Chapter 4 - The First Wife's Warning.
The missing folder contained six letters Amanda Sterling had mailed to Michael over fourteen months.
Michael remembered every sentence because fear had a way of sharpening memory.
Willow remembered none of them because until tonight she had not known they existed.
She stood beside the open cabinet and watched her father search a room that had already given up its answer.
The letters were gone.
Whoever entered the garage had known exactly where to look.
"Did they take anything else?"
Willow asked.
Michael checked the black notebook, the partnership addendum, and Elizabeth's copied ledgers.
"No."
"Then they came for Amanda."
"They came for whatever proves Amanda talked to me."
Willow stared at the dark office window.
"Richard knew she contacted you?"
"I never told him."
"Maybe Amanda did."
Michael shook his head.
"She was too careful."
Willow turned toward him.
"Then somebody has been watching you longer than tonight."
That possibility settled heavily between them.
Michael closed the hidden cabinet and slid the green box into the leather case.
"We're not staying here."
"Where are we going?"
"Your aunt's old apartment."
"Aunt Diane lives in Arizona."
"Exactly."
Willow almost asked why her father had access to an empty apartment he had never mentioned.
She stopped herself.
Tonight had taught her that Michael's life contained locked rooms inside locked rooms.
Before they left, Willow's phone vibrated again.
This time the number was blocked.
She answered without thinking.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice whispered through static.
"Willow?"
Willow went completely still.
"Who is this?"
"You don't know me."
The woman's voice sounded controlled but strained.
"But I know exactly what happened tonight."
Willow looked at Michael.
"Amanda?"
Silence.
Michael's eyes widened.
Then the woman said, "Do not say my name on the phone."
Willow lowered her voice.
"Are you safe?"
"For now."
"Did you send me that message?"
"Yes."
"Did someone break into my father's garage?"
"I don't know."
The answer came too fast.
Willow heard a car door close on the other end.
"Where are you?"
"Not in Chicago."
"Then how did you know what happened at the hotel?"
Amanda inhaled slowly.
"Because one of the guests sent me the video before Sterling security reached her."
Willow's cheek seemed to burn again.
"Who?"
"I can't tell you yet."
"Why are you calling me now?"
Amanda was quiet for several seconds.
"Because Lucas did the same thing to me."
Willow closed her eyes.
Michael looked away.
"Twice?"
Willow asked.
"Not the same night."
Amanda's voice thinned.
"But yes."
Willow's knees felt weak.
She sat on the edge of the desk.
"Why didn't anyone know?"
Amanda gave a small, humorless laugh.
"You were in that ballroom tonight."
"You saw how they work."
Willow looked through the office window at the empty garage.
"Richard makes the truth expensive."
Amanda continued.
"Jobs disappear."
"Contracts vanish."
"Friends suddenly remember they were not really there."
"And if that fails, lawyers appear."
Willow thought of the guests laughing after Lucas hit her.
"Did Richard know Lucas hurt you?"
"Richard taught Lucas that protecting the family mattered more than protecting any person in it."
"That's not an answer."
Amanda paused.
"Yes."
Willow felt something inside her harden.
"Why did you contact my father before I married Lucas?"
Michael looked at her sharply.
Amanda's breathing changed.
"He told you?"
"Tonight."
"Then listen carefully."
Her voice became steadier.
"Three months before your wedding, I found your name in an internal background report."
"My name?"
"Yours and Michael's."
"Why was Sterling investigating us?"
"Because Richard knew exactly who you were before Lucas introduced you to the family."
Willow stared at Michael.
"That's impossible."
"No."
Amanda's answer was immediate.
"He had a private investigator follow you for almost a year."
Michael cursed under his breath.
"Why?"
Willow demanded.
"Because of the Donovan documents."
"He thought my father had them?"
"He knew Michael had some of them."
Amanda took another breath.
"What Richard did not know was how much Elizabeth copied before she died."
Willow's stomach turned.
Her mother's name sounded different coming from Amanda.
"Did you know my mother?"
"No."
"Then how do you know about her?"
"Because Richard kept a file on her for twenty-seven years after she stopped working for Sterling."
Willow stood abruptly.
"What?"
Michael's face went rigid.
"What kind of file?"
"Employment records."
"Medical bills."
"Your school information."
"Photographs of Michael's shop."
Amanda hesitated.
"And a copy of Elizabeth's death certificate."
Michael gripped the edge of the desk.
Willow had never seen his hands shake before.
"Why would Richard keep that?"
Amanda's voice dropped.
"Because he did not trust dead people to stay silent if they left enough paper behind."
