The applause hadn’t even faded when I heard her voice behind me. “You think that medal makes you special?” she hissed. Before I could turn, the metal chair came down. The crack of my arm breaking echoed through the auditorium—louder than any explosion I’d heard overseas. As I collapsed, she leaned close and whispered, “You’re still just trash.” That was the moment everything finally snapped.
The crystal chandeliers of the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington D.C. were so dazzling they hurt my eyes. I, Sergeant Maya Sterling, stood stiffly on the podium, my uniform impeccably pressed with the medals gleaming on my chest. But the heaviest weight wasn’t the “Purple Heart” or “Medal of Valor” medal the Senator had just pinned around my neck.
The heaviest weight was my last name: Sterling.
“Congratulations to the heroic daughter of Sterling Defence Group,” the Senator said into the microphone, the applause thundering. “She not only fought on the battlefield, but also symbolized the Sterling family’s dedication to national security.”
At the first VIP table, my father – Richard Sterling, CEO of the group – rose and applauded, his face beaming with feigned pride. Beside him was Elena, my half-sister. She wore a dazzling red Dior evening gown, clapped half-heartedly, her green eyes looking at me with undisguised contempt.
I stepped down from the stage to cheers. Handshakes, empty congratulations. I just wanted to get out of here. I wanted to go home, take a painkiller for my left leg, still aching from the IED explosion in Kabul six months ago.
I weaved through the crowd to the backstage area, where the emergency exit led to my private car. I needed a moment of peace.
But peace never existed in the Sterling family.
Chapter 2: The Sound of Broken Bones
I had just entered the deserted hallway behind the stage, the applause from the audience still echoing loudly.
“Don’t rush, you straw hero.”
That voice made me stop. I recognized it instantly. That was the voice that haunted my childhood, the voice that always whispered I was a bastard, a piece of trash, my father’s mistake.
Elena was leaning against the wall, champagne glass in hand, blocking my way.
“Move aside, Elena,” I said, my voice weary. “I don’t want to cause trouble tonight.”
“Cause trouble?” Elena sneered, stepping closer. The strong smell of alcohol wafted into my face. “Who do you think you are? Do you think that medal makes you special? Do you think wearing these cheap metal plates makes you my equal?”
She flicked the Medal of Courage on my chest. Clang.
“Don’t touch it,” I pushed her hand away.
That infuriated Elena. She was a princess of her lineage, never having been rejected, never having been challenged.
“You dare hit me?” Elena shrieked, her beautiful face contorted with anger.
Surrounding us were stacks of metal chairs, ready for the press conference after the party.
“Do you think that medal makes you special?” she hissed again, her voice hoarse.
I turned to leave. I was trained to deal with terrorists, not to argue with a drunken rich girl.
But I underestimated Elena’s rage.
Before I could fully turn around, I heard a deafening crash of metal. Elena, with all her might, kicked the towering stack of metal chairs right next to me.
Dozens of heavy steel chairs tumbled down like an avalanche.
I couldn’t dodge. One chair struck my shoulder, sending me tumbling to the floor. And immediately afterward, another landed squarely on my right arm, which was bracing myself for support.
CRACK!
The sound echoed through the deserted hallway. It was dry, crisp, and terrifying. It was louder than any explosion I’d ever heard on the battlefield. It was the sound of my ulna and radius bones breaking in two at the same time.
The pain came like a blinding white lightning bolt, blurring my vision. I screamed in agony, writhing on the cold floor.
Elena showed no fear. She stepped forward, looking down at me clutching my broken arm, contorting it strangely. She leaned down, whispering in my ear.
“You’re still just trash, Maya. Don’t forget that.”
That was the moment everything finally shattered.
Not just my arm. But my patience. My foolish loyalty to this family. My promise to my deceased mother that I would endure for peace. All vanished in the excruciating pain.
Chapter 3: The Clumsy Act
The door to the banquet hall burst open. My father, Richard, and the security team rushed in. They had heard the sound of chairs falling.
“Oh my God! What happened?” Richard exclaimed when he saw me lying on the floor.
“Dad!” Elena’s face instantly changed. She threw down her glass of wine, knelt beside me, and pretended to cry. “I told Maya to be careful! She was so drunk, she stumbled and bumped into the chairs! I tried to catch her but it was too late!”
I looked at my father. He looked at my broken arm, then at Elena. He knew Elena was lying. He knew my alcohol tolerance. He knew I never got drunk in my uniform.
But what did he do?
He turned to the security captain: “Close the doors! Don’t let the reporters in! Call the family’s private doctor here, take the girl to the VIP room. Don’t call 911, I don’t want the press photographing Sterling’s daughter drunk.”
“Drunk and broke your arm at the awards ceremony.”
“Drunk?” I groaned, sweating profusely. “Dad, you know I didn’t drink…”
“Shut up, Maya!” Richard yelled, leaning down and whispering menacingly to me. “Don’t mess things up. The corporation is about to sign a contract to supply the Pentagon with next-generation body armor. If you make a fuss about this, you’ll lose everything.” “I’m going to cut off funding for your old unit.”
They carried me into a closed room. My private doctor gave me a dose of morphine for pain relief and temporarily reset my fractured bone.
Elena sat on the sofa, casually scrolling through her phone, as if she were watching a movie instead of breaking her sister’s arm.
