Chapter 11 - What Rose Hid
Arthur’s information helped investigators locate several old Sterling accounts.
But Rose’s notebooks contained something more personal.
Nora found a photograph tucked inside the back cover.
Rose held six-year-old Nora in her arms.
Evelyn Sterling stood beside them.
All three were smiling.
On the back, Evelyn had written:
Protect her as if she were mine.
Nora read the sentence repeatedly.
“Why would she write that?”
Lucas had no answer.
Medical files from the year Nora was born were sealed.
Harrison refused to discuss them.
That only made Lucas more determined.
A court order opened the records.
The result stunned everyone.
Rose Hale had not given birth to Nora.
A second sealed document listed the biological mother.
Evelyn Sterling.
Nora stared at the page until the words blurred.
“No.”
Lucas felt his own knees weaken.
Nora Hale—the maid Camille had nearly struck in front of two hundred guests—was Evelyn’s daughter.
Lucas’s half-sister.
Camille’s half-sister.
The necklace had never been stolen.
May you like
It had been passed from mother to daughter.
And Harrison Sterling had known all along.
