"Julian was a partner," Claire countered. "And according to these, he owned forty percent of Sterling Group before he 'disappeared.'"
"The merger is finalized," Arthur said, not looking up from his steak. "Elias, you’ll be lead counsel. It’s time you earned the office." Incest Story
Elias looked between them, the world he had spent thirty years trying to fit into suddenly feeling like a house of cards. He realized then that his father’s coldness wasn't just discipline; it was distance—the distance of a man who looked at his son and saw a rival’s face. "Is it true?" Elias whispered. "Julian was a partner," Claire countered
The air in the room curdled. Claire looked at her brother, seeing the trap he was inadvertently setting. She hadn't come home for the company. She had come home because their mother’s private journals, found in a dusty attic in Paris, suggested that Arthur wasn’t the self-made titan he claimed to be—and that Elias might not be his biological son. It’s time you earned the office
Arthur didn't answer. He simply took a sip of wine, the silence stretching until it became a physical weight. In that moment, the Sterling family wasn't a dynasty; they were three strangers tied together by blood, lies, and a shared history that was beginning to burn.