Chapter 3 — Ethan Returned With Evidence That Changed Everything
Chapter 3 — Ethan Returned With Evidence That Changed Everything
Nobody moved.
Ethan stood beneath the ballroom entrance, soaked from the rain.
His shirt was wrinkled.
His hair was dripping.
And there was a small cut above his eyebrow.
Rebecca stared at him as if she were looking at a ghost.
“Ethan?”
He looked at her.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then Rebecca ran toward him.
She stopped just before reaching him.
As if she were afraid touching him would make him disappear again.
“Where have you been?”
Ethan looked at Mark.
“Ask him.”
Mark shook his head.
“Ethan, you don’t understand.”
“I understand everything.”
The room went silent.
Ethan walked toward us.
His eyes stopped on my wife.
“You really came.”
She looked terrified.
“I had to.”
“No.”
Ethan shook his head.
“You wanted to.”
My wife didn’t respond.
I looked at Ethan.
“What is going on?”
He studied me for a moment.
Then he reached inside his jacket.
He pulled out a small black flash drive.
“This is why you’re here.”
I stared at it.
“What is it?”
“Everything.”
Mark stepped forward.
“Ethan, give me that.”
Ethan immediately stepped back.
“No.”
“You don’t know what you’re carrying.”
“I know exactly what I’m carrying.”
He looked at me.
“Your company records.”
My stomach tightened.
“What does my company have to do with you?”
Ethan glanced toward the projector.
“More than you realize.”
The screen suddenly changed.
A series of bank transactions appeared.
Large transfers.
Different accounts.
Different dates.
But one name appeared repeatedly.
Michael.
My former business partner.
I felt my stomach drop.
“That can’t be right.”
Ethan nodded.
“It is.”
“I checked the accounts myself.”
“Two years ago?”
“Yes.”
“They were clean because someone wanted them to look clean.”
I looked at Mark.
He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“You knew.”
Mark shook his head.
“Not everything.”
“What did you know?”
He hesitated.
“Michael wasn’t working alone.”
“Who was he working with?”
Mark looked at my wife.
She whispered,
“Me.”
The room erupted.
People started talking.
Someone shouted.
Rebecca turned toward her.
“You?”
My wife closed her eyes.
“I didn’t steal anything.”
I stared at her.
“Then why?”
“Because Michael threatened me.”
“With what?”
She looked at me.
“With you.”
I felt my chest tighten.
“What does that mean?”
“He said if I didn’t cooperate, you’d lose everything.”
I shook my head.
“You could have told me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Before the hotel.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You mean before you started meeting Mark?”
She looked down.
“I was desperate.”
Mark stepped forward.
“Daniel, she was trying to get the evidence.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“And you?”
“I was helping her.”
Rebecca’s expression hardened.
“You slept with her while helping her?”
Mark looked away.
That answer was enough.
Ethan suddenly spoke.
“That wasn’t the biggest problem.”
Everyone looked at him.
He pointed toward the screen.
“Michael wasn’t stealing from Daniel.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“He was moving money.”
“Whose money?”
Ethan looked directly at me.
“Your father’s.”
I froze.
“My father?”
“He had investments outside the company.”
“My father died before I took over.”
“That is what you were told.”
I stared at him.
“What are you saying?”
Ethan reached into his jacket again.
This time he pulled out a document.
It was old.
Yellowed around the edges.
At the bottom was my father’s signature.
The date was seven years after his supposed death.
I couldn’t breathe.
“That isn’t possible.”
Ethan nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
I looked at my wife.
“You knew?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Then why did you say I shouldn’t trust you?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Because I knew someone was watching you.”
“Who?”
She didn’t answer.
Ethan did.
“Michael.”
I looked at him.
“He’s been watching Daniel for years.”
“Why?”
“Because your father left something behind.”
“What?”
“A trust.”
I frowned.
“A trust?”
“A private account containing millions of dollars.”
The room became silent.
Ethan continued.
“Your father created it before he disappeared.”
“Why would he leave it to me?”
“He didn’t.”
I stared at him.
“Then who?”
Ethan’s expression changed.
“He left it to your wife.”
I turned toward her.
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
Lauren—or rather, my wife—looked at me helplessly.
“I didn’t know.”
“You’re the beneficiary?”
She nodded.
“But I never touched the money.”
“Why would my father leave his money to you?”
“I don’t know.”
Ethan looked toward Mark.
“Tell him.”
Mark shook his head.
“No.”
“Tell him.”
Mark’s face tightened.
“Your father didn’t trust you.”
I felt like I’d been punched.
“What?”
“He believed you would eventually discover what he had done.”
“What had he done?”
Mark looked at the floor.
“He built the company using someone else’s money.”
I stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Your father wasn’t the victim in this story, Daniel.”
I looked at him.
“Then what was he?”
Ethan hesitated.
“Part of it.”
The words hung in the air.
For the first time, I wondered whether I had spent the entire night believing the wrong story.
Maybe my father hadn’t been protecting me.
Maybe he had been protecting himself.
Then the ballroom doors slammed shut.
Everyone turned.
The projector went black.
A voice came through the speakers.
“Daniel.”
I recognized it immediately.
My father’s voice.
“I’m sorry you had to learn this way.”
I stared at the ceiling.
“Dad?”
The voice continued.
“Don’t believe everything Ethan tells you.”
Ethan stepped backward.
The color drained from his face.
My father continued.
“Ethan was never my ally.”
Rebecca looked at her husband.
“What?”
Ethan suddenly moved toward the exit.
Mark blocked him.
“Don’t.”
Ethan stopped.
Then my father’s voice said one final thing.
“The man who betrayed me is standing in that room.”
The lights came back on.
Everyone looked around.
My eyes moved from Mark…
to Ethan…
to my wife…
Then stopped on the person standing beside the projector.
Michael.
He smiled.
And held up a second flash drive.
“You’ve been looking for the wrong man.”
He looked directly at me.
“Your father isn’t the one who disappeared.”
Then he pressed a button.
The ballroom screen changed.
And the first image that appeared was a photograph of my father—
standing beside a woman I had never seen before.
With one hand resting on her shoulder.
And in the woman’s arms was a newborn baby.
Underneath the photograph were four words:
Daniel was never his son.