Chapter 13 - The Man Without a Name
Willow, Naomi, and Amanda drove to Wisconsin before dawn.
They did not tell Lucas.
They did not tell Michael.
At the facility, Naomi presented a court-authorized preservation notice connected to the corporate litigation.
The administrator resisted.
Then Amanda produced an old photograph of Edward.
A nurse recognized him.
She led them to a quiet room overlooking frozen trees.
The man beside the window was seventy-two.
Thin.
White-haired.
His hands trembled.
Willow looked at his face.
He had Richard Sterling’s eyes.
“Edward?”
The man turned.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then he saw Catherine’s photograph in Willow’s hand.
His entire body stiffened.
“Cathy?”
Willow’s throat tightened.
“I’m her daughter.”
Edward began crying.
Not loudly.
Silently.
Like a man who had forgotten people were allowed to find him.
He reached for the photograph.
“Willow.”
She froze.
“You know me?”
Edward smiled weakly.
“Your mother brought you to the warehouse once.”
“You had red shoes.”
Willow covered her mouth.
She had seen those shoes in childhood photographs.
Naomi asked permission to record.
Edward nodded.
His story came slowly.
Richard had been stealing money from the company.
Edward confronted him.
Richard used family influence and a doctor willing to sign false evaluations.
Edward was placed under emergency psychiatric care.
His shares were transferred while he was medicated.
Catherine discovered it.
She promised to free him.
Then Catherine died.
Edward stared at Willow.
“I thought Richard got you too.”
Willow’s eyes burned.
“What happened to my mother?”
Edward shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“But she was scared before she died.”
He reached for Willow’s hand.
“She came to see me.”
“When?”
“Two days before.”
Willow stopped breathing.
Her mother had supposedly been in Chicago that entire week.
“What did she say?”
Edward closed his eyes.
“She said Richard had found out about the trust.”
“She said if anything happened to her, Michael had to protect you.”
Then Edward whispered the sentence Willow had feared from the moment she heard the cassette.
“She said your father should never trust the Sterling family again.”
A door opened behind them.
Willow turned.
May you like
Richard Sterling stood in the hallway.
He had found them.
