Chapter 6 - THE STERLING FAMILY SECRET
The silence in the underground archive room was absolute.
I stared at the yellowed piece of paper as if it were written in a foreign language.
"Richard Sterling," I murmured, the pieces suddenly clicking together in a terrifying sequence. "The chairman of the hospital’s financial board. The man I heard talking to Lillian Vance in Room 414 tonight."
Ethan’s jaw tightened. "He didn't just sit on the financial board, Serena. His family owned the private trust that funded this entire hospital wing back in the nineties. If your mother was pressured into giving you up, or if her signature was forged..."
"I wasn't adopted by strangers," I interrupted, a wave of cold realization washing over me. "I was taken from my biological mother and handed over to the Sterling family's inner circle—or traded away to cement a hospital merger—and then somehow, years later, I found my way back here as a doctor."
"Or maybe it wasn't an accident that you ended up working at Mercy General," Ethan said quietly, looking deep into my eyes. "Maybe someone pulled strings to get you here, keeping you close so you wouldn't start asking questions about where you came from."
Before I could answer, a sharp metallic click echoed from the doorway of the archive room.
We both spun around.
The heavy steel door, which we thought we had propped open with a rubber wedge, had swung completely shut.
And the deadbolt clicked from the outside.
"Hey!" Ethan shouted, rushing to the door and throwing his weight against the metal handle. "Open this door!"
A muffled laugh echoed from the hallway through the thick steel.
It was Richard Sterling’s voice.
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"Mr. Carter, you really should learn to leave family heirlooms alone," Richard’s voice called out, cold and mocking. "The ventilation system in that archive room shuts off automatically at midnight. Enjoy your history lesson."
The sound of footsteps faded away down the concrete corridor, leaving us locked in the dark basement vault.
