Chapter 17 - The Counterattack
Emergency lights flickered on.
Naomi immediately called police.
The court officer locked the evidence room.
Outside, engines approached.
Not Sterling security.
Police vehicles.
Lucas had tipped them off.
Richard had sent private contractors toward the warehouse under the excuse of securing company property.
Lucas had finally chosen a side.
Willow did not thank him.
Not yet.
The evidence was removed under police supervision before sunrise.
At eight, Naomi filed an emergency amended complaint.
At nine, the merger was temporarily suspended.
At ten, Sterling Holdings stock halted pending disclosure.
By eleven, three board members demanded Richard’s resignation.
The empire began shaking.
Richard called Willow directly.
She answered.
“You think you won?”
“No.”
Willow looked at Catherine’s letter.
“I think you’re finally losing.”
Richard laughed.
“You have no idea what your mother did.”
“Then tell me.”
“She planned to take the entire company.”
“She owned half.”
“She wanted more.”
“Because you stole from Edward.”
Silence.
Willow continued.
“You hid your brother.”
“You paid the doctor.”
“You transferred his shares.”
“You built an empire on paperwork you had no right to sign.”
Richard’s voice hardened.
“Your mother was going to destroy hundreds of families.”
Willow heard the same excuse Lucas had used.
Jobs.
Investors.
Families.
The language of powerful people asking victims to protect the system that hurt them.
“My mother didn’t destroy those families.”
“You endangered them when you stole the company.”
Richard stopped speaking.
Then Willow asked quietly.
“Did you kill her?”
Michael looked up.
The room became silent.
Richard’s answer came slowly.
“No.”
Willow believed one part of his tone.
But not all of it.
“What happened the night before she died?”
Richard breathed into the phone.
Then he said, “Ask your father.”
The call ended.
Willow turned to Michael.
His face had gone gray.
“What is he talking about?”
Michael sat down.
For twenty-six years, he had hidden one final truth.
“Your mother came home that night terrified.”
Willow waited.
“She wanted us to leave Chicago.”
“Why didn’t we?”
Michael’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because I told her running would mean Richard won.”
Willow stopped breathing.
“I convinced her to stay.”
May you like
He looked down at his hands.
“And the next morning, she collapsed.”
