Chapter 10: Make Her Love You
MAKE HER LOVE YOU
Amanda did not press play immediately.
She sat across from Willow and folded her hands to stop them from shaking.
"Before you hear this, I need to tell you something that will make you hate me."
Willow felt exhausted beyond anger.
"That list is getting crowded."
Amanda accepted the remark.
"I knew your name before Lucas did."
Michael frowned.
"How?"
"Richard talked about the Mercer girl during our marriage."
Willow looked at her.
"The Mercer girl."
Amanda nodded.
"He never used your first name around me at first."
"Why was he talking about me?"
"Because the five-year trust window was approaching."
Naomi leaned forward.
"Approaching from what triggering event?"
Amanda shook her head.
"I do not know the legal mechanics."
"Then tell us what you do know."
Amanda looked at Willow.
"Richard said a missing beneficiary had resurfaced in Chicago."
"Missing?"
"That was his word."
"I was running a gallery under my real name."
"I know."
Amanda's mouth twisted.
"The Sterlings describe anything outside their control as missing."
Willow said nothing.
Amanda continued.
"Richard wanted Lucas to meet you while Lucas and I were still married."
"Why did you record him?"
"Because Lucas had already started becoming violent with objects."
Willow's stomach tightened.
Amanda corrected herself.
"He never hit me."
She paused.
"But he punched doors, smashed a lamp beside me, and once threw a glass hard enough that it cut my shoulder."
Willow remembered Lucas kicking a kitchen stool across their apartment two years earlier.
He had apologized afterward and bought her a weekend in Napa.
She had called it stress.
Amanda continued.
"I was preparing for divorce."
"Did Richard know?"
"He knew everything."
"And he still asked Lucas to meet me?"
"Yes."
Amanda looked ashamed.
"I left a recorder in Richard's study because I wanted proof that he was pressuring Lucas to hide assets from me."
"And instead you recorded this."
"Yes."
Amanda placed the device in the center of the table.
Naomi connected it to a speaker and made a forensic copy before anyone listened.
Then she pressed play.
Static filled the room.
A clock chimed in the background.
Richard's younger voice appeared first.
"The girl is Claire's."
Lucas answered.
"So what?"
"So her signature can end the Mercer problem."
Willow's fingers went numb.
Richard continued.
"You meet her."
Lucas laughed.
"I am married."
"Not for long."
Amanda closed her eyes.
On the recording, Lucas lowered his voice.
"Amanda will fight."
"Then pay her."
"She does not want money."
Richard laughed.
"Everyone wants money."
Amanda stared at the table.
Willow wanted to reach for her and could not.
The recording continued.
Lucas asked, "Why me?"
Richard replied, "Because a spouse can obtain what an opposing shareholder cannot."
Naomi stopped breathing for a moment.
Richard continued.
"The Mercer trust has an antiquated beneficiary preservation clause."
"And?"
"Marion has already handled the notice problem."
Willow looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca whispered.
"The forged co-custodian filing."
On the recorder, Lucas sounded irritated.
"You are asking me to marry some mechanic's daughter because of paperwork?"
Michael's face hardened.
Richard's answer came without hesitation.
"I am asking you to secure the company you expect to inherit."
Lucas went quiet.
Then he asked, "How long?"
Willow felt sick before the answer came.
"Five years."
No one in the conference room moved.
Lucas laughed softly on the recording.
"You want me married to her for five years?"
"I want her comfortable enough to sign what she is given at the end of five years."
"And if she asks questions?"
"Make her feel chosen."
Willow's eyes filled.
Richard continued.
"People who grow up without money are very responsive to belonging."
Michael stood abruptly and walked to the window.
On the recording, Lucas said nothing.
Richard's voice became colder.
"Do not look so offended."
"I am not."
"Good."
A drawer opened.
Paper moved.
"Here is her file."
Willow stared at the old surveillance photographs beside Michael's steel box.
The sound of pages turning came through the speaker.
Lucas said, "She is pretty."
Richard replied, "That helps."
A pause followed.
Then Lucas said the sentence that hurt more than the slap.
"What if she does not like me?"
Richard laughed.
"Make her love you."
The recording continued for another fourteen minutes.
Richard discussed Willow's gallery.
Her father's mortgage.
Her mother's death.
The scholarship debt she had recently finished paying.
He discussed which charities she supported and which restaurants she visited.
He discussed her fear of flying.
He discussed the fact that she volunteered at a youth arts program on Tuesdays.
Every intimate thing Lucas had later seemed to discover naturally was already in the file.
Willow sat motionless.
Amanda reached for the recorder when the conversation ended.
Willow stopped her.
"Play the last minute again."
Naomi did.
Lucas's voice returned.
"What happens after five years?"
Richard answered.
"If she has signed, you can keep her or leave her."
Lucas laughed.
"Romantic."
Richard replied, "Marriage is a structure, not a poem."
The recording ended.
Willow stared at the silent speaker.
Helena was crying openly.
Michael still faced the window.
Amanda looked as if she wanted the floor to open beneath her.
Naomi broke the silence.
"This is strong evidence of fraudulent inducement."
Willow looked at her.
"Can you say that like a human being?"
Naomi's expression softened.
"It means he planned the lie before he met you."
Willow nodded.
"I understood that part."
She stood.
"I need five minutes."
No one followed her into the adjoining office.
She closed the door and leaned against it.
For six years, one memory had been sacred.
Their first meeting.
Lucas standing in front of a steel sculpture at her gallery opening and pretending to understand it.
Willow had laughed at his terrible interpretation.
He had laughed too.
He bought the piece that night.
A week later he returned, claiming he wanted help choosing another.
She had thought destiny was ridiculous until him.
Now she imagined Richard handing him a file.
