Chapter 3 - Why Willa Was Chosen
Willa had expected many things from the Kane family.
Cruelty.
Judgment.
Suspicion.
She had not expected Everett to say he trusted her.
“I don't understand.”
Everett looked toward the chapel doors.
“Neither did I at first.”
Three months earlier, Everett had survived an attack.
His doctors said the poison damaged his nervous system and left him unable to move.
But Everett remembered everything.
He remembered the taste of the drink.
The person who handed it to him.
The room where he collapsed.
And the voice that whispered:
“Your cousin will finish what I started.”
Sterling.
Everett suspected him immediately.
But suspicion was not proof.
So Everett pretended to remain unconscious.
Sterling began moving quickly.
He replaced doctors.
Changed security.
Transferred money.
Removed loyal employees.
Then came Willa.
She had been found sleeping outside a restaurant owned by the Kane family.
Sterling offered her money to participate in the wedding.
The instructions were simple.
Wear the dress.
Say the vows.
Place the ring on Everett's finger.
Then leave.
Willa had accepted because she needed money for a shelter and medical treatment for an elderly woman who had once helped her.
But she discovered something strange before the ceremony.
A doctor told her Everett was completely unresponsive.
Yet when she whispered near him, his fingers moved.
She tested him.
She spoke names.
Places.
Questions.
Each time, his pulse changed.
So she began talking to him every night.
She told him what Sterling was doing.
She told him which doctors visited.
She told him about the men who searched his room.
She even told him when Sterling stood outside the door.
Everett had listened.
But Willa had never known whether he understood.
Now she did.
Everett reached for her hand.
“You saved me before you even knew I was awake.”
Willa looked down.
“I thought you were alone.”
“I was.”
He paused.
“Until you came.”
Before they could say more, Everett's head of security entered.
“Boss, we found something.”
He placed a sealed envelope on the bed.
Everett opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed Willa outside the shelter.
Taken six months before she ever met Sterling.
May you like
Everett's expression hardened.
Someone had been watching Willa long before Sterling hired her.