“You should be grateful I didn’t kick your crippled leg,” Elena said casually as my father went out to talk to the press.
I lay in bed, the painkillers starting to take effect, making my head spin. But the hatred became clearer than ever.
They thought I was just a pawn. A PR tool to polish the Sterling Corporation’s image, to cover up the scandals of the poor-quality weapons they sold to the military.
They didn’t know why I joined the army. And they certainly didn’t know why I came back.
Chapter 4: Secrets Under the Surface Ice
The door swung open. Richard returned with a man in a high-ranking military uniform – General Miller, the man who had presented me with the medal earlier.
“Maya, are you alright?” the General asked, his voice genuinely concerned. “Richard said you slipped?”
I looked at my father. He was staring at me, his eyes a warning: One wrong word and you’re dead.
I looked at Elena. She smirked, her eyes defiant: What can you do to me?
I took a deep breath. The pain in my arm was still there, but it wasn’t pain anymore. It was fuel.
“General,” I said, my voice strangely calm. “I didn’t slip. And I’m not drunk.”
“Maya!” Richard roared.
“I was attacked,” I continued, my eyes fixed on General Miller. “By Elena Sterling.” “She kicked over a stack of chairs on me.”
“You crazy woman, what nonsense are you spouting about painkillers?” Elena jumped to her feet.
“And the reason she attacked me,” I said louder, drowning out Elena’s curses, “is because she was afraid of what I was carrying.”
I used my uninjured left arm to reach into the inner pocket of my uniform. Richard lunged to grab my arm, but General Miller raised his hand to stop him. The General’s bodyguard immediately stepped forward, blocking Richard.
“Let her speak,” the General ordered.
I pulled out a small black memory card.
“This isn’t a thank-you speech,” I said, looking directly into Richard’s pale face. “Six months ago, my unit was ambushed in Kabul. Our armored Humvee was blown up by an improvised explosive device (IED).” According to the specifications Sterling Corporation provided to the Department of Defence, the latest ‘Aegis’ armor was supposed to withstand that kind of destructive force.
The room fell silent.
“But it didn’t,” I said, tears welling up, not from the pain in my hand, but from the pain of losing my comrades. “It was torn apart like cardboard. Three of my comrades died instantly. I lost the ability to walk normally.”
“That… that was war, an accident happened…” Richard stammered, sweating profusely.
“No, Richard,” I called him by his name. “After being discharged from the hospital, I had a friend in the logistics department secretly send fragments of that armor back to America for testing. And I hacked into my father’s own company’s server—Sterling Corporation—using Elena’s account.”
Elena gasped: “What?”
“You always used your birthday as a password for everything, Elena.” “She’s too lazy and arrogant to keep it confidential,” I chuckled. “This memory card contains emails exchanged between Dad and Elena. They knew the steel shipment for the ‘Aegis’ armor was defective, failing to meet the hardness standards. But to meet the contract deadline and save $50 million, they falsified the quality inspection report.”
Chapter 5: The Final Twist
General Miller took the memory card, his face hardening and turning crimson with anger. He looked at Richard Sterling as if he were a national enemy.
“Richard, if this is true…” the General growled. “This isn’t just commercial fraud. This is treason. You killed my soldiers for profit.”
“That’s slander! That bitch hates me because I didn’t give her the inheritance!” Richard yelled, pointing at me. “She made it up!” “That memory card is fake!”
“There’s a way to verify,” I said, trying to sit up. “There’s also an audio file on that memory card.”
I looked at Elena.
“Remember what you whispered in my ear when I fell? ‘You’re still just trash.’ You thought no one heard?”
I pointed to the Medal of Courage on my chest.
“This medal… I attached a tiny recording device to the back of it. I recorded from the moment I entered the party. I wanted to record evidence in case Dad tried to bribe me. But I didn’t expect to record evidence of your intentional injury and your indirect confession of disregarding human life.”
“Other.”
Elena’s face turned deathly pale. She recoiled, bumping into the wall.
“Richard Sterling and Elena Sterling,” General Miller ordered the military police waiting outside the door. “Arrest them immediately. Freeze all assets of the Sterling Group for investigation.”
“No! Father!” “Do something!” Elena screamed as she was handcuffed. “His broken arm was just an accident!”
Richard was speechless. He looked at me—the “worthless” daughter he had always despised. He realized that his own arrogance and cruelty had created the soldier who would overthrow his empire.
Chapter 6: Shattered
As the police escorted them through the banquet hall, the flashlights flashed again. But this time not to honor, but to record the downfall of a family.
I was put into an ambulance. My arm ached, but my chest felt light.
General Miller sat beside me in the ambulance.
“You know, Maya,” he said. “You just threw away your billion-dollar fortune.” “The corporation will go bankrupt after this.”
I looked out the window, watching the snowflakes begin to fall on Washington, D.C.
“That fortune was built on the blood of my friends, General,” I replied. “I’d rather be a poor ‘junk’ than live in blood-stained luxury.”
I looked down at my splinted arm. Elena was right, everything had shattered.
My family was shattered. The Sterling empire was shattered. My arm was shattered.
But from that ashes, justice was finally restored.
And as the ambulance rolled away, I smiled faintly. The sound of bones breaking in that dark hallway wasn’t the sound of my collapse. It was the judge’s gavel, pronouncing death sentences on those who thought money could buy lives.
