Chapter 12 - The Forty-Eight-Hour Merger
Richard Sterling announced the merger at nine the next morning.
Sterling Holdings would combine with Halcyon Capital in a transaction worth billions.
The deal would move major assets into a newly formed parent company.
Naomi read the announcement twice.
“This is not coincidence.”
Willow understood immediately.
“He’s moving the assets.”
“Yes.”
“Can he?”
“He can try.”
“When does it close?”
“Forty-eight hours.”
The deadline changed everything.
If Richard completed the restructuring, recovering Catherine’s stolen ownership could become years more complicated.
Naomi filed emergency claims.
Sterling lawyers responded within hours.
Then Richard attacked Michael.
Police arrived at the repair shop carrying a warrant connected to allegations of corporate extortion and stolen historical documents.
Willow stared at the officers.
“This is absurd.”
Michael remained calm.
“They’re doing their job.”
Richard’s attorneys claimed Michael had fabricated Catherine’s papers to blackmail the Sterling family after Willow’s marriage failed.
Michael was taken in for questioning.
News cameras waited outside.
Lucas called Willow.
“I can stop this.”
She answered from Naomi’s office.
“How?”
“Give my father the originals.”
Willow laughed softly.
“There you are.”
“Listen to me.”
“No.”
“He will destroy your father.”
“He already tried.”
“I’m trying to keep Michael out of jail.”
“You’re trying to keep Richard in power.”
Lucas’s voice rose.
“You don’t understand what happens if Sterling falls.”
“Employees lose jobs.”
“Investors lose savings.”
“Families get destroyed.”
Willow looked at Catherine’s photograph.
“My family was destroyed first.”
Lucas lowered his voice.
“Meet me tonight.”
“No.”
“I found something.”
Willow hesitated.
“What?”
“My uncle.”
Silence.
“You found Edward?”
“I found where he was transferred.”
Willow looked at Naomi.
“Where?”
Lucas whispered the answer.
A long-term care facility outside Milwaukee.
Then he added something that changed the entire game.
“He’s registered under another name.”
“What name?”
Lucas swallowed.
“Michael Donovan.”
Willow’s blood ran cold.
Richard had not merely hidden Edward Sterling.
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He had spent years creating records that could make Willow’s father look like the missing, unstable man behind the original fraud.
The trap had been waiting for decades.
