Chapter 3 - The Audit of LiesMy mother Eleanor frowned, setting her tea glass down with a light click. "Maya, stop being dramatic. Ethan made a mistake with the bottle, but you're making a spectacle out of an accident—"
"I am not your daughter, Eleanor," I revealed deadpan.
The air in the living room went instantly, terrifyingly ice-cold.
My father Richard stopped mid-breath. His face drained of every drop of color, turning an ugly, paper-white shade of green. His coffee cup trembled violently in his hand before slipping from his fingers, crashing onto the carpet floorboards where it shattered into fragments.
"Maya... what... what are you talking about?" Eleanor stammered, her voice shrinking into a high, pathetic squeak.
"Dr. Hayes found the titanium plate in my spine, Eleanor," I stated, stepping toward the coffee table, opening the leather binder to display the high-definition CT scans and DNA reports. "He found the pediatric surgery from thirty years ago. The surgery paid for by the Sterling Estate."
Eleanor’s jaw sagged open in total, speech-bound horror. She stumbled backward two steps, grabbing the back of the sofa to keep from collapsing flat onto the floor.
"Sterling...?" Ethan frowned, looking between our parents in sudden, panicked confusion. "Dad... what is she talking about?! Who is Sterling?!"
Richard sat frozen in his chair, his head bowed, his broad shoulders collapsing forward as tears of guilt and terror burst from his eyes.
"Thirty years ago," I continued, every word dropped into the quiet room like a slab of cold granite, "you were working as a secondary accountant for Sterling Logistics. When the Sterling family's three-year-old heiress—Victoria Sterling—was injured in a car accident and reported missing, you didn't report her location. You forged a birth certificate, changed her name to Maya, and raised her as a servant in your house to keep her real family's trust money quiet."
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Ethan jumped up from the sofa, his eyes bulging out of his head. "NO! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! YOU'RE MY SISTER! YOU'RE JUST A NOBODY!"
"I am Victoria Sterling, Ethan," I revealed softly, looking straight into the eyes of the brother who had smashed a glass bottle against my head. "And today... your family's lies come to an end."
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