Chapter 6 - What Eleanor Never Told Him
Eleanor deleted nothing.
She handed the phone directly to Ethan.
That surprised him.
Three years earlier, Vanessa had hidden danger until it poisoned everything.
Eleanor did the opposite.
“No secrets,” she said.
Ethan nodded.
“No secrets.”
They contacted police.
Her mother was moved to a secure location.
Grant's meeting point—a closed marina warehouse—was placed under surveillance.
Grant never appeared.
Instead, officers found an envelope.
Inside was another photograph from 2004.
Eleanor standing beside David Hale.
This time, Ethan noticed something in her hand.
A small black notebook.
“What was that?”
Eleanor stared.
“I forgot about it.”
“What notebook?”
“Your father's.”
David had given it to her after recording her statement.
He said it contained information that could protect her if Grant returned.
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
“Think.”
She did.
Then remembered.
Her mother's attic.
They drove there with security.
The house felt frozen in another century of Eleanor's life.
Old trophies.
School photographs.
A faded prom dress.
Boxes labeled COLLEGE.
Ethan found a yearbook.
Eleanor tried taking it away.
Too late.
He opened it.
His photograph had a tiny heart beside it.
He looked at her.
She covered her face.
“I was sixteen.”
“I didn't say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I absolutely was.”
For the first time since the crisis began, Eleanor laughed.
Ethan stared.
He had heard her laugh in meetings.
This was different.
Unprotected.
He wanted to hear it again.
That realization frightened him more than Grant.
They found the notebook inside an old shoebox.
David Hale's handwriting filled the pages.
Dates.
Financial transactions.
Grant's meetings.
Names.
Then one page marked:
E.R. — PROTECT AT ALL COSTS.
Eleanor's eyes filled.
“He believed me.”
“Yes.”
The final pages described Grant's attempted theft.
David planned to report him after securing proof.
But one entry was stranger.
June 22, 2004.
Grant is not acting alone. Someone inside the family is feeding him information.
Ethan frowned.
“My family?”
The next page had been removed.
Cleanly cut.
Eleanor turned pages.
Nothing.
A folded note slipped from the binding.
Ethan opened it.
If anything happens to me, the missing page is with the one person Grant will never suspect.
No name.
Ethan thought of his mother.
Vanessa.
Samuel Beckett.
His father's oldest friend and current board chairman.
Samuel had helped Ethan build Hale Orbital after David's death.
Ethan called Claire.
“Find Samuel.”
Silence.
“Ethan…”
“What?”
“He didn't come to work today.”
“Call him.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“His phone is disconnected.”
Ethan looked at Eleanor.
Claire continued.
“There is something else. Samuel accessed the Horizon archive last night.”
Ethan's grip tightened.
“From where?”
“His home.”
“Send security.”
“Already did.”
A pause.
“Ethan, his house is empty.”
Eleanor turned another page in David's notebook.
A line was written near the bottom.
SB knows where the original Horizon prototype is hidden.
Ethan stared at the initials.
Samuel Beckett.
His father's closest friend.
The man Ethan trusted more than almost anyone alive.
Then Eleanor's phone rang.
The caller ID showed Samuel's name.
She answered.
No greeting.
Only Samuel's terrified whisper.
May you like
“Eleanor, don't tell Ethan what his father discovered about me.”
Then a gunshot exploded through the phone.
