Chapter 96

It took Elena a few seconds to realize Richard was talking about Victoria.

"I've also barred her from internships or employment in any of Sterling Consortium's core business divisions for the next five years," Richard said calmly.

He briefly explained what had been arranged, and Elena finally understood.

"But... she's your daughter." Elena hesitated. "Even with a formal notice, if you're legally father and daughter, can you really separate her from the business that cleanly? Especially if she owns shares in the Consortium?"

Richard gave her a long look.

"Victoria's trust is purely financial. Cash, marketable securities, overseas investments. It doesn't contain any controlling or core equity in Sterling Consortium."

He paused.

"My father's estate plan was explicit. The family holdings accumulated over generations—the shares, land, collections, offshore assets, everything of significance—passed to me."

His tone remained matter-of-fact.

"Victoria's trust gives her no ownership interest in the Consortium's core holdings, and my father's estate plan gave her no separate claim to the family assets he left behind."

Something shifted in Elena's expression.

"But if she's your daughter, then depending on your biological relationship and how her legal status was established—"

"She isn't actually my daughter."

Elena froze.

Richard continued evenly.

"We're related by blood. Just not as father and daughter."

"Wait."

Elena stared at him.

"What?"

"Victoria grew up in the United States. She's an American citizen, and her legal and financial arrangements have always been separate from mine."

Elena was still trying to process the first part.

"You said you're related by blood. What exactly does that mean?"

The original story had never made it clear whether Victoria was truly Richard's biological daughter.

And now—

Elena liked Richard.

Whatever the truth about Victoria's parentage, it wasn't going to change how she felt about him.

She had never considered herself particularly virtuous, and she certainly didn't require the man she loved to qualify for some imaginary Father of the Year award.

Besides, if Richard were truly obsessed with conventional morality, he probably wouldn't be dating his supposed daughter's former classmate in the first place.

That particular detail had never seemed to trouble him.

Still...

She was curious.

And she wanted to know more about the man she was with.

"We're blood relatives," Richard said at last. "I'm her uncle."

Elena blinked.

"Your brother is her father?"

"Yes."

Richard's expression barely changed.

"My father didn't want my brother publicly acknowledged as the father of an illegitimate child. Making Victoria my daughter in the eyes of everyone else solved several problems at once."

Elena raised a hand.

"Wait. Was it your father who thought you having a secret daughter wouldn't matter, or did you also not care?"

"Both."

Richard sounded completely unconcerned.

"As far as the public was concerned, she was my daughter. That was all it was ever meant to be."

Elena stared at him for another moment.

"Was your brother married? Was your father trying to hide an affair?"

"No. My brother never married."

Richard was quiet for a moment before continuing.

"Victoria's maternal grandfather was one of my father's closest security men. He saved my father's life more than once."

His gaze lowered slightly.

"Before he died, he asked my father for one last favor. He wanted his daughter and granddaughter to have the protection of the Sterling family name. He wasn't asking us to raise Victoria or give her a stake in the Consortium. He only wanted to make sure the two of them had enough protection to keep what already belonged to them."

"Protection from what?"

"The assets he left behind. And the estate Victoria's mother inherited from her late husband."

Elena paused.

"Her late husband?"

"She was already widowed when she returned from the United States to visit family. That was when she met my brother."

Richard spoke about it so casually that Elena suspected the amount of money involved would have seemed enormous to almost anyone else.

To Richard, apparently, it barely registered.

"Her father kept saying he wanted the family name attached to Victoria," Richard continued, "but what he really wanted was protection. He kept coming back to that."

A faint, humorless smile touched his mouth.

"My brother had a congenital illness. His health was already failing, and everyone close to the family knew he probably didn't have many years left."

Elena sighed.

"So what he really wanted was for you to protect them eventually?"

"Essentially."

"Then why make her your daughter at all?" Elena asked. "You could've protected your niece as her uncle."

"Her grandfather probably thought that wouldn't be enough."

Richard rested one arm against the sofa.

"For certain relatives on her mother's side, having a powerful uncle somewhere in the background might not have been much of a deterrent. Being known as my daughter was different."

He paused.

"My father had his own reasons as well. First, he didn't want my brother's reputation damaged."

"And second?"

"If people knew Victoria was my brother's daughter, then after my father died, she could have become useful to anyone who wanted to challenge me inside the family or the Consortium."

Elena's expression changed.

