Chapter two continues this story...

By six o'clock the following morning, the sun was just beginning to rise over the Long Island Sound, casting a cold, gray light across the manicured lawns of the estate.

Two black moving vans sat idling outside the main mansion.

I stood near the front porch with my arms crossed, watching as estate workers loaded Beatrice’s private luggage, antique furniture, and clothing racks into the back of the vehicles.

Beatrice stepped out onto the marble porch, wrapped in an expensive mink coat. Her face was pale, but her lips were pressed into a thin, bitter line. She didn't look at the workers. She walked straight up to me, stopping just inches away.

"You think you've won, don't you, Raymond?" she said, her voice dropping to an icy whisper.

"This wasn't a game, Beatrice," I replied, refusing to look down at her. "You broke the law, and you broke this family."

"I did what was necessary to preserve our legacy!" she snapped. "That girl is a poison! She corrupted Liam, she turned him against his own blood, and now she’s using that boy to secure a life of luxury she never earned!"

"Elena lives in a modest guest house and spends her days volunteering at the local children's hospital," I reminded her coldly. "You spend three hundred thousand dollars a year on private jets to Paris. Do not speak to me about luxury."

Beatrice let out a dry, bitter laugh. "You're so blind. You've always been blind when it came to Liam. You think he died in a simple training accident? You think a seasoned Special Forces officer just made a 'routine navigational error' during a night jump?"

A sudden, sharp coldness gripped my chest. I turned my eyes onto her, pinning her with a glare that could cut through steel. "What do you know about Liam's death, Beatrice?"

"I know that your precious son was investigating something he shouldn't have been investigating," she taunted, stepping closer. "I know that three weeks before his fatal crash, he called me from Fort Bragg. He wasn't calling to check on his aunt, Raymond. He was asking about Sterling Global’s supply routes in Eastern Europe."

My breath caught in my throat.

"Julian told you about the military report, didn't he?" Beatrice smiled, a sinister, victorious grin spreading across her face. "The military sealed the official investigation files for a reason, Raymond. They didn't seal them to protect national security. They sealed them to protect you."

"What are you talking about?!" I demanded, stepping forward, my voice rising for the first time.

"Ask Arthur Vance to request the un-redacted Department of Defense file," Beatrice whispered, her eyes shining with dark glee. "Ask him why your son was looking into your own company's shipping manifests. And ask yourself why the man who organized that night jump was promoted to Director of Logistics at Sterling Global three months after Liam died."

Without waiting for my response, Beatrice turned around, climbed into the back of her sleek black sedan, and slammed the door shut.

The car pulled away down the long gravel driveway, leaving me standing alone in the cold morning air, my mind reeling with a terrifying wave of suspicion.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Arthur immediately.

"Raymond?" Arthur answered, his voice groggy from sleep. "Is everything alright at the estate?"

"Arthur," I said, my voice trembling slightly. "I need you to use every contact you have in the Pentagon. I need the complete, un-redacted military inquiry file on Liam’s accident."

Arthur paused on the line. The silence stretched for five long seconds.

"Raymond... that file is classified under Special Operations Command," Arthur cautioned. "It took six months just to get the basic death certificate released."

"I don't care what it takes," I ordered, my eyes staring at the empty driveway where my sister had just vanished. "Find out who authorized that training exercise. Find out why my son was looking into Sterling Global. And find out why Captain Marcus Cole was hired by our company three months after my son died."

"Marcus Cole?" Arthur gasped, his voice suddenly filled with alarm. "Raymond... Marcus Cole is currently head of your private security division in Manhattan. He's the man Julian hired last year!"