Chapter 8 - The Emerald Compartment
A jeweler opened the antique pendant under Lucas’s supervision.
Beneath the emerald was a microscopic strip of photographic film.
The images showed ledger pages.
Secret accounts.
Payments.
Political donations.
Bribes.
Transfers from Sterling charities into private companies.
Evelyn had hidden proof inside the necklace itself.
One account immediately caught Lucas’s attention.
7712 – C. STERLING
More than seven million dollars had passed through it.
Lucas confronted Camille.
Her confidence disappeared.
“I didn’t know.”
“Seven million dollars appeared in your name and you never asked questions?”
“I thought it was a trust.”
The account had been created when she was eleven.
On the same night Evelyn died.
Martin had deposited money into it for years.
Lucas believed it was payment for silence.
Camille shook her head violently.
“I didn’t even know what I saw.”
“Martin did.”
That frightened her.
Someone had been quietly buying Camille’s silence before she was old enough to understand she possessed it.
Then Camille admitted another secret.
Three weeks before the engagement party, Martin had shown her a photograph.
It was Nora.
May you like
And he had given Camille a warning.
“If that woman enters this house, get rid of her.”
