Chapter 6 - They Came for Alice Next
Alice stared at Tyler’s laptop as if the screen had opened into a grave.
For months, I had believed my children wanted me dead because I stood between them and money.
Now I understood their plan required two bodies.
Mine.
And Alice’s.
“Play it again,” she said.
“You don’t need to hear it again.”
“I do.”
Tyler replayed the recording.
Edward’s voice.
Calm.
Businesslike.
“Once Mother is gone, Alice becomes the last problem.”
Then another man asked, “Car accident?”
Edward replied, “Something clean.”
Alice closed the laptop.
“I’m going home.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“My apartment is twenty minutes away.”
“You’re staying here.”
“Evelyn—”
“Do not argue with a woman who survived being tied to a tree this week.”
Tyler looked between us.
“She has a point.”
Alice stayed.
Lucas doubled security.
Federal investigators took possession of Tyler’s files.
Edward’s charges expanded dramatically.
For the first time, even his attorneys stopped appearing confident.
But cornered people are dangerous.
Two days later, an employee inside Sterling Industries deleted seventeen years of archived compliance records.
Security identified him as Mark Bell, deputy chief financial officer.
Edward had hired him.
Lucas found evidence Bell had purchased a one-way ticket to Argentina.
He never boarded.
Instead, someone found his car abandoned near the Hudson River.
No body.
No phone.
No explanation.
“Edward has help,” Lucas said.
We sat in my library with Alice, Henry, Tyler, and two investigators.
“From who?” I asked.
“Someone still inside Sterling.”
Henry opened a list of senior executives.
“There are four possibilities with enough access.”
One name caught my attention.
Phillip Crane.
The board member who defended Edward.
Another was our chief legal officer.
Another, the head of international finance.
The fourth?
Claire Sterling.
Brian’s wife.
I stared.
“No.”
Lucas remained neutral.
“Her credentials accessed restricted financial servers last night.”
“Claire barely knows how to use the company accounting system.”
“Which is exactly why it’s suspicious.”
Brian’s wife had worked part-time in the Sterling Foundation years earlier, but she had no current role.
Then Alice said, “Could someone be using her credentials?”
Henry nodded.
“Possibly.”
We visited Brian again.
When we told him, his face changed.
“Edward has Claire’s old laptop.”
“How?”
“He gave it to her when she worked at the foundation. She returned it when she resigned.”
“So he has her authentication certificates.”
Brian swore.
“He’s framing her.”
“For what?”
“Money laundering.”
The plan became clear.
If Edward went down, he intended to shift illegal transfers toward Brian and Claire.
Brian began laughing.
Not because anything was funny.
Because sometimes despair loses its ability to choose an appropriate sound.
“I spent my whole life being afraid he’d destroy me.”
He looked at me.
“And he was going to do it anyway.”
That sentence changed something inside Brian.
Fear left.
Not all at once.
But enough.
He agreed to wear a wire.
Prosecutors arranged controlled communication through a channel Edward believed was secure.
Edward sent instructions from jail through his attorney’s investigator.
Delete files.
Move funds.
Pressure witnesses.
And most importantly:
Find Tyler.
My grandson had become the most dangerous person in the family because he had copied everything.
We moved him to a protected location.
He protested.
“I’m twenty-two.”
“You’re twenty-two and terrible at checking behind you.”
“I can protect myself.”
Lucas looked him up and down.
“No.”
Tyler frowned.
“I work out.”
Lucas nodded.
“I noticed the expensive shoes.”
Three days later, Tyler disappeared.
His security vehicle was found near a service station.
The driver had been unconscious after being drugged through a coffee purchased from a compromised vendor.
I received a call at 6:13 p.m.
Unknown number.
Edward’s voice.
“Hello, Mother.”
My blood turned cold.
“How are you calling me?”
“Money still buys friendship.”
“Where is Tyler?”
“Safe.”
“If you hurt him—”
“You always sound powerful when you’re scared.”
I forced myself to breathe.
“What do you want?”
“Transfer twenty percent of Sterling voting shares into the account Henry will receive.”
“You’re in jail.”
“For now.”
“You think kidnapping your nephew improves your situation?”
“He’s my son’s cousin, Mother. Keep up.”
“Where is he?”
Edward laughed.
“You know what your problem has always been?”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“You believe ownership equals control.”
The line went dead.
Lucas immediately began tracing the call.
Alice entered.
“What happened?”
“They have Tyler.”
Her face drained.
Then my phone buzzed.
A photograph.
Tyler sitting in a chair inside a warehouse.
Unhurt.
Behind him was a large faded blue logo.
Alice leaned closer.
“I know that building.”
“So do I.”
Sterling Industries Plant One.
My first factory.
The rented warehouse where I had started everything.
It had been closed twelve years.
Edward knew exactly what he was doing.
He had taken my grandson to the birthplace of the empire he believed had stolen his mother from him.
Police wanted to wait.
I refused.
“You are not entering that building,” Lucas said.
“I’m not asking.”
“You are seventy-two.”
“I remain aware.”
“You fractured your wrist last month.”
“And yet I can still make executive decisions.”
Alice stepped between us.
“She’s not going alone.”
Neither was I.
By midnight, federal agents surrounded Plant One.
A negotiator called the number Edward had provided.
No answer.
Then a side door opened.
Tyler stumbled outside.
Alone.
Agents rushed him.
I reached him seconds later.
“Grandma.”
I hugged him.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened?”
“They asked about the copied files. Then suddenly they left.”
“Who?”
He swallowed.
“A man named Crane.”
Phillip Crane.
Of course.
Edward had not kidnapped Tyler from jail.
Crane had.
Then Tyler grabbed my arm.
“There was a woman with him.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see her face.”
“Monica?”
“No.”
His expression changed.
“She called Crane ‘Dad.’”
Alice and I stared at each other.
Phillip Crane had one known daughter.
Norah Crane.
My executive assistant.
The woman who had managed my calendar, medication pickups, travel, and private appointments for six years.
The woman who knew exactly when I would be alone.
May you like
And suddenly, the conspiracy was no longer just my family.
It had been sitting outside my office every working day.
