Chapter 66

“Of course, Miss Sterling. I’ll take care of it right away.”

Michael agreed without hesitation.

The moment the call ended, however, he frowned.

Here we go again.

At this point, he was almost used to it. Some days he felt less like an assistant and more like a spy.

Fortunately, spies probably didn’t make as much money as he did.

And they had a much higher chance of getting killed.

Still, there was a problem. If Victoria wanted him to investigate someone else, that was one thing. But pulling security footage involving the chairman himself was another. In a family like the Sterlings, that crossed a line.

Michael didn’t make the decision himself. Instead, he immediately sent the request up the chain.

A few minutes later, Jonathan Reed’s approval came through.

Michael calmly switched windows and forwarded Victoria a compiled video file.

“Miss Sterling, I’ve sent you the footage. But because of the lighting that night and the camera angles, some areas may not have been captured clearly.”

Victoria opened the email on her computer and quickly went through the files.

The footage covered different parts of the estate, from the front entrance to the trees along the side garden, all in extremely high resolution.

One camera showed Richard striding in from outside with a grim expression. But the moment he rounded the corner of the main house, he disappeared into a large blind spot.

She could still hear him exchanging a few words with several of the guests, though the distance made the audio difficult to make out.

Charlotte’s voice definitely wasn’t among them.

But there was no video of what happened next.

A few faint sounds could be heard, but nothing more. Soon even those disappeared, probably because Richard had moved farther away.

Victoria frowned.

“What’s going on? Why would there be such a large blind spot around the pool?”

Michael sighed. “Miss Sterling, the security system was professionally designed and is regularly maintained. Its primary purpose is to prevent theft and outside intrusion, not to record the private lives of the people staying at the estate.”

He paused before continuing more carefully.

“For example, if you and your guests were swimming, or having a private conversation by the pool…”

He didn’t need to finish the thought.

“If every corner were covered by cameras twenty-four hours a day, that would create a privacy problem of its own. The pool and the area around the master suite have always had designated privacy zones.”

Victoria understood.

Swimming and private conversations weren’t the only things people might do beside a pool.

What if someone was being intimate with a partner?

Having security staff able to watch everything would be absurd.

Families like theirs valued privacy. If even the pool in their own backyard had cameras covering every possible angle, living there wouldn’t feel much different from being under surveillance.

Victoria had nothing to say to that.

Besides, although she knew the estate had security cameras, she had never bothered to find out exactly how many there were or where they were positioned.

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“All right. I understand.” Her voice lowered. “Don’t mention this to anyone.”

“Of course, Miss Sterling,” Michael replied with perfect sincerity. “I won’t mention it to anyone else.”

Which was technically true.

He had already told Jonathan.

There was no need to tell him twice.

Victoria ended the call.

Michael’s explanation made perfect sense, yet a faint trace of suspicion remained.

She opened her contacts and called the estate manager.

“Miss Sterling? What can I do for you?”

“I need you to confirm something for me.” Victoria kept her tone casual. “How many security cameras are currently operating around the east side of the main house and the rear garden?”

She heard a few keystrokes on the other end.

“Five, Miss Sterling. There are currently five cameras operating in that area. Would you like me to send you the camera layout, or should I forward it to Michael?”

Five.

Exactly the same number of camera feeds Michael had sent her.

That was enough to settle Victoria’s doubts.

She really had been overthinking it. When she considered it carefully, Michael had no reason to lie to her about something like this anyway.

She closed her laptop and was about to return to her assignment when her phone rang again.

This time, the caller was one of the senior members of the extended Sterling family. He was easygoing, well liked, and although he was no longer involved in the consortium’s core decisions, his opinion still carried some weight within the family.

Victoria answered immediately.

“Good evening, Uncle. What made you call this late?”

The elderly man laughed warmly.

“Victoria! I’m not interrupting your studying, am I?”

After a few minutes of small talk, he finally brought up the real reason for his call. His granddaughter wanted an internship in Sterling Consortium’s financial investment division.

Richard certainly wouldn’t concern himself with something as minor as an internship. But if Victoria put in a word and helped move the application through the internal process, it would save the family a great deal of trouble.

It was a small favor for her, and the girl’s qualifications were at least good enough to meet the basic requirements, so Victoria agreed.

Her uncle was delighted.

“Good, good. I knew I could count on you. Of everyone in your generation, you’ve always been the most outstanding, especially academically. Looks like your father really did make the right decision when he listened to that astrologer all those years ago.”

Victoria paused.

“An astrologer? What astrologer?”

“Hm? You don’t know?”

The old man chuckled, his voice taking on the nostalgic tone of someone digging through a decades-old memory.

“This was when your father was young. There was a well-known astrologer who used to advise several prominent families. He read your father’s chart once and said Richard was destined to have an exceptionally gifted child—someone capable of carrying on everything he built.”

He paused.

“I wasn’t there myself. I only heard the story from my older brother. But if I remember correctly, the astrologer said your father shouldn’t marry too early, or he’d ruin that destiny. You know your father—he’s never cared much for other people’s opinions. But apparently he took that one seriously. And look at him. He’s stayed single all these years!”

Victoria drew in a slow breath.

She only knew that her biological mother had died when she was very young. Richard never spoke about her, and Victoria had never dared ask many questions.

Whatever the reason, if her father remarried, she would have a stepmother. Who knew what her life would have been like then?

And if he had more children, whatever eventually came to her would inevitably be divided further.

From Victoria’s point of view, Richard remaining unmarried had always been the best possible arrangement.

Maybe that astrologer really had known what he was talking about.

Victoria’s fingers tightened slightly around her phone.

Of course.

That explained it.

Why would Richard, a man who normally had no interest in the petty conflicts of the younger generation, go out of his way to speak to Mr. Whitmore about Charlotte?

Because he was superstitious.

Richard Sterling might have built his entire life around numbers, logic, and calculated risk, but apparently even he had one irrational weakness: an old prediction he’d heard when he was young.

If someone had actually died violently on Sterling property, perhaps Richard believed it would bring bad luck to the estate.

No wonder he had been angry.

Victoria finally relaxed, a small smile appearing on her lips.

Everything made sense now.

And thank God she hadn’t stepped in to help Charlotte that night. If her father ever found out, he would probably have been furious with her too.

“Victoria? Victoria?”

Her uncle’s voice brought her back.

“I’m here.” Victoria smiled. “Don’t worry about the internship. I’ll have Michael coordinate with HR and make sure her application gets the proper internal referral. If she meets the requirements, there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Good, good! Thank you, Victoria!”

After the call ended, the elderly man turned toward his granddaughter, who had been waiting beside him with barely concealed excitement.

“It’s settled!”

He patted her shoulder, then noticed the strange expression on his wife’s face.

“What is it?”

His wife sighed.

“You really are getting forgetful. That isn’t what your older brother said back then.”

The old man blinked. “It isn’t?”

She shook her head. Her husband had always been absentminded, and at his age, remembering even half the story was apparently an achievement.

“What the astrologer actually said was that Richard’s marriage would come late. But when it did, he would meet an extraordinary woman—someone truly suited to him. They would be deeply compatible and have a happy marriage.”

Before retiring, she had been a professor of literature. Even now, her memory remained sharp.

“And there was another part,” she continued. “He said Richard’s chart showed a large and flourishing family, with more than one gifted child.”

Her husband stared at her.

The old prediction had never said Richard needed to remain unmarried so he could have one extraordinary heir.

Quite the opposite.

It said he would marry late, marry well—

and have more than one exceptional child.