Chapter 4 — My Father Returned With A Truth Lauren Never Expected
Chapter 4 — My Father Returned With A Truth Lauren Never Expected
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
The conference room suddenly felt too small.
My father.
Alive.
And Lauren had been hired by him.
To marry me.
I looked at the photograph again.
The man standing outside the building was unmistakably him.
Same face.
Same gray hair.
Same scar above his eyebrow.
A face I had spent eight years believing I would never see again.
I looked at Lauren.
“You’re lying.”
She shook her head.
“I wish I were.”
“My father died.”
“He wanted everyone to believe that.”
“Why?”
“Because someone was trying to kill him.”
I laughed bitterly.
“So he hired my fiancée to spy on me?”
Lauren’s tears continued falling.
“Yes.”
I stepped away from her.
“Why?”
“Because he believed you were in danger.”
That stopped me.
“What kind of danger?”
Lauren looked at her father.
He didn’t answer.
Marcus finally spoke.
“The kind that doesn’t disappear just because your father does.”
I stared at him.
“Start talking.”
Marcus sat down.
“Eight years ago, your father discovered that someone inside his company was stealing money.”
“My father’s company?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“More than twenty million dollars.”
I felt dizzy.
My father had always told me his company failed because of the recession.
He had said the business became impossible to save.
He had sold everything.
Then supposedly died months later.
It had never made sense.
Now it did.
“Who stole it?”
Marcus looked at Lauren’s father.
“That’s where things became complicated.”
My future father-in-law finally spoke.
“Your father suspected me.”
I stared at him.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“And he was right?”
He didn’t answer.
Lauren whispered:
“My father was involved.”
I looked at her.
“You knew?”
“I found out later.”
“How much later?”
“After I met you.”
I shook my head.
“So why did you stay?”
She looked at me.
“Because I fell in love with you.”
I almost laughed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t expect anything.”
She looked exhausted.
“I know what I did.”
I wanted to hate her.
Part of me still did.
But there was something in her expression that didn’t look like someone protecting a scheme.
It looked like someone who had finally run out of lies.
I turned to Marcus.
“Then explain the videos.”
Lauren lowered her head.
Marcus answered.
“The videos were real.”
My jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“To make you believe Lauren was betraying you.”
“What?”
“We needed you angry.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if someone was watching you.”
Marcus opened another folder.
Inside were photographs.
Me leaving work.
Me entering restaurants.
Me visiting my parents.
Me driving home.
Pictures from years earlier.
Someone had been following me.
I flipped through them.
Then stopped.
There was one photograph of me at twenty-six.
Lauren was nowhere in my life yet.
Another showed me entering my father’s old office.
Another showed me meeting my financial adviser.
“How long?”
“Eight years.”
I looked at Lauren.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“And you still came into my life?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“Because your father believed the people watching you would eventually try to reach you through someone close to you.”
I stared at her.
“So he sent you.”
“Yes.”
“To become my girlfriend.”
“Yes.”
“To become my fiancée.”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“And the wedding?”
Lauren didn’t answer.
I already knew.
“The wedding was part of the plan.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“The wedding was when I realized I couldn’t do it.”
“Do what?”
“Hand you over to them.”
The room became silent.
I frowned.
“Hand me over?”
Lauren nodded.
“Your father wasn’t the only person investigating the money.”
“Who else?”
She looked at Marcus.
Marcus pulled another photograph from the folder.
It showed a man I didn’t recognize.
“Who is that?”
“Victor Hale.”
“Who?”
“Your father’s former business partner.”
I stared at the photograph.
“What does he want?”
“Control.”
“Of what?”
Marcus answered:
“Everything your father hid before he disappeared.”
I looked down at the documents.
Then I noticed something.
A name appeared repeatedly.
Ethan Carter.
My name.
“What did my father hide?”
Lauren whispered:
“A trust.”
I looked at her.
“What trust?”
“Your grandfather created it before he died.”
My grandfather.
The man who had supposedly left me almost nothing.
According to the documents, the trust contained shares in several properties and private investments.
The estimated value was enormous.
But there was a condition.
I couldn’t access it until I was married.
I stared at the page.
“So that’s why you needed the wedding.”
Lauren nodded.
“And that’s why the prenup was important.”
“What would happen after I signed?”
“My father would gain access to the trust through me.”
I looked at her father.
“You planned to take my inheritance.”
He looked away.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more than I expected.
Not because I had lost money.
Because the man who had toasted my engagement had been waiting for my signature.
I turned back to Lauren.
“And you?”
She cried silently.
“I was supposed to convince you.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because somewhere along the way, I stopped seeing you as the target.”
I looked at her.
“And started seeing me as your fiancé.”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A man’s voice came through.
“Ethan.”
I froze.
I knew that voice.
I had heard it in old home videos.
A voice from childhood.
A voice I had spent years trying not to remember.
“Dad?”
Lauren covered her mouth.
The man on the phone said:
“Don’t trust anyone in that room.”
I looked around.
Everyone was watching me.
“Where are you?”
“Not far.”
“Why did you disappear?”
“Because I had to keep you alive.”
“You could have told me.”
“No.”
His voice cracked.
“If I had told you, they would have killed you.”
“Who?”
Silence.
Then he said:
“Your future father-in-law.”
I looked at the man across the table.
He had gone pale.
My father continued.
“He wasn’t working alone.”
I tightened my grip on the phone.
“Who else?”
“Someone you love.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who?”
My father didn’t answer.
Instead, I heard a loud noise on his end.
Then his voice became urgent.
“They found me.”
“Dad?”
“Listen carefully.”
“What?”
“Lauren was supposed to protect you.”
I looked at her.
“She failed.”
Lauren began crying.
“Dad, I’m sorry.”
There was silence.
Then my father said:
“It’s not her fault.”
I froze.
“What?”
“She was threatened.”
“By whom?”
My father’s breathing became heavier.
“By Ryan.”
I stopped.
Ryan.
My best friend since childhood.
The man who had stood beside me when I proposed.
The man who had helped me choose the engagement ring.
The man who had told me Lauren was perfect.
My father continued.
“Ryan has been working for them from the beginning.”
I couldn’t move.
Lauren looked at me.
“Ethan…”
My father said one final thing.
“Don’t go home.”
The line went dead.
I immediately called back.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Marcus stood.
“We need to leave.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because if your father is right, your house isn’t safe.”
I thought about our kitchen.
The laptop.
The engagement ring.
The bedroom upstairs.
And Lauren sleeping there while I believed everything was normal.
Then I remembered something.
The videos.
The messages.
The people watching me.
Someone had access to our home.
Someone had known exactly when I would discover the truth.
I suddenly turned toward Lauren.
“How did you know I would find the videos?”
She looked confused.
“I didn’t.”
“Then who did?”
Nobody answered.
My phone buzzed.
A new message appeared.
You should have listened to your father.
Then another.
A photograph appeared.
I opened it.
It showed Lauren and me asleep in our bedroom.
Taken from inside our house.
The timestamp was from the previous night.
My blood turned cold.
Someone had been inside.
While we slept.
Then a final message appeared.
The wedding is canceled.
I stared at the screen.
A second later, another message arrived.
Because you won’t live long enough to reach it.