"He's actually here? At three in the morning?" Ester's voice was barely a whisper, her eyes fixed on the security feed.
A silver Bentley sat idling at the gate. A man stepped out, shielded from the rain by an umbrella held by a silent chauffeur. Richard Blackwood. He was a man of seventy who looked sixty, with hair like spun silver and a face carved out of cold, aristocratic granite. He was the reason the Blackwood name carried weight long before Xavier ever touched a blueprint.
"Richard doesn't sleep when his empire is on fire," Dominic said, his voice dropping into a lethal, low register. He stood up, smoothing the front of his shirt. "He's not like Xavier. He doesn't scream. He doesn't pout. He just... removes obstacles. And right now, Ester, he thinks you're an obstacle that just needs to be put back in its proper box."
"I'm not a box he can just slide under a bed," Ester snapped, her fear momentarily replaced by a sharp, cold anger.
Dominic looked at her, a glimmer of admiration in his eyes. "That's my girl. Stay here. I'll meet him in the hall."
"No," Ester said, standing up and straightening her silk robe. "He's my father-in-law or he was. If he's here to talk about me, he talks to me. I'm done being the ghost in the machine, Dominic."
Dominic paused, his hand on the door handle. He studied her for a long beat, then nodded. "Fine. But remember: every word out of his mouth is a hook. Don't let him snag you."
They met Richard in the main foyer. The old man stood in the center of the hall, his coat perfectly dry, looking around the Sterling mansion with a look of mild, patronizing interest. When he saw Ester, he smiled—a practiced, warm expression that didn't reach his eyes.
"Ester, my dear," Richard said, stepping forward as if to embrace her. "What a chaotic night this has been. I'm so glad I found you safe. I was worried when Xavier told me you'd disappeared into the storm."
Ester took a step back, folding her arms. "I didn't disappear, Richard. I was discarded. There's a difference."
Richard sighed, a sound of gentle, grandfatherly disappointment. "Xavier is a fool. A passionate, impulsive boy who doesn't understand the value of what he has. He's already regretful, you know. He's back at the house, quite distraught. He wants you to come home so we can settle this... misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?" Ester let out a sharp, hollow laugh. "He handed me divorce papers at a gala. He brought his mistress into our home. He forged my signature on illegal safety permits. Which part is the misunderstanding, Richard? The part where he betrayed me, or the part where he tried to send me to prison for his crimes?"
Richard's smile didn't faler, but his eyes hardened. "Xavier was under a lot of pressure. The Emerald City project is a massive undertaking. Sometimes, in the heat of battle, men make tactical errors. But we're family, Ester. We protect our own. Whatever signatures were made, whatever ... girls ... were involved, we can make it all go away. One phone call, and the records vanish."
Dominic stepped out from the shadows of the library door, his presence filling the hall like a sudden thunderstorm. "Not my records, Richard. My servers are a bit more secure than yours."
Richard turned, his expression shifting to one of polite boredom. "Dominic Sterling. I should have guessed you'd be the one to pick up the pieces. You always did have a habit of hovering around Ester like a stray dog at a banquet."
"I wasn't hovering, Richard. I was waiting," Dominic said, his voice like grinding stones. "Waiting for you to stop paying Xavier to keep her miserable. I saw the ledger. I saw the payments to the London university to revoke her scholarship. I saw the 'Project Icarus' files."
Richard didn't flinch. He simply tucked his hands behind his back. "A father supports his son's interests. Xavier wanted Ester to stay in the country. He wanted her by his side. I merely facilitated that desire. It's what parents do."
"You ruined my career before it even started!" Ester shouted, her voice shaking with rage. "I could have been a Lead Architect in London at twenty-two. I could have had a life of my own. You didn't support him, you enslaved me!"
"You had a very comfortable life, Ester," Richard said calmly. "You had a mansion, a name, and a husband who provided for you. All you had to do was draw. Is that so much to ask in exchange for the Blackwood protection?"
