Chapter 6 - The Spider's Web
To take down a multi-billion dollar empire like Sterling Enterprises, we needed more than just medical scans. We needed inside information. We needed to know exactly who inside the family had ordered my erasure.
"My father, Lawrence, passed away two years ago," I said to Arthur as we sat in his quiet study, reviewing the Sterling family tree. "Who is running the company now?"
"Your stepmother, Victoria," Arthur replied, his eyes narrowing. "And your stepbrother, Richard. They took complete control of the Sterling estate after Lawrence's death. They’ve been aggressively expanding, buying up commercial real estate across the country. They’re currently trying to secure a multi-billion dollar government contract for urban redevelopment in New York."
"Victoria," I murmured. The name tasted like ash in my mouth.
A memory flared—a cold, sharp face, manicured red nails holding a silver syringe, and a mocking voice whispering, 'You were always too weak for this family, Evelyn. We'll make sure Julian gets a proper wife.'
I gasped, clutching my chest. "She was there. At the clinic. Victoria was the one who ordered the doctors to drug me. She wanted my share of the Sterling inheritance. My father’s will... Arthur, how was his will structured?"
Arthur’s eyes widened as the realization hit him. "Your father’s will stated that if you died, your entire share of the Sterling fortune—roughly $150 million—would be placed into a trust for Lily, to be managed by Victoria until Lily turned twenty-five. But if you were alive and deemed mentally incompetent, Victoria would have direct control over your shares indefinitely."
"So they couldn't just kill me," I reasoned, the cold logic of their cruelty chilling me to the bone. "If I died, the money would be locked up in a trust for Lily, and Arthur would have had legal grounds to challenge Victoria’s guardianship of the funds. But if I 'escaped' and 'disappeared,' leaving me legally alive but physically absent, they could declare me missing, maintain control of the assets, and eventually have me declared dead on their own terms."
"It was the perfect financial crime," Arthur growled. "They used you as a financial battery, keeping your shares active while they bled the company dry."
"We need to get into the Sterling headquarters in New York," I said, looking at Arthur. "We need the physical logs from Whispering Pines. The digital records can be erased, but the original admission logs and medical charts from five years ago... they keep physical backups in the Sterling family archives in Manhattan."
May you like
"It's too dangerous, Evelyn," Arthur protested, his face etched with worry. "If Victoria sees you, she’ll have you locked up again, or worse."
"I am a registered nurse at one of the top hospitals in Seattle," I said, a slow, confident smile spreading across my face. "I have access to medical courier credentials. We don't go in as Evelyn and Arthur. We go in as a highly specialized medical audit team."