Her favorite coffee.
Her Tuesday volunteer schedule.
Her mother's death.
Make her love you.
Willow pressed both hands against her mouth.
She did not cry for Lucas.
She cried for the woman she had been when she believed being seen was the same as being loved.
A quiet knock touched the door.
"Willow?"
It was Amanda.
Willow opened it.
Amanda stood alone.
"I am sorry."
"You already said that."
"I know."
"Why did you stay silent?"
Amanda looked at her.
"Because Richard knew my brother prescribed pain medication to himself after a surgery."
Willow frowned.
"Was it illegal?"
"Yes."
"Could he have lost his license?"
"Yes."
"So Richard threatened him."
"And Lucas threatened to make sure I got nothing in the divorce."
Amanda swallowed.
"I told myself you were different."
"Different how?"
"Lucas looked happy with you."
Willow almost recoiled.
Amanda continued quickly.
"I told myself maybe the ugly beginning did not matter if he actually loved you."
"Did you believe that?"
Amanda's eyes filled.
"I needed to."
"Why?"
"Because otherwise I had left another woman walking into the house I escaped."
Willow looked at her for a long time.
"You did."
Amanda nodded.
"I know."
"I am not ready to forgive you."
"I am not asking."
"Good."
Willow stepped aside.
"But stay."
Amanda looked surprised.
"Why?"
"Because Richard counted on every ashamed person staying alone."
Amanda's face broke.
She nodded.
At one forty-five, Naomi received formal confirmation that Willow could attend the emergency Sterling Global board session as a disputed beneficial owner accompanied by counsel.
The meeting would be held at two thirty in the Sterling Tower executive boardroom.
Richard objected in writing.
Naomi framed the email as a joke and carried it with her.
Before leaving, she separated the evidence.
The original stock certificate went into a secured courier package addressed to an independent evidence vault.
Martin's confession was copied and notarized again.
Amanda's recording was duplicated onto three encrypted drives.
Rebecca wrote a declaration concerning the missing ledger and Marion's unauthorized vault access.
Willow signed an affidavit describing Lucas's admission that Richard had directed him to meet her.
At two twelve, Willow stood in the lobby of Sterling Tower for the first time since leaving the anniversary party.
Employees pretended not to stare at her cheek.
Some failed.
One young receptionist whispered, "I am sorry," as Willow passed.
Willow stopped.
"Thank you."
The receptionist's eyes filled.
"My mother watched the video."
Willow nodded.
"Tell her I am okay."
It was not entirely true.
It was true enough.
The elevator carried Willow, Naomi, Michael, Rebecca, Amanda, and Helena to the forty-eighth floor.
Martin waited downstairs with Naomi's investigator because his presence had not been approved.
The boardroom doors opened.
Richard sat at the head of the table.
Marion sat at his right.
Lucas sat three chairs away.
Willow's eyes went immediately to Marion.
Her mother-in-law wore pearls and a cream suit.
She looked calm.
Too calm.
Richard spoke first.
"This is absurd."
Naomi placed her case on the table.
"Good afternoon to you too."
Marion looked at Willow's cheek.
"Darling, you look exhausted."
Willow stared at her.
"You stole the ledger."
The boardroom went silent.
Marion's expression did not move.
"I have no idea what you mean."
Rebecca placed the vault access log on the table.
Marion glanced at it once.
"That signature is not mine."
"The bank has camera footage."
Naomi watched her carefully.
Marion smiled.
"Then I look forward to seeing it."
Willow understood then.
Marion was not frightened because she had already planned for the camera.
The board chair, an independent director named Evelyn Grant, called the meeting to order.
"We will hear the ownership claim."
Richard leaned back.
"There is no ownership claim."
Willow met his eyes.
"Then why did you send your son to marry me?"
Lucas went pale.
Richard's face became stone.
Naomi placed the recorder on the table.
Before the boardroom recording played, Evelyn Grant ordered every director to surrender phones to a secure tray outside.
Richard objected.
"This is my company."
Evelyn looked at him.
"Then you should care about privileged deliberations."
Richard handed over his phone with visible contempt.
Lucas placed his beside it.
Willow noticed his screen light with three missed calls from Marion even though she sat only chairs away.
Their family communicated through devices while sharing a table.
Naomi connected the recorder to the room's audio system.
A technician asked whether she wanted volume normalized.
"No."
Naomi looked at the board.
"I want the pauses exactly as recorded."
Willow understood why.
Silence had become evidence too.
Before playback, Samuel Park turned toward Willow.
"Mrs. Sterling, do you understand that if this claim is sustained, board control may change?"
"Yes."
"Are you seeking a board seat today?"
"No."
Richard laughed.
"Not yet."
Willow looked at him.
"You keep assuming everyone wants what you wanted."
"Power?"
"Control."
"Same thing."
"Only to people who cannot imagine responsibility without ownership."
Marion's eyes moved to Willow with new interest.
Evelyn raised one hand.
"Enough."
She looked at Naomi.
"Play it."
The room speakers clicked.
Richard's younger voice emerged.
Willow watched present-day Richard react to his past self.
At first, he looked bored.
Then annoyed.
Then alert.
Lucas's reaction was worse.
When his recorded voice said Willow was pretty, present-day Lucas closed his eyes.
When Richard said make her love you, he gripped the table.
Willow felt the room tilt between two versions of her husband.
The young man who accepted the assignment.
The older man who had spent five years living inside it.
She did not know which one was more frightening.
The board members stopped looking at her as a claimant.
They began looking at her as evidence of a corporate strategy carried out through a human life.
That distinction mattered.
Richard seemed to realize it too.
May you like
By the time the recording ended, he was no longer leaning back in his chair.
"Would anyone like to hear the answer?"
