Chapter 7 - The Box Anna Never Mentioned
Helen stared at the strip.
“I wore that locket every day for twenty-eight years.”
Naomi examined the image.
“And never knew the capsule was part of the clasp?”
“No.”
Adrian asked, “Could Anna have put it there?”
“She repaired the chain once before she left.”
Helen’s hand went to her throat.
“She must have.”
The strip contained three things.
LISBON COMMERCIAL BANK
BOX 4117
M.H.
Naomi said, “M.H.?”
Helen shook her head.
“No idea.”
Adrian immediately wanted someone in Portugal.
Anna had told him not to move for three days.
He lasted four minutes.
Naomi stopped him.
“If this is Anna’s contingency plan, charging into a bank may be exactly what Walter expects.”
Adrian looked at Helen.
“What would Anna do?”
Helen considered.
“She would ask why the information was hidden in something she gave me.”
“Because she trusted you.”
“No.”
Helen’s eyes narrowed.
“Because she expected somebody to find it after she couldn’t speak.”
The implication hung heavily.
Lucas examined the clasp.
The capsule was old.
Corroded.
Not recently planted.
Whatever Anna had hidden there had been waiting since 1998.
Adrian contacted no bank.
Instead Naomi quietly hired Portuguese counsel to determine whether Lisbon Commercial Bank still existed.
It did.
Merged twice.
Records archived.
Box 4117 had belonged to Marina Hale.
M.H.
Martin Hale’s wife.
The attorney Anna had contacted before the crash.
Martin Hale died in 2007.
His widow Marina was eighty-one and living outside Cascais.
Naomi located her.
“Do we call?”
Adrian asked.
Helen answered.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Anna said three days.”
“You’re suddenly comfortable following instructions?”
“No.”
Helen looked tired.
“I’m comfortable learning from your mistakes.”
Adrian accepted that.
Barely.
Meanwhile the board crisis intensified.
Walter circulated the proposed Blackwake transaction.
Sterling Oceanic would lease most of its fleet to newly formed special-purpose entities controlled by Blackwake, receive $4.8 billion in cash and refinance debt.
On the surface, the deal looked sophisticated.
Potentially brilliant.
Underneath, Naomi found poison.
Historical liabilities remained in Sterling Oceanic Holdings.
The valuable ships moved elsewhere.
Adrian read the structure.
“They’re gutting the company.”
“They’re monetizing it.”
“For whose benefit?”
“Shareholders get a large distribution.”
“Walter.”
“Walter. Monica. You too.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Money rarely asks permission before making people look compromised.”
Adrian stared at the projected payout attached to his shares.
More than two billion dollars.
Walter could tell the world Adrian opposed the deal only after learning Anna might reclaim stock.
Everything could be spun.
Monica entered that afternoon with her lawyer.
She requested a private settlement meeting.
Adrian refused until Helen asked to attend.
Monica looked at Helen’s empty neck.
“They didn’t find it?”
Helen said nothing.
Monica tried to hide relief.
Adrian noticed.
“You wanted the locket gone.”
“I was angry.”
“You had searched Helen’s employee profile twelve days earlier.”
“My father asked me to.”
Finally.
An admission.
“Why?”
“He said Helen had stolen from the family years ago.”
Helen laughed.
“What?”
Monica snapped.
“He said you took documents from Anna.”
“I saved Anna’s life.”
“You helped her disappear.”
“She was being hunted by your father.”
Monica looked at Adrian.
“You’re believing her because you want Anna alive.”
“I heard Anna’s voice.”
Monica went still.
Adrian watched the fear return.
“She called.”
Monica whispered, “You spoke to her?”
“Yes.”
Monica sat down.
Her lawyer told her not to speak.
She ignored him.
“My father said she was unstable.”
“So did Walter.”
“He said she tried to destroy the company because Charles refused to give her control.”
Helen leaned forward.
“Were you at the Breakwater Hotel?”
Monica closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Adrian’s breath caught.
“What did you see?”
“My father took me because he didn’t want anyone to think he was meeting someone secretly.”
“Anna?”
“Yes.”
“You knew she survived.”
“I knew she was alive three days later.”
“And in 2006 you signed an affidavit stating nobody in the family had credible evidence.”
Monica’s face tightened.
“I did what my father told me.”
“You were twenty-four.”
“I was financially dependent on him.”
“So you lied under oath.”
Her lawyer finally interrupted forcefully.
Monica stood.
Adrian said, “Sit down.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You don’t order me around.”
“You wanted a settlement.”
Monica looked at Helen.
Then back at Adrian.
“I can help you.”
“With what?”
“The Blackwake vote.”
“You support it.”
“Publicly.”
Walter’s daughter lowered her voice.
“If Anna is alive, that deal is the least of my father’s problems.”
Adrian studied her.
“What do you want?”
“Protection.”
Helen laughed bitterly.
“From the man you protected for twenty-eight years?”
Monica looked at her.
“You think being Walter Sterling’s daughter is protection?”
For the first time, something human appeared beneath the arrogance.
Fear.
Old fear.
Adrian said, “What do you know?”
Monica looked at her lawyer.
He shook his head.
She spoke anyway.
“My father has a room in his Palm Beach house.”
“What kind of room?”
“Archive. No network connection. Paper files. Drives. Old recordings.”
“Meridian?”
“Yes.”
“Anna?”
“Yes.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“What about Anna?”
Monica swallowed.
“There are photographs.”
“Of what?”
“Her after the accident.”
Helen stopped breathing.
Monica continued.
“And letters she wrote you.”
Adrian’s face went blank.
“My letters?”
“My father intercepted them.”
“How many?”
“I saw three.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“And you said nothing.”
Monica looked ashamed.
“No.”
Adrian stood.
“Get out.”
“Adrian—”
“Get out.”
“You need me.”
“I needed you twenty years ago.”
Monica flinched.
Then Helen spoke.
“What was in the letters?”
Monica looked toward her.
“One asked Adrian to meet her in Boston.”
Adrian gripped the chair.
“When?”
“2002.”
The first attempt.
Monica continued.
“The second was after Charles died.”
“The third…”
She stopped.
Adrian said, “What?”
Monica looked at him.
“The third was two months ago.”
The room went silent.
Adrian stared.
“Anna contacted me two months ago?”
Monica nodded.
“My father intercepted it before it reached your office.”
“What did she say?”
May you like
Monica whispered:
“She said she was coming home.”