"I was still young then," Richard said. "There were already people in the extended family who didn't want me in control. A child publicly recognized as my older brother's daughter would have given them another name to rally around."

Elena fell silent.

Families at the Sterling level kept most of their private affairs exactly that—private.

The public might know who the previous chairman had been, or that he had two sons. Beyond that, almost everything important happened behind closed doors.

Apparently, even within the family, there were layers of history Victoria herself didn't know.

"What about Victoria's mother?" Elena asked. "Did she and your brother have a relationship after she was widowed?"

"No."

Richard frowned.

"They were never together."

Something about the subject clearly bothered him.

"My brother knew he didn't have long. He didn't want to become involved with anyone. But she became pregnant anyway, and what happened around that time..."

He stopped.

The distaste in his expression was enough to tell Elena that whatever had happened, it wasn't a memory he wanted to revisit.

She didn't push.

"Where is her mother now?"

"She died in a plane crash years ago."

Elena went quiet for a moment.

"So Victoria knows who her biological mother was, but she has absolutely no idea that you're actually her uncle?"

"My brother asked me to wait until she was an adult before telling her."

Richard's voice was quieter now.

"I agreed."

Elena nodded slowly.

"That makes sense. A child probably wouldn't be able to keep something like that secret anyway."

"That wasn't the only reason."

Elena looked at him.

"My brother wanted her to have an ordinary childhood for as long as possible."

Richard paused.

"If she learned she was his daughter, sooner or later she would also learn that she inherited the same condition."

Elena stared at him.

"She has it?"

"A milder form."

Richard met her eyes.

"Though if she finds out I'm not actually her father, she may be more relieved about that part than anything else."

Elena's eyes widened.

"...Have the two of you always gotten along that badly?"

Richard considered the question.

"At her kindergarten Father's Day breakfast, she refused to stick the paper tie she made onto my shirt."

Elena blinked.

"At her elementary-school science fair, the other children dragged their parents around to show off their projects. Victoria stood beside hers until the teacher asked whether she wanted to show me. Then she reluctantly called me over."

He recounted the memories with the same calm tone he used when discussing corporate reports.

"My brother apologized to me before he died. He said I only needed to be her father in name. His point was that if she was going to be raised as a Sterling child, she could be raised the same way we were."

Richard paused.

"I remember being surprised by that."

Their father had a violent temper, and physical punishment had been part of Richard and his brother's childhood.

Richard himself was hardly known for being gentle, but even he had never seen any reason to hit a child.

Especially not Victoria.

She hadn't even been particularly difficult growing up.

Her grades had always been excellent. Teachers consistently described her as bright and quick to learn, and she rarely caused trouble at school. Among the children of wealthy families around her, there had certainly been plenty who were far worse behaved.

"Although," Richard added dryly, "I assume my brother meant I didn't need to devote too much attention to her. Not that I was supposed to recreate the part where we got hit."

Elena almost laughed despite herself.

Richard's expression turned thoughtful.

"I was around your age back then. I figured that if she was going to call me her father, I should at least make some effort. Especially because of her health."

Compassion had never been Richard's strongest instinct.

But his brother had looked after him when they were young.

And when Richard found himself looking at his brother's only child, completely ignoring her had proved harder than expected.

"But children aren't very good at hiding how they feel," he said after a moment. "Eventually, the butler told me that Victoria once found out I couldn't attend an open house at her school."

He paused.

"She looked relieved."

"Wait."

Elena sat up a little straighter.

"Why? Did she just dislike you for no reason? One of those situations where you meet someone and instinctively can't stand them?"

Richard shook his head.

"The butler told me that, at first, she was embarrassed by me."

"Embarrassed?"

Elena looked genuinely baffled.

"Why? Your clothes weren't expensive enough? Your car wasn't nice enough?"

Richard gave her a peculiar look.

"Apparently because I was too young."

Elena stared.

"And I was taller than most of the other parents, which made me stand out even more."

"...In America?"

"Yes."

"I thought there were plenty of tall Americans."

"There are. There just aren't that many over six-four."

His expression remained perfectly serious.

"I spent enough time there that I eventually developed an automatic response. People would start conversations with 'You're tall' or 'NBA tall,' so I learned to tell them my height and that I didn't play basketball before they could ask."

Elena stared at him.

"..."

Then she sighed.

"That's so cool."

Richard raised an eyebrow.

Elena looked at him with complete sincerity.

"Why couldn't I have had a dad like you?"

Richard went completely still.

"...What?"