Chapter 7 - THE BETRAYAL INSIDE MY FAMILY
The room went completely silent.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The voice from the recording played again.
“Once Elena signs, the company will belong to us.”
I stared at the screen.
My hands became cold.
Because I knew that voice.
I had heard it thousands of times.
At family dinners.
At business meetings.
During holidays.
During the hardest moments of my life.
My father slowly looked at me.
“Elena…”
I couldn’t answer.
Because I already knew.
The man in the video was my uncle.
Victor Sterling.
My father’s younger brother.
The man who hugged me when I was a child.
The man who told me I was like a daughter to him.
The man who stood beside my father when he built Sterling International from nothing.
“No,” my father whispered.
His voice was broken.
“No. That can’t be true.”
Rachel paused the video.
“We need to verify everything before making accusations.”
My father looked at her.
“That’s my brother.”
His eyes stayed on the screen.
“My own brother.”
I sat down slowly.
My mind was racing.
All the strange things suddenly made sense.
The private information Diego somehow knew.
The business decisions he predicted.
The weaknesses he found.
Someone inside the family had been feeding him information.
Someone close.
Someone trusted.
Sofia stood quietly in the corner.
“I told you.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Diego wasn’t smart enough to plan all of this alone.”
My father looked angry.
“Then why did you help him?”
Her eyes dropped.
“Because I thought I was getting a future.”
She laughed bitterly.
“I thought he loved me.”
Nobody spoke.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message.
From Diego.
I opened it.
My blood turned cold.
A picture.
It was taken from outside the estate.
A picture of me standing in the window.
Under it were four words.
“Stop digging, Elena.”
My father saw it.
His expression changed instantly.
“He’s watching you.”
Rachel grabbed her phone.
“We need to increase security.”
But I couldn’t stop staring at the message.
For months, Diego tried to control me.
He wanted me scared.
Quiet.
Obedient.
But he made one mistake.
He hurt the wrong person.
I looked at my father.
“Don’t protect me by hiding me.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“I want to fight back.”
“Elena—”
“No.”
My voice became stronger.
“He took my trust. He tried to take my baby’s future. He tried to take everything my family built.”
I looked at the screen.
“At least now he knows I’m awake.”
My father stared at me.
Then slowly nodded.
“Okay.”
Rachel looked surprised.
“Okay?”
My father stood.
“If Diego wants a fight…”
His eyes hardened.
“He gets one.”
But none of us knew…
Diego was already preparing his next move.
And this time…
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He wasn’t trying to scare me.
He was trying to destroy me.
