“What is Box 417?”
Marcus stood in the doorway, waiting.
Khloe stared at the photograph in his hand.
“I don’t know.”
“Your father just told you not to let me open it.”
Her face changed.
Marcus had heard the conversation.
“How much did you hear?”
“Enough.”
Khloe looked away.
“He said the key belongs to you,” Marcus continued. “Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then we find out.”
“Marcus, no.”
He gave a bitter laugh.
“You’ve spent eleven years protecting a secret that somehow involves me. Someone attacked you. Your supposedly dead father is hiding inside this hospital. Now he knows my name.”
He stepped closer.
“I’m done being the only person who doesn’t know the truth.”
---
David was waiting in his office when Marcus entered.
He placed the photograph on the desk.
“Patient 417,” Marcus said. “Find them.”
David called the archive department.
Minutes later, a technician returned with an unexpected answer.
“There was no Patient 417.”
Marcus frowned.
“Then what does 417 mean?”
David suddenly went still.
“What?”
“Sterling Private Bank.”
Marcus stared at him.
“My father kept confidential family deposits there. Safe-deposit boxes.”
“Box 417?”
David nodded.
“It could be.”
Marcus immediately called Ethan.
“I need access to Sterling Private Bank.”
“At midnight?”
“Tonight.”
---
Forty minutes later, Marcus, David and two security officers entered the bank’s private vault beneath Sterling Tower.
Box 417 existed.
Even stranger, its registration was almost thirty years old.
The clerk placed the ownership document on the table.
Marcus read the name.
Then read it again.
**Beneficiary: Marcus Alexander Thorne.**
His blood ran cold.
“That’s impossible.”
David looked equally disturbed.
The registration date was four years before Marcus had been born.
Marcus looked at him.
“How can a bank account name someone who didn’t exist yet?”
David had no answer.
The silver key Khloe had hidden for eleven years arrived with one of David’s trusted security officers.
Marcus inserted it.
Khloe’s warning echoed in his mind.
**Do not open Box 417.**
He turned the key.
Inside were three objects.
A sealed envelope.
A photograph.
And a medical identification bracelet.
Marcus picked up the photograph first.
Daniel Sterling stood beside a young woman holding a newborn baby.
Marcus recognized the woman immediately.
His mother.
His hands began shaking.
“No.”
David moved closer.
On the back, Daniel had written:
**Marcus — three days old.**
Marcus opened the envelope.
There was only one page inside.
A DNA laboratory report.
He read the names.
His own.
His mother’s.
And beside **alleged biological father**:
**Daniel Richard Sterling.**
Marcus dropped the paper.
David stared at him in horror.
“That would mean…”
“Don’t.”
Marcus backed away.
“Don’t say it.”
If the report was genuine, Daniel Sterling was his father.
And Khloe—
Marcus’s face went white.
“Khloe.”
David grabbed the document.
“No. Something is wrong.”
Marcus could barely breathe.
“Khloe is Daniel’s daughter.”
“I know.”
“Then she’s my—”
“Stop.”
David examined the report.
Suddenly his eyes narrowed.
“The dates don’t match.”
Marcus looked up.
“What?”
“Daniel wasn’t in the United States when this sample was supposedly collected.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was with him.”
David turned the page toward the light.
“This report was manufactured.”
Marcus stared at the box.
“Then someone wanted me to believe Daniel was my father.”
A phone rang inside the vault.
Neither man moved.
It was Marcus’s.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Hello?”
Daniel Sterling spoke.
“You opened the box.”
Marcus clenched his jaw.
“Who are you to me?”
Silence.
Then Daniel said:
“The DNA report is fake.”
“I know.”
“But the photograph isn’t.”
Marcus looked at his mother holding him beside Daniel.
“Why were you with my mother?”
“Because she was trying to save your life.”
“From whom?”
Daniel hesitated.
“From the man who killed your real father.”
Marcus gripped the phone.
“Who killed him?”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“David.”
Marcus slowly raised his eyes.
Across the vault, David Sterling was watching him.
“What did he say?” David asked.
Marcus did not answer.
Then Daniel whispered one final warning.
“Whatever you do, Marcus—do not let David leave that vault.”
The line went dead.