Chapter 19
“Mr. Blackwood, this is the file you asked for.”
Sterling’s assistant placed a thick manila envelope on the table.
He opened it in silence.
Inside were the hospital records-crisp and damning. It was all there in black and white.
Scarlet had suffered a life-threatening illness when she was three.
Aurora had been conceived and brought into the world for one reason only: to provide the stem cells Scarlet needed to
survive.
Sterling’s fingers curled around the pages, his knuckles whitening.
He had always suspected favoritism in the Wyndham household.
But he had never imagined this.
There was something else in the envelope: a worn-out, scratched-up phone.
He recognized it instantly.
Aurora’s.
His assistant had retrieved the device from her previous apartment, recovered some of the deleted data, and traced its final location through the SIM card records.
Sterling hesitated for a moment before tapping in the passcode.
He tried 0616.
A soft chime. The phone unlocked.
His throat tightened.
June 16th. His birthday.
He scrolled through the phone, heart in his throat. Most apps had been signed out. Most data wiped. But not everything.
There were still photos. And texts.
The photo album hit him like a punch to the gut.
Clouds. Street flowers. Quiet skies.
And him. Again and again, him.
Photos of him at school. Him at the hospital. Him after his accident.
Even the class photo from when they were both teenagers-Aurora had kept everything.
18.81%
She had cherished it all, silently, patiently.
Sterling’s chest ached.
So many moments she had held onto-without asking for anything in return.
Her love had been like a lake: quiet, unwavering, and impossibly deep.
While he had trampled over it again and again, too blind to see.
He tapped open her messaging app.
The sender who had messaged Aurora most often wasn’t him.
It was Scarlet.
Message after message, photo after photo: wedding gowns, engagement rings, and intimate selfies with him.
Sterling scrolled lower.
And then the messages turned venomous.
[I heard you went to see Sterling again. Have you no shame? He’s your brother-in-law now. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?]
[Don’t you get it? I’m the one who’s always been with him. I’m the one he loves. Mom and Dad already agreed to help me. Stop being so delusional.]
[You were born because I needed you. You exist because of me. Everything you have-your life, your name-you owe to me. So everything I want, you’d better step aside and hand it over. Even Sterling.]
Sterling’s hands began to tremble.
His chest rose and fell in uneven waves, rage surging through every nerve.
This wasn’t just a simple case of mistaken identity.
This was a deliberate, cold-blooded deception.
A performance designed by Scarlet’s ego and fueled by her parents’ cruelty.
All those years lost.
All those memories twisted.
All because they needed Aurora to disappear.
He stood abruptly, voice low and deadly. “Bring Scarlet. Now.”
His assistant didn’t hesitate. “Yes, sir.”
Back at the Wyndham estate, Scarlet had locked herself in her room for hours.
When she finally heard that Sterling wanted to see her, her mood lifted instantly.
Her parents must’ve done their job, she thought smugly. Of course they convinced him.
She picked out a new dress, curled her hair, and reapplied her makeup meticulously.
As she stepped into the waiting car, she glanced at the driver and snapped, “Drive slow. I didn’t spend an hour on this face just for it to get ruined on the way.”
She adjusted her earrings in the mirror, smiling at her own reflection.
The driver remained silent. But his glance in the rearview mirror was cold, almost pitying.
It wasn’t the look gave a woman about to reunite with her fiancé.
It was the look gave someone walking into their own execution.
Because he knew Sterling far better than Scarlet ever had.
And she?
She was about to learn exactly what it meant to deceive a man who never, ever forgets.
