Chapter 6 — The Account Beneath the Hospital
Chapter 6 — The Account Beneath the Hospital
Marcus had not slept for thirty-six hours.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the same things.
Khloe collapsing.
The baby's heartbeat slowing.
Isabella standing in the hospital corridor.
Vivian's face appearing on the screen.
And his mother's signature beneath a document that might determine his child's entire future.
But there was one thing Marcus couldn't stop thinking about.
David's final sentence.
The document is the reason someone has been trying to kill your baby.
And the document was supposedly hidden where his father died.
Marcus stood outside Khloe's room at dawn.
David approached.
“She's stable.”
Marcus nodded.
“The baby?”
“Stable.”
“Good.”
David hesitated.
“You should rest.”
“I'll rest when this is over.”
David looked at him.
“It may never be over.”
Marcus turned.
“Then I'll learn how to live with that.”
He glanced through the glass.
Khloe was sleeping.
Her hand rested protectively over her stomach.
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Where did my father die?”
David frowned.
“You know where.”
“No.”
David's expression changed.
“You were there.”
“I was fifteen.”
“You remember.”
“I remember the funeral.”
“Marcus…”
“I don't remember the room.”
David looked away.
“He died in the old Sterling Medical research building.”
Marcus froze.
“The hospital?”
“Yes.”
“Which floor?”
“Basement.”
Marcus stared.
“Why would my father die in a basement?”
David's face tightened.
“He wasn't supposed to.”
The old research building had been closed for years.
It stood behind the modern hospital, hidden beneath a row of newer structures.
Most employees didn't even know it existed.
Marcus did.
Barely.
He remembered visiting his father there as a child.
A narrow corridor.
White walls.
A strange smell of disinfectant.
His father's office at the end.
And a locked door.
He had forgotten almost everything else.
Until now.
Marcus, David, and Elaine entered through a secured service entrance.
The elevator descended.
One floor.
Two.
Three.
Then stopped.
The doors opened.
Cold air rushed over them.
Elaine shivered.
“This place hasn't been used in years.”
David looked around.
“It was supposed to be demolished.”
“Why wasn't it?”
David didn't answer.
Marcus stepped forward.
His shoes echoed against the concrete floor.
They passed abandoned laboratories.
Broken equipment.
Old filing cabinets.
Then Marcus stopped.
A door stood at the end of the corridor.
The number on it was faded.
B-17.
Marcus stared.
“My father's office.”
David nodded.
Marcus tried the handle.
Locked.
Elaine produced a set of tools.
“Give me thirty seconds.”
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
He reached into his pocket.
His father's old key was still there.
He inserted it.
The lock clicked.
The door opened.
The office looked exactly as Marcus remembered.
A wooden desk.
Two bookshelves.
A leather chair.
A framed photograph of his parents.
Dust covered everything.
But something was wrong.
The desk was clean.
Not dusty.
Marcus approached.
“Someone has been here.”
Elaine nodded.
“Recently.”
She examined the surface.
“There are fingerprints.”
David walked toward the bookshelf.
Marcus noticed a small metal box.
It was hidden behind several books.
He pulled it out.
A keypad.
Four digits.
He tried his father's birthday.
Nothing.
His mother's.
Nothing.
His own.
Nothing.
Then he remembered something.
The day his father died.
He entered the date.
The box opened.
Inside was a single USB drive.
And a bank card.
Marcus picked up the card.
It had no name.
Only a number.
8841-7732-019.
Elaine looked at it.
“What is that?”
Marcus shook his head.
“I don't know.”
David stared.
Then his face went pale.
“You shouldn't have found that.”
Marcus looked at him.
“You know what it is.”
David didn't answer.
“Uncle David.”
“It's an account.”
“What kind?”
David swallowed.
“A trust account.”
Marcus looked at the card.
“How much?”
David shook his head.
“You don't want to know.”
Marcus's voice became colder.
“How much?”
David whispered:
“Four hundred and eighty-seven million dollars.”
Silence.
Marcus stared at the card.
“Whose money?”
“Your father's.”
“That can't be.”
“He created it privately.”
“When?”
“Two years before his death.”
“Why?”
David looked toward the photograph.
“To protect someone.”
“Who?”
David didn't answer.
Marcus looked at the USB drive.
“Let's find out.”
They returned to the security room.
The USB drive contained only one file.
PROJECT DAWN.
Marcus opened it.
A list appeared.
Names.
Dates.
Account numbers.
Company transfers.
Pharmaceutical transactions.
Political donations.
Illegal acquisitions.
Marcus stared.
“This is everything.”
David nodded.
“Everything your grandfather tried to erase.”
Marcus scrolled.
Millions had been transferred through shell companies.
