrange for Isaac to meet me?”
Silence.
Then: “Who told you that?”
“Answer.”
“I encouraged him to attend social events.”
“Did you target me because I was a Sterling?”
Her silence answered first.
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why?”
“Your family had influence.”
“So I was leverage.”
“Initially.”
Initially.
The word was almost worse than a denial.
“Did Isaac know?”
“Not the full reason.”
“Did Arthur?”
“Of course.”
“And Northstar?”
She stopped.
There.
The hesitation.
“Valérie.”
“I have nothing to say about that.”
“You already said enough.”
Her voice hardened.
“You think your brothers can protect you forever?”
“No.”
That surprised her.
“I don’t need them to.”
I meant it.
My brothers had arrived when I called.
They had stood beside me.
But they weren't going to rebuild my life for me.
I was.
The financial investigation accelerated over the next week.
The story dominated business news.
I avoided cameras.
I gave no sensational interviews.
Julien advised me to let documents speak.
That frustrated reporters and terrified the Vances.
Evidence is harder to insult than a person.
Chloé eventually hired her own attorney and began cooperating.
I met her once.
Neutral location.
Attorneys present.
She looked different without the silver gown and diamonds.
Smaller somehow.
Tired.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
I studied her.
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
“You knew he was married.”
“Yes.”
“You came into my home.”
“Yes.”
“You stood there while he humiliated me.”
Tears appeared in her eyes.
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“Then don't ask me to tell you it’s okay.”
“I’m not.”
That answer surprised me.
She pushed a folder across the table.
“This is what I have.”
Inside were records.
Names.
Dates.
Photographs.
And information about Valérie.
Chloé had not originally met Isaac by chance either.
Valérie had introduced them.
“Why would his mother introduce him to another woman?” I asked.
Chloé stared at the table.
“Because she wanted him away from you.”
“Why?”
“You started asking about the company.”
Everything circled back to Northstar.
Chloé continued.
“Valérie told me your marriage was failing.”
“And you believed her.”
“I wanted to.”
At least she was honest.
“Did she tell Isaac to start the affair?”
“No. Isaac made that choice.”
Good.
No excuses.
“What’s in the private ledger?”
Chloé looked up sharply.
“You know about it?”
“Isaac told me.”
She exhaled.
“I never saw it. But Arthur kept records because he didn’t trust Valérie.”
“Records of what?”
“Payments.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know.”
She hesitated.
“But I know where he hid them.”
Every person at the table went still.
“Where?”
“The old Vance country house.”
Arthur had inherited it from his father.
Nobody had lived there in years.
Julien immediately contacted investigators.
Nobody from my family touched the property.
That was important.
This wasn't revenge anymore.
It was evidence.
Two days later, authorities searched the country house.
The ledger existed.
And it was devastating.
Shell companies.
False invoices.
Kickbacks.
Hidden accounts.
Forged approvals.
Payments reaching back more than a decade.
Valérie’s name appeared repeatedly.
So did Arthur’s.
Isaac’s appeared less often, but enough.
Then Marc found my name.
Again.
Not as a participant.
As a contingency.
If regulators discovered certain transactions, documents had been prepared to suggest I had independently authorized them through Sterling Development Holdings.
They had built an escape hatch.
And I was supposed to fall through it.
Noé stared at the records for a long time.
“They were going to put you in prison.”
“Potentially,” Julien corrected.
Noé looked at him.
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
I barely heard them.
I was looking at a date.
The first document bearing my forged signature had been prepared eighteen months earlier.
Isaac had known for at least eleven months.
Eleven months.
He had slept beside me.
Taken vacations with me.
Bought me birthday presents.
And said nothing.
I finally cried.
Not loudly.
No dramatic collapse.
I simply sat at Noé’s kitchen table while tears rolled down my face.
My brothers stayed quiet.
Noé eventually placed a cup of coffee beside me.
“I feel stupid,” I whispered.
“You’re not.”
“I lived with him.”
“So?”
“I should have known.”
Marc leaned back.
“You know what fraud investigators learn very quickly?”
I looked at him.
“People see what they're given evidence to see. Trust isn’t stupidity.”
That stayed with me.
Later that evening, Isaac called from his attorney’s office.
I answered.
“Did you know they intended to blame me?”
He was silent.
“Isaac.”
“Yes.”
One word.
One marriage ending all over again.
“How long?”
“About a year.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I thought Dad would fix it.”
“You thought.”
“I was scared.”
“So you let me carry the risk.”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
No answer.
I wiped my tears.
“Goodbye, Isaac.”
“Flora, wait.”
“No.”
“I have something else.”
I almost hung up.
Then he said:
“My mother didn’t start Northstar either.”
I froze.
“Who did?”
“My grandfather.”
That widened the timeline by decades.
“But there’s something you need to know,” Isaac continued. “Your father knew him.”
My heart stopped.
My father had been dead for twelve years.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying the Sterlings and Vances were connected long before you and I ever met.”
I looked at my brothers.
They had heard everything.
For the first time since this began, Noé looked genuinely shaken.
Because our father had taken secrets to his grave.
May you like
And one of them was about to change everything we thought we knew about both families.
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