Chapter 4 - WHAT HAPPENED TO EVELYN MERCER
Willow could hear the ticking clock above the office door.
“She disappeared?”
Michael nodded.
“What does that mean?”
“It means there was no funeral.”
“No body?”
“No.”
“Then why did I grow up believing Kathryn was my mother?”
“Because Evelyn asked us to protect you.”
Michael sat opposite her.
He looked at the grease beneath his fingernails as though the past were written there.
“Evelyn came to me one night with you wrapped in a yellow blanket.”
“You knew her well?”
“Kathryn and I were already engaged.”
Willow’s eyes widened.
Michael continued.
“Evelyn was terrified.”
“She said Richard had discovered she copied financial records.”
“She believed he would take you to control her.”
“Why would taking me control her?”
Michael hesitated.
“Because Evelyn said your father mattered.”
Willow stared.
“Who was he?”
“She never told me.”
“Not even Kathryn?”
“No.”
Willow looked at the ledger pages again.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“We tried.”
Michael’s expression hardened.
“One detective took Evelyn seriously.”
“He arranged to meet her.”
“She never arrived.”
“And the detective?”
“He resigned two weeks later and moved to Arizona.”
Helena leaned against a filing cabinet.
“That does not sound suspicious at all.”
Michael gave a humorless smile.
“Richard’s father owned half the politicians in Chicago back then.”
Willow remembered every charity gala.
Every judge.
Every alderman.
Every senator who shook Richard’s hand.
The Sterling family had spent decades turning influence into respectability.
Michael reached for the cassette tape.
“Evelyn recorded this before she vanished.”
Willow’s heart started pounding.
“You listened to it?”
“Once.”
“Why only once?”
“Because she made me promise.”
“What promise?”
“That I would never use it unless the Sterling family came after you.”
Willow stared at him.
“They came after me five years ago when I married Lucas.”
Michael shook his head.
“No.”
“You married into their family.”
“That’s different from them coming after you.”
“Dad, Lucas hit me tonight.”
Michael’s eyes went cold.
“I know.”
He pushed the tape recorder toward her.
Willow inserted the cassette.
The machine clicked.
Static filled the room.
Then a young woman’s voice.
Soft.
Breathless.
Terrified.
“My name is Evelyn Mercer.”
Willow stopped breathing.
“If you are hearing this, something has happened to me.”
Michael looked away.
Evelyn continued.
“Richard Sterling believes the records I copied are destroyed.”
“They are not.”
“They show his family used forged authorizations to seize Mercer Development during the restructuring of 1997.”
Willow looked at the documents.
“There is something else.”
Evelyn’s voice trembled.
“Richard knows about the baby.”
Willow gripped the desk.
“He believes Willow can be used to force me to surrender my claim.”
“My sister Kathryn and Michael Donovan have agreed to protect her.”
“If necessary, Willow must grow up believing she is theirs.”
Tears filled Willow’s eyes.
Evelyn paused on the recording.
Then her voice changed.
More urgent.
“There is one person Richard fears more than the police.”
Helena leaned closer.
The recording crackled.
Willow heard a door slam somewhere behind Evelyn.
Then footsteps.
Evelyn whispered.
“If I disappear, find Nathaniel.”
Michael suddenly reached toward the recorder.
Willow stopped him.
The final words played.
“Nathaniel knows who Willow’s father is.”
The tape clicked off.
Willow looked at Michael.
“Who is Nathaniel?”
May you like
Michael slowly sat back.
“Lucas’s grandfather.”
