Chapter 4 - The Woman Behind the Scheme
Everett studied the photograph.
Willa looked younger.
She was carrying grocery bags outside the shelter.
In the background stood a black sedan.
The same sedan had been parked outside Everett's hospital.
Willa stared at the image.
“I don't know that car.”
Everett believed her.
“Neither do I.”
His security chief, Mason, placed another photograph beside it.
The same vehicle.
Different location.
Willa's workplace.
The shelter.
The hospital.
Then the Kane estate.
Someone had followed her for months.
Sterling couldn't have known about her that early.
Everett asked Mason to investigate the license plate.
Mason returned ten minutes later.
“The vehicle was registered to a company called Bellweather Medical.”
Everett frowned.
“Who owns it?”
Mason hesitated.
“Your mother.”
The room went silent.
Everett's mother had died five years earlier.
Her estate had been divided between Everett and Sterling.
Willa looked at him.
“Could someone still be using her company?”
“Yes.”
Everett's jaw tightened.
His mother's old medical foundation still existed.
It funded clinics and shelters across the city.
Willa had lived near one of them.
Suddenly her arrival in Everett's life looked less accidental.
Everett opened an old file.
Inside was a list of charitable recipients.
Willa's name appeared near the bottom.
Next to it was a handwritten note.
Protect her if anything happens to Everett.
The handwriting belonged to Everett's mother.
Willa stared.
“Why would your mother write my name?”
Everett didn't know.
Then he saw the date.
The note had been written two years before his mother's death.
Long before the attack.
Long before the wedding.
Long before Willa knew Everett existed.
Everett looked at Mason.
“Find out who added her to the foundation's protection list.”
Mason nodded.
Before he left, the chapel lights flickered.
Someone had entered the building.
A guard shouted from the corridor.
Then a single gunshot echoed.
Everett immediately pulled Willa behind him.
Mason drew his weapon.
A second shot struck the chapel doors.
May you like
Someone wanted the envelope.
And whoever it was had just learned Everett was awake.
