Chapter 4 - THE ONE THING MONEY COULDN'T BUY
Daniel expected me to panic.
I became furious instead.
“Find him.”
“He's already being moved.”
“What?”
“My security team reached his school three minutes ago.”
“You had people watching Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me?”
“Yes.”
I slapped him.
The room went silent.
Two armed men stared at the floor.
Daniel's cheek reddened.
He did not move.
“You do not put surveillance on my brother without asking me.”
“Someone threatened him.”
“You didn't know that yesterday.”
“I knew someone might.”
“That doesn't give you ownership of us.”
His jaw tightened.
“No.”
He dismissed the guards.
Then said:
“You're right.”
That stopped me.
“I'm sorry.”
Powerful men apologizing shouldn't have been surprising.
With Daniel, it was.
Ethan arrived twenty minutes later.
Safe.
Annoyed.
Hungry.
I hugged him until he complained.
Then he asked the important question.
“What old laptop?”
I remembered.
My mother's laptop.
After she died, I'd boxed up her belongings.
The computer was in storage.
Why would anyone care?
We retrieved it under security.
The laptop barely started.
Inside was a folder I didn't recognize.
MAYA_SCHOOL
My mother had saved everything.
Assignments.
Scholarship letters.
My unpublished papers.
Including the adaptive timing model.
And an email.
From Julian.
Sent three months after I left MIT.
Mrs. Carter, Maya isn't answering. I need access to her full model for a project. She said I could use it.
I never said that.
My mother had replied:
If Maya wants you to have it, she'll send it herself.
Julian never received the file from her.
So how did my code end up inside Sterling's prototype?
Daniel's cyber team examined the laptop.
Then found evidence of a remote-access attempt.
Recent.
Someone had tried to enter my dead mother's computer six weeks earlier.
The source traced to a Sterling server.
Not Julian's.
Dr. Malcolm Voss's.
The chief engineer.
The man who laughed loudest when Daniel challenged me.
Daniel went completely still.
“We arrest him.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“No?”
“We watch him.”
“Why?”
“Because Voss didn't threaten Ethan himself.”
“How do you know?”
“He's too visible.”
Daniel stared.
“You're learning.”
“I don't like that sentence.”
For the next week, we built a trap.
We created a fake version of my timing algorithm.
Better than the original.
And deliberately let Voss discover it.
Forty-eight hours later, someone stole it.
But the file contained a hidden identifier.
It traveled from Sterling's network—
to a consulting company in Delaware—
to an encrypted server in Canada—
and finally to a competitor.
Helix Dominion.
Daniel's biggest industrial rival.
But that still wasn't the real shock.
The person receiving the file wasn't an engineer.
It was a federal prosecutor.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Sloan.
Daniel stared at the screen.
I looked at him.
“Why is a federal prosecutor stealing engineering data?”
He didn't answer.
“Daniel.”
His face became unreadable.
Finally:
“Because she isn't investigating my company.”
“What is she investigating?”
“Me.”
There it was.
The other half of Daniel Sterling.
Not CEO.
Not billionaire.
The man people whispered about.
Ports.
Protection.
Freight.
Organized crime.
I looked at him.
“What have you done?”
He didn't lie.
“Enough.”
I stood.
“Maya.”
“No.”
“You asked.”
“And I wish I hadn't.”
“You already knew.”
“I knew rumors.”
“They're true.”
My stomach turned.
“Have you killed people?”
Silence.
That was an answer.
I picked up my bag.
“Maya.”
“Don't.”
“I won't lie to you.”
“Congratulations.”
I reached the door.
Then he said:
“I've never hurt a child.”
I turned.
“What kind of defense is that?”
“A bad one.”
For once, Daniel Sterling looked ashamed.
“I became the thing my father trained me to become.”
“That doesn't mean you have to stay it.”
His eyes met mine.
“You think men like me get to walk away?”
“I think that's the first excuse you've given me.”
I left.
For three days, Daniel didn't contact me.
On the fourth, Malcolm Voss was found dead.
And the police came to my apartment.
Because the murder weapon—
May you like
was registered to Daniel Sterling.
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