Chapter 6 - UNTIL SUNRISE
By two in the morning, the hospital was locked down.
Police searched entrances.
Cybercrime officers tried to trace Adrian’s transmission.
Nothing.
Charles sat under guard.
Maya stayed beside Luis.
Her brother looked exhausted but conscious.
“You knew Adrian was alive?”
“For six months.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
Luis stared at the ceiling.
“I was paid to do small jobs.”
“By Eleanor?”
“At first.”
“What kind of jobs?”
“Deliver envelopes. Pick up phones. Follow people.”
Maya’s face hardened.
“You followed me?”
“Once.”
She stepped back.
“Maya—”
“You let people take pictures of me.”
“I was trying to figure out what they wanted.”
“You always have a reason, Luis.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m lying.”
She turned away.
He said softly, “Mom asked me to watch out for you.”
Maya froze.
“Don’t.”
“I failed at that too.”
“Don’t use her.”
“I’m not.”
His voice cracked.
“For once, I’m not.”
Maya shut her eyes.
Luis had disappointed her so many times that anger had become easier than love.
But seeing him shot had ripped open something she had buried.
“Who is Adrian working with?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I met him twice. He never came alone.”
“Eleanor?”
“Sometimes.”
“So they were working together.”
“At first.”
Maya turned.
“At first?”
Luis nodded.
“Eleanor wanted Charles dead because of the money.”
“What money?”
“The Sterling trust.”
The door opened.
Mercer entered.
He had heard enough.
“What trust?”
Luis looked at him.
“Charles controls everything while he’s alive. If he dies, Eleanor receives nearly forty percent.”
“And Adrian?”
“Nothing.”
“Why?”
“Legally, he’s dead.”
Mercer leaned against the wall.
“So Eleanor wanted murder for inheritance. Adrian wanted revenge.”
Luis nodded.
“But they stopped trusting each other.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“What happened?”
“Adrian learned Eleanor planned to destroy him after Charles died.”
Maya felt the pieces shifting.
“Tonight wasn’t Adrian’s plan.”
“No.”
“So the video threat?”
Luis looked toward the door.
“That’s him taking over.”
Mercer’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
“Charles’s attorneys just sent something.”
He opened an encrypted file.
A scanned document appeared.
Sterling Family Trust Amendment.
Signed three months earlier.
Maya read the beneficiaries.
Then stopped.
“That can’t be right.”
Mercer looked at Charles through the glass wall across the corridor.
“What?”
Maya pointed.
The revised trust did not leave Eleanor forty percent.
It left her nothing.
The largest individual beneficiary was someone nobody expected.
Maya Reyes.
Her knees nearly gave out.
“What the hell is my name doing there?”
Luis closed his eyes.
He wasn’t surprised.
Maya turned toward him slowly.
“You knew?”
He whispered, “I knew there was a reason they chose you.”
“Why am I in Charles Sterling’s will?”
May you like
Luis looked terrified.
“Because Charles knew your mother.”
