Chapter 2 - The Doctor Who Was Paid to Make Me Forget
Lucas cut the last rope around my wrists just as Monica’s flashlight swept across the oak tree.
“Move,” he whispered.
At seventy-two, recovering from a concussion, with bruised ribs and one wrist still wrapped from the hospital, moving silently through a dark forest was not exactly a skill I possessed.
Still, fear is an excellent physical therapist.
Lucas guided me behind a fallen log while the voices approached.
Edward sounded angry.
“She was right here.”
“She couldn’t have gone far,” Monica snapped.
Brian said nothing.
Dr. Richard Vale remained near the vehicles.
That mattered.
A man who believed he was participating in a harmless family intervention would have come searching.
A man carrying a medical bag into the woods at midnight knew exactly why he was there.
Lucas handed me a small device.
“Press that button if we get separated.”
“What happens?”
“State police receive our location.”
“You didn’t call them already?”
“I did.”
I stared at him.
“Then why are we hiding?”
“Because the nearest unit is eighteen minutes away.”
I looked toward the approaching flashlights.
“And they’re about eighteen seconds away.”
“Approximately.”
“Henry hired an optimist.”
We moved downhill.
Behind us, Monica called again.
“Mother! Stop being dramatic!”
I nearly laughed.
Even while hunting their elderly mother through a forest after tying her to a tree, my children remained convinced I was the difficult one.
Then Brian shouted.
“Wait!”
Everyone stopped.
“I heard something.”
Lucas put a finger to his lips.
A branch snapped to our right.
Edward appeared.
His flashlight landed directly on my face.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Then Edward’s expression changed.
Not relief.
Not guilt.
Rage.
“How did you get loose?”
Lucas stepped between us.
Edward stared at him.
“Who the hell are you?”
“The reason your evening is getting worse.”
Monica arrived behind her brother.
When she saw Lucas, her face went white.
“You had us followed?”
“No,” I said. “I had myself protected.”
“You tricked us.”
That sentence almost impressed me.
“You tied me to a tree.”
“You forced us!”
“No, Monica. You made a decision.”
Dr. Vale finally approached.
His tone was soft.
Professional.
The same voice he used in the hospital.
“Evelyn, you’re confused.”
There it was.
I looked at him.
“Am I?”
“You suffered a head injury.”
“And yet somehow I remember you prescribing medication I never requested.”
He froze.
Edward stepped forward.
“She’s paranoid.”
Vale regained control.
“Exactly. Post-concussive paranoia can—”
“Finish that sentence,” I said.
He stopped.
Lucas raised his phone.
“Please do. The recording is excellent.”
Monica stared at the device.
“You’re recording us?”
“Since the parking area.”
Brian made a sound somewhere between a gasp and a sob.
Edward turned on him.
“Pull yourself together.”
“I told you this was going too far.”
Monica spun.
“Not now.”
“You said we were just scaring her!”
My chest tightened.
Brian looked at me.
“Mom, I didn’t know Vale was coming.”
Edward grabbed Brian’s jacket.
“Shut up.”
“Get off me!”
Lucas stepped forward.
Edward released him.
Then Dr. Vale made the mistake that ended everything.
He reached into his medical bag.
Lucas drew his weapon.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Vale stopped.
“What is in the bag?” Lucas asked.
“Medication.”
“What kind?”
Vale said nothing.
Sirens became audible in the distance.
Monica’s face collapsed.
Edward looked toward the road.
“Go!”
They ran.
Or tried to.
Police vehicles blocked the forest access road before they reached the cars.
By 1:40 a.m., Monica, Edward, Brian, and Dr. Vale were sitting in separate police vehicles.
I sat inside an ambulance with a blanket around my shoulders while Lucas gave a statement.
An officer brought me Dr. Vale’s bag.
“We need you to identify whether any of this looks familiar.”
Inside were syringes, sedatives, and three prescription bottles.
One contained the same tablets Vale had prescribed after my fall.
The officer held up another.
“Do you recognize this medication?”
“No.”
“It’s a high-dose sedative.”
I stared at it.
“Would it kill me?”
“In the amount carried here, potentially.”
The cold seemed to enter my bones.
Monica had known.
Edward had known.
Brian?
I did not yet know.
At four in the morning, Henry arrived at the hospital.
He took one look at me.
“You are never allowed to complain about my hourly rate again.”
I laughed despite everything.
Then his face softened.
“Are you all right?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
He sat beside me.
“The new will is executed and secure.”
“They almost killed me.”
“I know.”
“Emily was right.”
“Who?”
“The nurse.”
I told him.
Henry wrote down her name.
“We’ll protect her.”
Then he opened his briefcase.
“There’s something else.”
He removed financial records.
“After you asked me to redo your estate plan, I started reviewing transfers connected to your children.”
“How bad?”
“Worse than I expected.”
Edward had borrowed thirty-two million dollars using anticipated inheritance as informal collateral.
Monica had personally guaranteed several failed real-estate projects.
Brian had gambling debt.
But the largest surprise involved Sterling Industries.
Someone had been quietly purchasing voting shares through shell companies.
“How much?”
“Eleven percent.”
“Who?”
“We traced three entities to Edward.”
My pulse quickened.
“He’s building a takeover.”
Henry nodded.
“With support from two board members.”
“They think I’m dying.”
“They need you incapacitated or dead before the annual shareholder meeting.”
I leaned back against the hospital pillow.
My children had not become monsters overnight.
I had simply spent years refusing to see what money had done to them.
“Call Alice.”
Henry studied me.
“Now?”
“Now.”
It was nearly dawn when Alice Sterling walked into my hospital room.
Tall. Calm. Dark hair streaked with silver.
Charles’s daughter.
My stepdaughter.
The only child in the family who had never called me asking for money.
She stopped in the doorway.
For years, we had been polite strangers.
Then she saw the bruises around my wrists.
Her expression changed.
“Oh, Evelyn.”
I expected questions.
Instead, she walked over and hugged me.
And for the first time since the forest, I cried.
Not because I was afraid.
Because someone was holding me without wanting anything.
When I told her I had transferred controlling ownership of Sterling Industries to a trust she would oversee after my death, she immediately shook her head.
“No.”
Henry raised an eyebrow.
I said, “You haven’t heard the terms.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
“I am not taking your company because your children betrayed you.”
“It isn’t charity.”
“What is it?”
“Responsibility.”
She stared at me.
“I built something that needs to survive me.”
“And you think I can protect it?”
“I think you’re the only person in this family who never assumed it belonged to you.”
Alice looked away.
Then quietly asked, “What do you need me to do?”
Before I could answer, my phone rang.
Sterling Industries security.
I answered.
“Mrs. Sterling?”
“Yes.”
“We have a situation at headquarters.”
“What kind?”
“Mr. Edward Sterling arrived with two board members and attorneys.”
My grip tightened.
“What does he want?”
The security director hesitated.
“He says you are mentally incapacitated.”
Alice’s face hardened.
“And?”
“He’s calling an emergency board meeting.”
I slowly sat upright.
My ribs screamed.
I did not care.
“Tell him not to start without me.”
Henry stared.
“You’re going there?”
I looked at Alice.
“My children wanted an inheritance.”
May you like
Then I looked at the marks on my wrists.
“Instead, I think it’s time they learned who still owns the company.”
