Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Signed as Mother
The elevator doors opened.
Brooke stepped out.
Jack was in her arms.
Ethan moved toward her.
“Give him to me.”
Brooke backed away.
“Files first.”
Jack slept against her chest.
Ethan forced himself to remain calm.
“You said you wanted them gone.”
“I wanted them out of the inheritance.”
“They're newborn babies.”
“You think I don't know that?”
Something cracked in Brooke's voice.
For the first time, Ethan saw fear instead of contempt.
“Daniel told me nobody would be hurt.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“No.”
Brooke looked at Hannah.
“But she might.”
Hannah stiffened.
“Why?”
“Because Claire knew Daniel before I did.”
Ethan turned.
Hannah shook her head.
“No.”
Brooke continued.
“Claire wasn't just threatened because of the babies. She found something in Hale Harbor's oldest financial records.”
“What?”
“Payments to a woman named Margaret Price.”
Hannah went white.
Their mother.
Brooke said Margaret had worked as an accountant for Ethan's late grandfather.
In 2004 she discovered money being diverted through shell companies.
Daniel was involved.
She threatened to expose him.
Then she disappeared.
Claire spent years trying to prove what happened.
Her pregnancy brought her back into Ethan's orbit—and into Daniel's reach.
“Why did you help him?” Ethan asked Brooke.
“Because he told me your marriage would give me protection.”
“You weren't married to me.”
“Not yet.”
“And my sons?”
Brooke looked down at Jack.
“I panicked.”
“You tried to remove them.”
“I signed papers.”
“You kidnapped them.”
“Daniel took control.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“You don't get to become innocent because the monster you joined turned out to be worse than you.”
Brooke's eyes filled with tears.
“I know.”
She stepped forward.
Jack moved slightly.
Brooke kissed his forehead.
Then she placed him into Ethan's arms.
“Take him.”
Ethan immediately held his son against his chest.
Hannah rushed toward them.
“Where's Daniel?”
Brooke looked toward the elevator.
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“You came here with him.”
“He left through the service tunnel.”
Caleb appeared carrying Noah.
Both twins were safe.
For one breath, nothing else mattered.
Then police sirens approached.
Brooke looked frightened.
“You called them?”
Ethan nodded.
She didn't run.
Instead she removed a document from inside her coat.
“Claire found this.”
It was an old hospital birth record.
March 17, 1989.
The mother's name was Margaret Price.
But the child listed wasn't Claire.
It wasn't Hannah.
The infant was male.
Hannah stared.
“My mother only had daughters.”
Brooke shook her head.
“Apparently not.”
Ethan looked at the child's name.
The surname had been blacked out.
But the first name remained.
Daniel.
Hannah stopped breathing.
“No.”
Brooke whispered, “Daniel Hale wasn't born a Hale.”
Before anyone could speak, Ethan's phone received a message.
It contained a photograph.
Daniel stood beside an elderly woman in a wheelchair.
Hannah dropped to her knees.
“Mom?”
May you like
The next message contained only five words.
BRING THE DRIVE OR SHE DIES.
