Dear Julian,

If you are reading this, I am finally free of the tired body that kept me trapped. I know our marriage seemed like the whimsical wish of a dying old woman, and perhaps a small part of it was.

I wanted to know, just once, what it felt like to have someone stand beside me out of pure kindness, without an eye on my pocketbook.

But there was a greater purpose. Under the Sterling family bylaws my father established, my shares could only pass by direct lineage or to a legal spouse.

If I died unmarried, my holdings would revert automatically to my brother’s estate—to the very men who stole my life.

By marrying me, Julian, you became my heir. You are now the majority shareholder of Sterling Industries. The flash drive holds forty years of forensic financial evidence against them.