Chapter 6 - THE MAN INSIDE STERLING
Daniel Cross had worked beside Julian for fifteen years.
He knew every acquisition.
Every debt agreement.
Every private investment.
Every password that mattered.
And apparently every family secret.
Julian’s expression went completely cold.
“You.”
Cross looked almost amused.
“Disappointed?”
“You run Meridian?”
“No.”
“Then who does?”
“People always ask for one villain because one villain feels manageable.”
I hated him immediately.
He looked at me.
“Ms. Arriaga, your family built half this city through arrangements nobody wanted explained publicly.”
“My family didn’t build Sterling Capital.”
“No. But your father helped save it.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“When?”
“After your father nearly bankrupted the firm protecting Meridian.”
There it was again.
The families were not competitors.
They were interconnected.
Cross continued:
“Sterling, Vance, Arriaga, Reed. Four families. One machine.”
“Why?”
“Public contracts.”
“Fraud?”
“Sometimes.”
“Bribery?”
“Sometimes.”
“Deaths?”
Cross smiled less.
“Those were never supposed to happen.”
The phrase made my blood run cold.
Julian stepped forward.
“Rafael?”
“I didn’t order it.”
“Who did?”
“Martin’s predecessor.”
“My father?”
“No.”
“Whose?”
Cross looked toward me.
“Teresa Arriaga’s.”
My grandfather.
I felt dizzy.
“My grandfather founded Meridian?”
“Part of it.”
My mother had never mentioned that.
Nothing surprised me anymore, but everything still hurt.
Cross continued.
“By the time your father inherited Arriaga Development, Meridian was already embedded in dozens of contracts.”
“So Dad couldn’t leave.”
“He could.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“Money.”
Simple.
Brutal.
Believable.
I asked:
“Where is my father?”
Cross’s smile disappeared.
“Alive.”
“Where?”
“With Martin Reed.”
“Voluntarily?”
“No.”
“Then the traffic footage?”
“Coerced.”
Julian said:
“The message from his phone?”
“Some were him. Some weren’t.”
I looked at Cross.
“You paid Mateo?”
“Martin did.”
“For the kiss?”
“For access to Selina.”
My stomach turned.
So Mateo’s explanation had been partly true.
He needed Selina.
But somebody had financed the entire scheme.
“Did Mateo know?”
Cross shrugged.
“He knew enough.”
That phrase had become another family curse.
People knew enough to be guilty.
Not enough to feel responsible.
Julian asked:
“Why reveal yourself?”
“Because this stage is over.”
“What stage?”
“The merger.”
My pulse jumped.
“What merger?”
“Arriaga and Vance.”
I laughed.
“The engagement is finished.”
Cross looked at me almost pityingly.
“The wedding was one option.”
“What’s the other?”
“Default.”
My father’s company owed Vance.
Vance owed Reed.
Reed owed Sterling-linked funds.
And Sterling apparently had liabilities hidden through Meridian.
One collapse could trigger all four.
Like dominoes arranged decades ago.
“You’re going to crash the companies.”
“No.”
“Then?”
“Consolidate them.”
Julian understood first.
“Under whose control?”
Cross smiled.
“Meridian Holdings.”
“Who owns it?”
“That is the question everybody should have asked fifteen years ago.”
He placed a folder on the desk.
Ownership schedule.
Most shares were hidden behind trusts.
But one beneficial owner held thirty-one percent.
T.A.
Teresa Arriaga?
My mother?
I stared.
Cross watched me.
“Surprised?”
“No.”
I was.
“Your mother has spent twenty years pretending she was merely the elegant wife beside a powerful developer.”
My throat tightened.
“She controls Meridian?”
“Partially.”
“Does Dad know?”
“He knows now.”
“Why would she let him be kidnapped?”
“Because your parents are on opposite sides.”
The words landed like a physical blow.
My mother had not been protecting my father.
She was fighting him.
Julian said:
“Teresa took the flash drive twelve years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Why preserve it?”
“Insurance.”
“Against who?”
Cross looked directly at him.
“Your father.”
I turned to Julian.
His face had gone pale.
Cross continued:
“The reason Teresa returned the drive to Daniela wasn’t fear.”
“She returned it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she wants Daniela to choose a side.”
“My mother broke into my apartment?”
“No.”
Cross smiled.
“I did.”
That meant my mother’s credential had been copied.
The warning note had come from Cross.
“You should have married Mateo.”
“Why?”
“Because the marriage would have stabilized the companies without bloodshed.”
“Bloodshed?”
Julian stepped forward.
“What are you planning?”
Cross’s smile disappeared.
“Nothing.”
Then he looked toward the windows.
“But Martin Reed is.”
An explosion shook the floor.
Glass trembled.
I screamed.
Julian pulled me down.
Smoke rose from the street several blocks away.
Cross swore.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Julian grabbed him by the jacket.
“What?”
Cross’s face changed for the first time.
Fear.
“Martin has your father.”
“My father is dead.”
Julian froze.
Cross stared.
“No.”
Silence.
“What did you say?”
“Your father isn’t dead.”
Julian released him.
Cross continued.
“He disappeared five years ago because Meridian needed everyone to believe he was gone.”
Julian’s face emptied.
“My father died in Switzerland.”
“No.”
“I identified the body.”
“You identified a closed coffin.”
That was true.
I saw it in Julian’s eyes.
He had never seen the body.
Cross whispered:
“Your father has been running Meridian with Teresa Arriaga for five years.”
I stopped breathing.
Julian looked at me.
My mother.
His father.
Together.
Cross’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face went white.
“What?”
Silence.
Then he slowly lowered the phone.
“That explosion was Martin.”
“What happened?”
Cross looked toward me.
“He just destroyed one of Meridian’s records facilities.”
“And my father?”
“We don’t know.”
Then Julian’s private line rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A familiar older male voice said:
“Hello, son.”
Julian stopped breathing.
His dead father continued:
“I think it’s time you met the woman who actually owns Meridian.”
Then my mother’s voice came onto the line.
“Daniela, sweetheart.”
May you like
My blood went cold.
“Come alone.”
