Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Left
At seven the next morning, Willow entered a small conference room above a law office in downtown Chicago.
Michael was beside her.
Helena sat near the window.
The woman waiting at the table stood when Willow entered.
Willow recognized her immediately.
Amanda Cole.
Lucas Sterling’s first wife.
Amanda looked older than the photographs Richard kept showing at family dinners.
She also looked stronger.
“I’m sorry about what Lucas did.”
Willow studied her.
“You knew my father?”
Amanda nodded.
“I found him six years ago.”
Michael remained silent.
Willow turned toward him.
“You never told me.”
“You were engaged to Lucas.”
“That sounds like a reason to tell me.”
“It was also the reason I couldn’t.”
Amanda placed a folder on the table.
“Richard monitored Lucas’s relationships.”
“He investigated your friends.”
“Your finances.”
“Your gallery.”
“Your medical records.”
Willow went cold.
“My medical records?”
Amanda nodded.
“He wanted to know if you could have children.”
The cruelty of Richard’s comments suddenly became even darker.
Amanda continued.
“I left Lucas because I discovered what Richard had done to the Hale family.”
“Lucas didn’t believe me.”
Willow asked the question she feared most.
“Did Lucas know?”
“Not then.”
Amanda hesitated.
“But he knew enough to choose not to ask.”
That hurt more.
Willow opened Amanda’s folder.
Inside were copies of Sterling Global board minutes.
Several dates went back more than twenty years.
“Richard ordered records destroyed.”
Amanda pointed at one page.
“I found those in an archive belonging to the company’s former accountant.”
Michael added another document.
“The federal statute for some crimes has expired.”
“But fraud tied to continuing ownership and current financial statements is different.”
Amanda nodded.
“And Sterling Global has continued certifying ownership based on the original fraudulent transfer.”
Helena leaned forward.
“So every annual filing repeats the lie.”
“Exactly.”
Willow understood.
The secret was not dead history.
It was alive inside every modern document carrying Sterling’s signature.
Amanda looked at her.
“And there is one more thing.”
She slid a flash drive across the table.
“I copied this before I left.”
“What is it?”
“A recording.”
Amanda’s voice dropped.
“Richard talking to Marion.”
Willow inserted the drive into Helena’s laptop.
Static filled the speakers.
Then Richard’s younger voice emerged.
“If Donovan ever produces Evelyn’s originals, the boy loses everything.”
Marion answered.
“What about the girl?”
Richard paused.
Then he said words that made Willow’s blood run cold.
“If Willow becomes a problem, we handle her the way we handled her mother.”
Nobody in the room moved.
Michael closed his eyes.
Willow stared at the screen.
May you like
For the first time, the question was no longer whether Richard Sterling had destroyed her family.
It was whether he had murdered her mother.
