Chapter 7 - Brooke’s Second Plan
Only one person had ever called Ethan “E.”
His father.
Ethan stared at the locked office.
Impossible.
His father, Thomas Hale, had vanished twenty-one years ago.
Daniel moved the gun.
“Drive.”
Ethan threw it across the floor.
Daniel bent.
Hannah moved.
She shoved Margaret's wheelchair toward Ethan.
Caleb and the police team waiting outside rushed in.
Daniel fired once.
The bullet struck a steel beam.
Then officers tackled him.
Ethan ran to the office.
He broke the lock.
Inside was not his father.
A speaker sat on a table.
The voice had been recorded.
Daniel laughed from the floor.
“You really thought I'd make it that easy?”
Ethan turned.
“You know where he is.”
Daniel said nothing.
Margaret did.
“He's alive.”
Everyone stopped.
Margaret looked at Ethan.
“Your father saved me.”
Thomas Hale had discovered Daniel's crimes and helped Margaret escape years earlier.
Daniel retaliated by framing Thomas for financial theft.
Thomas disappeared to protect Ethan and Ethan's mother from being dragged into the scandal.
But Margaret hadn't seen him in fifteen years.
Claire had.
Shortly before returning to Ethan.
Claire's encrypted files contained the location.
That was why Daniel needed them destroyed.
The drive Ethan had surrendered was fake.
The real one remained safe.
By morning, Daniel was in custody.
The twins were home.
Margaret was hospitalized for evaluation.
For the first time, Ethan believed the nightmare might be ending.
Then Brooke requested to speak with him.
He visited the detention center.
She looked nothing like the woman from the engagement photographs.
No makeup.
No perfect hair.
No performance.
“I deserve whatever happens,” she said.
“Yes.”
She flinched.
“I did love you.”
“No. You loved what standing beside me gave you.”
“Maybe at first.”
Ethan remained silent.
Brooke pushed an envelope through the opening beneath the glass.
“Daniel made me prepare two plans.”
Ethan opened it.
The first was the false placement arrangement.
The second was worse.
A petition alleging Ethan was mentally unstable and medically incapable of caring for the twins.
Brooke had collected statements.
Photographs.
Medical documents.
Some were forged.
If the kidnapping failed, she intended to have Ethan declared unfit.
“Why give me this?”
“Because Daniel has copies.”
“He's in custody.”
“He isn't the only one.”
Ethan looked up.
“Who else?”
Brooke leaned toward the glass.
“Your attorney.”
Ethan felt sick.
Richard Sloan had represented him for fourteen years.
He had drafted the trust amendments.
He knew everything.
Brooke whispered, “Daniel couldn't have done any of this without him.”
That afternoon Ethan called Richard.
No answer.
Caleb went to his office.
Empty.
Computers gone.
Files shredded.
Then Hannah called Ethan from the estate.
Her voice trembled.
“Ethan, there's someone at the gate.”
“Who?”
“He says he's your father.”
Ethan couldn't speak.
Hannah continued.
“But Ethan…”
“What?”
“He isn't alone.”
The security camera shifted.
A man stepped beside Thomas Hale.
May you like
Ethan recognized him from Claire's photographs.
The private doctor who had treated her before she died.
