Chapter 5 - The Sister’s Silence Breaks
Before Arthur could read the first line of the audit, a sharp gasp came from the third row.
Amber, my younger sister, who had spent the entire evening slumped in her chair texting on her phone, suddenly dropped the device. The glass screen cracked against the stone floor. She rose to her feet, her hands shaking, her face paper-white.
"Mom," Amber whispered, her voice trembling. "Mom, stop talking. Please stop."
Patricia spun toward her, eyes wild with fury. "Amber! Sit down! Support your brother! Your sister is trying to ruin us out of sheer malice!"
"She isn't ruining us!" Amber cried out, tears streaming down her face. She took a staggering step forward, looking at me with a mixture of terror and overwhelming shame. "Elena... Elena, I'm sorry. I knew."
The entire room seemed to hold its breath. Patricia’s jaw dropped. "Amber, what are you saying?!"
"I knew what Mom and Derek were doing to Dad," Amber sobbed, completely breaking down in front of the four hundred silent witnesses. "After you left, Derek started losing money in the offshore markets. He was gambling on supply chain derivatives. He lost three hundred thousand dollars in six months."
She looked at me, her hands clasped against her chest in a desperate plea for understanding. "Mom told me that if I said anything, they would kick me out too. She told me I'd end up like you—dead in a ditch or scrubbing floors. So I kept my mouth shut. When Dad started coughing up blood, Derek refused to call an ambulance because he didn't want the EMTs to see the condition of the house! They hid his medical mail!"
"Shut up, you ungrateful little brat!" Patricia shrieked, lunging toward Amber with her hands raised.
"Hold her!" Master Chief Hayes barked.
Two female officers immediately flanked Patricia, catching her by the wrists and forcing her arms down before she could strike her own daughter. Patricia fought against their grip like a cornered animal, screaming obscenities that stripped away the last shreds of her high-society veneer.
"Amber," I said gently, looking at the girl who had been only twelve when I was thrown out into the rain. "Where did the rest of Dad’s personal effects go? The naval chest he inherited from his grandfather?"
Amber wiped her tears with trembling fingers, pointing directly at Patricia’s handbag. "She pawned the grandfather's medals three weeks ago to pay the security deposit on Derek's new sports car. But she kept the pawn slip in her purse because she was planning to buy them back once Derek got the naval logistics contract tonight."
A collective, visceral growl rolled through the ballroom. Pawning a veteran's medals was an unforgivable sacrilege in this room.
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Admiral Sterling leaned down, whispering something to the Master-at-Arms standing by the door. The officer nodded sharply and immediately pulled a radio to his collar.
"Mrs. Vance," Sterling said, his eyes freezing over with absolute, unyielding coldness. "You are not just leaving this hall in disgrace. You are leaving it under criminal investigation."
