Chapter 9 - The Final Stand
Despite Richard signing the papers, the legal process wasn't entirely over. The system doesn't simply hand two American children to a billionaire without asking questions.
The next day, officials from child protective services, accompanied by an embassy representative, arrived at the villa to interview me.
They sat me in the grand drawing room, looking at me with sympathetic but skeptical eyes.
"Lily," a woman with glasses asked gently, "did Mr. Sterling force you to say these things about your uncle? Did he coach you?"
I looked at the woman, then glanced across the room where Alexander stood with Marcus, his face tense.
"No," I said firmly, my voice steady. "Mr. Sterling saved us."
I rolled up my sleeves, revealing the fading bruises that Richard had left on my arms. The social worker gasped.
"My uncle did this," I said, looking her dead in the eye. "He locked my sister in the basement. He stole our money. We ran away because we were going to die."
I pointed to Alexander.
"That man," I continued, "didn't know me. I walked into his part of the airplane and told him he was doing a bad job with his crying baby. Most adults would have yelled at me. He listened. He let me help. And then, he helped me."
I stood up. I wasn't a scared runaway anymore. I was a protector.
"If you try to take us away from him and put us back in the system, I will run away again. And next time, you won't find me."
The social worker looked at her notes, then at Alexander, and finally at Maya, who was happily riding on Marcus's broad shoulders in the hallway.
She closed her folder.
"Given the evidence against Mr. Vance, and the clear bond formed here... we will expedite the international guardianship transfer. Mr. Sterling, the children are yours."
Alexander let out a breath he seemed to have been holding for days. He crossed the room and shook the woman's hand.
May you like
It was over. We had won.
We had fought the monsters, and we had won.