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Willow asked the question she was afraid to ask.
"Did Richard have anything to do with my mother's death?"
Michael turned toward her.
Amanda answered carefully.
"I found no evidence of that."
Willow breathed again.
"But I found evidence he knew she was sick before Michael told anyone at Sterling."
Michael's eyes narrowed.
"How?"
"Her insurance claims."
"Sterling's benefits administrator had access."
Michael's face darkened.
"She hadn't worked there in years."
"The file shouldn't have been active."
Amanda's voice hardened.
"But it was."
Willow felt sick.
Richard had mocked her childhood for five years while carrying records about the mother she lost at nine.
That cruelty suddenly looked less casual.
It looked studied.
"What exactly did you find in the company?"
Willow asked.
"Enough to end Richard if it is authenticated."
"Where is it?"
"Split in three places."
Michael looked at Willow.
"Smart."
Amanda heard him.
"I learned from your wife, Michael."
The sentence landed softly.
Michael closed his eyes.
"Elizabeth never trusted a single hiding place."
"Neither do I."
Willow stepped closer to the phone.
"Why disappear?"
Amanda's voice became distant.
"Because when I told Lucas I wanted an independent audit, he told Richard."
"What happened?"
"Richard invited me to dinner."
A long pause followed.
"He put a folder beside my plate."
"What was inside?"
"Photographs of my younger brother leaving a recovery clinic."
Willow frowned.
"Why would that matter?"
"My brother was eighteen and had been sober six months."
Amanda's voice cracked for the first time.
"Richard said reporters could turn his recovery into a scandal before breakfast."
"He threatened your brother."
"He threatened everyone I loved."
"And Lucas let him?"
"Lucas sat at the table."
Willow closed her eyes.
"He said nothing."
Amanda's voice went flat.
"That was when I understood silence was his favorite kind of participation."
Willow thought of Lucas across the ballroom earlier that evening, watching Richard grip her arm before looking away.
The pattern was older than her marriage.
"What do you want me to do?"
Amanda answered immediately.
"Do not confront Richard with everything at once."
"Why?"
"Because he will destroy what he can and discredit what he cannot."
"Then what?"
"Make him believe you know less than you do."
Michael nodded.
Willow watched him.
"I need to see you."
Amanda went silent.
"I know."
"When?"
"Soon."
"That's not good enough."
"It has to be."
A distant announcement sounded over a loudspeaker on Amanda's end.
An airport.
Willow heard it clearly.
Amanda cursed softly.
"You said you weren't coming to Chicago."
"I said I wasn't in Chicago."
Willow's heartbeat accelerated.
"Are you coming here?"
"I was."
"Was?"
Amanda's breathing stopped for half a second.
Then she whispered, "Someone is watching the gate."
The call ended.
Willow immediately tried to redial.
The number did not exist.
Michael grabbed his coat.
"Which airport?"
"I couldn't hear."
"O'Hare announcements sound different from Midway."
Willow stared at him.
"You know that?"
"I fix airport shuttle vans."
He took the phone from her and replayed the last seconds of the call from her recording history.
Willow blinked.
"My phone recorded it?"
"You turned on automatic call transcription last month."
She had forgotten.
Michael listened twice.
"Terminal 3."
"O'Hare."
"Probably."
Willow grabbed her coat.
Michael stopped her.
"No."
"She came here because of me."
"Which is exactly why you do not run into an airport while Sterling security may be looking for both of you."
"Dad, you just told me you're done being quiet."
"Being loud and being stupid are different things."
Willow glared at him.
He glared back.
Then Michael sighed.
"Fine."
"We go together."
They left the garage by the rear alley.
The black SUV was gone.
Michael drove toward O'Hare while Willow texted Helena one sentence.
DO YOU KNOW WHO SENT THE VIDEO?
Helena replied thirty seconds later.
YES.
Willow typed WHO?
The response took longer.
A name finally appeared.
MARION STERLING.
Willow stared at the screen.
Marion was Richard's wife.
Lucas's mother.
The woman who had spent five years criticizing Willow's clothes, manners, gallery, family, and failure to produce an heir.
Willow showed Michael.
He looked genuinely shocked.
Then Helena sent a second message.
SHE SAID TO TELL YOU SHE'S SORRY SHE WAITED SO LONG.
At that exact moment, Michael's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
Michael answered on speaker.
A man's voice said, "Turn around, Mr. Donovan."
Michael's eyes moved to the rearview mirror.
Two black SUVs had appeared behind them.
May you like
The voice continued.
"Mrs. Sterling would like her documents back."
