“They paid off key individuals to bury the hit-and-run completely,” the investigator explained as I turned the pages of the report.
There was an even more sinister layer to the story. Sophia was currently engaged to Brandon Sterling, the sole heir of the powerful Sterling Realty Group. Brandon’s father, Harrison Sterling, was an influential billionaire known throughout the region for fiercely guarding his family reputation and funding a massive pediatric healthcare charity. Sophia knew with absolute certainty that if Harrison discovered her drunk-driving hit-and-run, the wedding would be canceled instantly and her entry into high society would vanish.
She had hired a shady intermediary to visit Evelyn in the hospital, offering her a paltry two hundred thousand dollars to sign a strict non-disclosure agreement while her medical bills continued to pile up exponentially. But when legal costs and secondary hush-money demands surged out of control, Sophia found herself completely cornered. She used her temporary administrative credentials at the Sterling Children’s Foundation, where she volunteered in public relations, to siphon out one million dollars through fraudulent vendor invoices and fractional transfers.
My sister had stolen a million dollars meant for sick children undergoing life-saving surgeries just to hide a crime she committed. An external independent audit of the foundation was set to begin in exactly twelve days, meaning the missing million had to be restored before the forensic accountants cross-examined the ledger. That was the sole reason my parents had resurfaced after nineteen years of total absence.
Two days later, Sophia barged straight into my executive suite at the firm without an appointment, pushing right past my assistant and slamming the door behind her. She no longer resembled the pristine, polished socialite featured in lifestyle magazines, as her hair was disheveled and her hands trembled visibly.
“Where is the money transfer, Serena?” she demanded, walking right up to my desk.
I remained comfortably seated in my leather chair. “Good morning to you as well, Sophia.”
“Do not play games with me!” she yelled, slamming her palm onto the glass desk. “If you do not execute that wire transfer today, I will go straight to the press and tell everyone you are a cold, bitter woman who abandoned her own flesh and blood, and we will see if your business partners still want to do deals with a monster who lets her sister go to prison!”
I quietly locked eyes with her for a long moment. “Was Evelyn Miller also abandoning you when you left her bleeding inside her crushed car on Hennepin Avenue?”
Her face went pale in a fraction of a second, revealing every ounce of her guilt. “You do not know a single thing about what happened that night!”