Some accounts belonged to Sterling subsidiaries.
Others belonged to politicians.
Others belonged to private individuals.
And one account appeared repeatedly.
8841-7732-019.
The hidden trust.
Marcus clicked.
A balance appeared.
$487,621,903.17
He stared.
“Why would my father hide nearly half a billion dollars?”
Elaine leaned closer.
“Look at the beneficiaries.”
Marcus opened the file.
There were three names.
Khloe Thorne.
Marcus Thorne.
And:
Unborn Child — Sterling Bloodline.
Marcus couldn't breathe.
David stepped backward.
“The account was created for the baby.”
Marcus looked at him.
“But my father died years before Khloe became pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“That means…”
David nodded slowly.
“He knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That one day you would have a child.”
Marcus stared.
“That's impossible.”
“Not necessarily.”
David pointed to the account creation date.
Twenty years earlier.
Marcus was only twenty-three.
Khloe wasn't even in his life.
Then Marcus noticed something else.
The account wasn't created by his father alone.
There was another trustee.
A name.
Marcus's mother.
His heart sank.
“She knew about this.”
“Yes.”
“Why did she never tell me?”
David looked away.
“Because the money was never meant to belong to you.”
Marcus frowned.
“Then who?”
“The child.”
Marcus leaned back.
Everything was becoming connected.
The altered prenup.
The Legacy Trust.
Vivian.
Isabella.
The Bloodline Provision.
And now this hidden fortune.
His father had anticipated all of it.
But one question remained.
Why?
He opened the transaction history.
The earliest transfers were from Sterling companies.
Then pharmaceutical corporations.
Then private equity funds.
But there was something strange.
The money had stopped moving three years before his father died.
Marcus scrolled farther.
One final transaction appeared.
A transfer of $50 million.
Recipient:
Aurelia Holdings LLC.
Marcus froze.
“Vivian.”
David stared at the screen.
“That can't be.”
“Why?”
“Because Aurelia Holdings didn't exist when your father died.”
Marcus looked at the date.
The transaction occurred eighteen months after his father's death.
He turned.
“Then my father didn't authorize this.”
Elaine shook her head.
“Someone accessed the trust after his death.”
“Who?”
They followed the authorization code.
It belonged to the trustee.
Marcus's mother's credentials.
His mother had supposedly died six years ago.
But the transfer occurred four years after her death.
Marcus stared.
“Someone was using her identity.”
David's face hardened.
“Or she wasn't dead.”
Marcus turned.
“What?”
David looked horrified by his own thought.
“No.”
“What are you saying?”
“I don't know.”
“Say it.”
David swallowed.
“If your mother was alive…”
He stopped.
Marcus understood.
“She could have been working with Vivian.”
“Yes.”
“And transferring the money.”
“Yes.”
“Then why fake her death?”
David shook his head.
“To disappear.”
Elaine suddenly pointed to the screen.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“There was another transfer.”
She opened it.
$10 million.
Recipient:
Sterling Obstetric Research Foundation.
Date:
Three months ago.
Marcus frowned.
“That's this hospital.”
“Yes.”
“Why would my father's trust fund the hospital?”
Elaine opened the details.
The payment had been marked:
PRENATAL RESEARCH / BLOODLINE STUDY.
Marcus's face went cold.
“Bloodline study?”
David stepped closer.
“That's not a normal medical term.”
Marcus opened the attached report.
It contained Khloe's name.
His.
And their unborn child.
Marcus's stomach turned.
“They've been studying our baby.”
David stared.
“Without your permission?”
“Apparently.”
Marcus scrolled.
The report was incomplete.
Most of the data had been deleted.
But one line remained.
GENETIC MATCH: 99.97% — CONFIRMED DESCENDANT OF EDWARD STERLING.
Marcus stared.
“We knew the baby was my child.”
David shook his head.
“That's not what this means.”
“What?”
“The test wasn't only checking your child against you.”
He pointed.
“It was checking the child against Edward Sterling.”
Marcus's blood ran cold.
“Why?”
David's face went pale.
“Because they were looking for something specific.”
“What?”
Before David could answer, the lights went out.
Again.
Elaine immediately reached for her weapon.
“Someone is in the building.”
Marcus grabbed the USB drive.
Footsteps echoed outside.
Slow.
Heavy.
Approaching.
David whispered:
“Turn off the monitor.”
Marcus did.
The room went black.
The footsteps stopped outside the door.
Then someone knocked.
Three times.
Marcus held his breath.
A woman's voice came through.
“Marcus.”
He recognized it.
Isabella.
He opened the door.
She stood in the hallway.
Alone.
Her face was pale.
“What are you doing here?” Marcus demanded.
“I came to warn you.”
