Chapter 548
Chapter 547:
Carmen sat on the edge of a plush armchair in the study, her hands wrapped around a cup of tea she hadn’t touched. Across from her, Justin leaned against the heavy oak desk with his arms crossed over his chest. The fragile peace they had forged since her memories returned hung between them, a delicate thing they were both terrified of breaking.
A sleek black courier box sat on the desk between them. It had arrived twenty minutes ago, unannounced and bearing no return address.
“It’s from him, isn’t it?” Carmen’s voice was barely above a whisper, hardly disturbing the quiet.
Justin’s jaw was a hard, tight line. He didn’t need to ask who “him” was. The name Conrad Sterling had been hanging over their heads for days — a ghost from a past he had tried to bury.
ո𝗲𝗐 𝘄𝖾e𝘬𝗅у с𝗁𝖺𝗉𝘁𝘦𝘳s 𝗈𝗇
“We don’t know that,” Justin said, though his voice lacked conviction. He reached out and flipped open the lid of the box.
Inside, nestled on a bed of black satin, was a single pristine business card. Sterling & Associates. Political Consulting. Beside it lay a small plastic evidence bag containing a single jagged piece of dark blue metal — a shard of paint from a car.
Carmen’s breath hitched in her throat. She recognized the color instantly. It was the same shade as the car in the faded photographs of her parents.
Justin’s phone buzzed on the desk. The screen lit up with a blocked number.
He stared at it for a long moment before pressing the speakerphone button. A cold, cultured voice filled the room, as smooth and sterile as a surgeon’s scalpel.
“Senator Collins,” Conrad Sterling said. “I trust my message was received p>
“What do you want, Conrad?” Justin’s voice dropped dangerously low.
“A simple matter of political alignment,” Sterling replied, unhurried. “Your recent rise in the polls is somewhat inconvenient. I’m advising you to withdraw your support for the financial regulation bill. Publicly. Consider it a course correction for the good of the market p>
“And if I don’t?” Justin challenged.
A soft chuckle came through the speaker. “Then I’ll be forced to release my full, unredacted file on the Golden family accident. I imagine the press would be fascinated to learn that your first wife didn’t die in a simple car crash. The truth about that bridge is so much more tragic. It would be a shame for such a messy, private grief to derail a promising political career p>
The threat was delivered without a trace of emotion. It wasn’t an attack on Carmen — it was a political assassination, her past used as the bullet.
Carmen felt a surge of cold fury. This man was discussing her mother’s death as though it were a chess piece.
“You son of a bitch,” she hissed into the phone.
Sterling paused. “Ah, Mrs. Collins. I’m glad you’re there. It saves me a second call. I hope you’ll help your husband see reason. You, of all people, know how devastating the truth can be p>
The line went dead.
The silence that followed was heavy and suffocating. Justin stood frozen, his knuckles white where they gripped the edge of the desk. Carmen stared at the shard of blue metal — the symbol of her family’s destruction, now being used as a leash.