"The protection you're currently using to cover up fifty million dollars in sub-standard steel?" Dominic interjected, holding up the USB drive. "Chloe is upstairs, Richard. She's already told us everything. The 'Black Ledger' is in my hands."
For the first time, Richard's composure cracked. A small muscle in his jaw twitched. "Chloe is a flighty, vengeful girl. Her testimony wouldn't hold up in a court of law. She's an accomplice."
"Maybe," Dominic agreed. "But the bank transfer receipts from your personal account to the steel suppliers in Romania? Those are pretty solid. Especially when they're matched with the forged safety certificates with Ester's name on them."
Richard took a slow breath, his eyes darting to Ester. He shifted his tone, dropping the grandfatherly act for something much more transactional. "What do you want, Ester? Money? A partnership? I can give you your own firm. I can make you the CEO of Blackwood Developments. You can have the Emerald City project all to yourself. Xavier will be sidelined. He'll go to 'rehab' in Switzerland for a year. You'll be the face of the company."
Ester looked at him, feeling a wave of nausea. "You'd sell out your own son that easily?"
"Xavier is a liability now," Richard said coldly. "You are the asset. You are the only one who knows how to fix the structural flaws in the design before the commission finds out. Come back, fix the project, and I'll give you everything Xavier promised you and more."
"She's not going anywhere," Dominic said, stepping between Ester and Richard.
"She has to," Richard said, his voice turning into a threat. "Because if she doesn't, I'll release the files I have on her father."
Ester froze. Her heart stopped. "My father? He died ten years ago. He was a simple teacher. What are you talking about?"
Richard smiled, and this time, it was the smile of a man who had just played an ace. "A teacher? Is that what your mother told you? Your father was a Lead Engineer on the Bering Cross bridge project. The one that collapsed. The one that killed forty people. He didn't die of a heart attack, Ester. He died in a prison cell after I spent five million dollars to make sure he was the only one blamed for the faulty bolts."
Ester felt the room spin. "No ... no, that's not true. He was a good man. He was honest."
"He was a scapegoat," Richard corrected. "Just like you were going to be. But if you don't come with me now, I'll reopen that case. I'll drag his name through the mud again. I'll make sure the world knows that the 'Genius Architect Ester Wijaya' is the daughter of a mass murderer. Do you think Sterling Group wants that kind of PR?"
Dominic grabbed Richard by the lapels, his face inches from the old man's. "You old viper. I'll kill you myself before I let you touch her family's memory."
"You can kill me, Dominic," Richard wheezed, unfazed. "But the files are on an automated timer. If I don't enter a code by dawn, they go to every major news outlet in the world."
Ester looked at the clock on the wall. Four in the morning. She looked at Dominic's back, then at the cruel, triumphant face of the man who had owned her life for five years.
"Ester, don't listen to him," Dominic said, his voice thick with emotion. "We can fight this. I can bury the files."
"Can you, Dominic?" Ester asked, her voice sounding like it was coming from a long way away. She stepped forward, touching Dominic's arm until he slowly released Richard. She looked her father-in-law in the eye. "You really think I'm that scared of the truth?"
"It's not the truth that kills you, my dear," Richard said, smoothing his coat. "It's the reputation. So, what will it be? Are you coming home to save your father's name, or are you staying here to watch it burn?"
Ester took a deep breath, her hand finding the small leather sketchbook in her robe pocket. She felt the weight of seven years of lies, and for the first time, she felt the strength of someone who had nothing left to lose.
"I'll come with you, Richard. But on one condition."
Dominic turned to her, his face pale. "Ester, no! What are you doing?"
Richard's eyes gleamed. "Anything. Name it."
Ester looked at Richard, a cold, predatory smile slowly spreading across her face, a look she had learned from watching Dominic.
"I want to be the one to hand Xavier the handcuffs. If I'm going back into that house, I'm going back as the person who ends the Blackwood bloodline once and for all. Do we have a deal?"