“About what?”
She looked at David.
Then at the USB drive.
“You found the account.”
Marcus froze.
“How do you know?”
“Because Vivian knows too.”
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why are you here?”
Isabella stepped closer.
“Because that account isn't what you think.”
Marcus frowned.
“Four hundred eighty-seven million dollars is pretty difficult to misunderstand.”
“It's not your father's money.”
Marcus stared.
“What?”
“It belongs to the people your family stole from.”
David's expression changed.
“What did Vivian tell you?”
“She told me everything.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“Then tell me.”
Isabella looked at him.
“That account was created to compensate victims.”
“Victims of what?”
“The original Sterling fraud.”
Marcus looked at David.
“Is that true?”
David didn't answer.
Isabella continued.
“Your father discovered what your grandfather had done.”
“And created the trust.”
“Yes.”
“To repay everyone?”
“Yes.”
Marcus looked at the balance.
“Then why did he leave it to my child?”
“Because he needed a legal heir to unlock it.”
Marcus frowned.
“Unlock what?”
“The evidence.”
Silence.
Isabella lowered her voice.
“The money isn't the weapon.”
“What is?”
“The account contains a second layer.”
She looked at the USB drive.
“A list.”
“What list?”
“Every person who helped your family bury the truth.”
Marcus felt a chill.
“Politicians?”
“Yes.”
“Judges?”
“Yes.”
“Police?”
“Yes.”
“Doctors?”
“Yes.”
Isabella nodded.
“And one name is more important than all the others.”
“Whose?”
Isabella looked directly at Marcus.
“Your mother.”
Marcus felt as though someone had punched him.
“No.”
Isabella nodded.
“She was the trustee.”
“She was forced.”
“No.”
“She was protecting me.”
“She was protecting herself.”
Marcus shook his head.
“You're lying.”
Isabella pulled out her phone.
“I have proof.”
She showed him a photograph.
His mother.
Standing beside Vivian.
Alive.
Healthy.
Taken two years after the family claimed she had died.
Marcus stared.
His entire world seemed to collapse.
“When was this taken?”
“Four years ago.”
“That means…”
“She was alive.”
David closed his eyes.
Marcus turned toward him.
“You knew.”
David shook his head.
“I swear I didn't.”
“You knew she might be alive.”
“I suspected.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was trying to find her.”
Marcus looked back at the photograph.
His mother was holding something.
A folder.
Marcus zoomed in.
On the folder was a symbol.
The same three-pointed star.
The Sterling bloodline seal.
And beneath it was a handwritten label.
PROJECT DAWN — FINAL BENEFICIARY.
Marcus whispered:
“What is Project Dawn?”
Isabella looked at him.
“Your mother created it.”
“Why?”
“She wasn't trying to save the Sterling fortune.”
“What was she trying to save?”
Isabella's voice dropped.
“The child.”
Marcus stared.
“Which child?”
Isabella looked toward the hospital above them.
“Yours.”
The next morning, Marcus returned to Khloe's room.
She was awake.
He sat beside her.
“We found something.”
Khloe looked at him.
“What?”
“A hidden account.”
“How much?”
“Almost half a billion dollars.”
Her eyes widened.
“Whose?”
“My father's.”
“Why would he hide that?”
Marcus took her hand.
“For our child.”
Khloe looked frightened.
“Marcus…”
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“My mother may still be alive.”
Khloe stared.
“What?”
“I don't know for certain.”
“Then find her.”
“I will.”
Khloe's eyes filled with tears.
“But first…”
She touched her stomach.
“Find out why everyone is so afraid of our baby.”
Marcus leaned forward.
“I promise.”
Outside the room, a security alarm suddenly sounded.
A nurse rushed past.
Then another.
Marcus stood.
“What happened?”
A security officer appeared at the doorway.
“Mr. Thorne.”
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“The hospital's underground vault was breached.”
Marcus's blood went cold.
“What was stolen?”
The officer hesitated.
“One thing.”
“What?”
“A physical copy of the Sterling Bloodline records.”
Marcus looked at David.
“Who took it?”
The officer swallowed.
“We don't know.”
Then he handed Marcus a photograph from the security camera.
The image showed a woman walking through the underground corridor.
Silver hair.
Black coat.
A familiar face.
Vivian Thorne.
Alive.
Marcus stared at the photograph.
Then his phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
You found the money.
Another message followed.
Now find your mother.
Then a third.
Before I find your child.
Marcus looked toward Khloe's room.
For the first time, he realized the hidden fortune wasn't the end of the mystery.
It was the beginning.
May you like
Because somewhere beneath the Sterling empire was a secret worth more than four hundred million dollars.
And someone was willing to kill to keep it buried.
