Chapter 2 - The Secret Inside the Rabbit
Ethan did not speak for several seconds.
The security image showed an older man standing outside Grace Cole’s room.
Silver hair.
Dark overcoat.
A scar beneath his right eye.
Ethan knew that face.
“Richard Vale.”
Daniel nodded.
Vanessa whispered, “Who?”
Ethan ignored her.
Richard Vale had been Northstar’s first outside investor.
He had given Ethan two million dollars when every major venture firm in New York had rejected him.
Three years later, Richard disappeared after an internal audit uncovered unauthorized transfers.
No charges had ever been filed.
Grace had begged Ethan not to prosecute.
At the time, Ethan had never understood why.
Richard vanished.
Until now.
“Get someone to the penthouse,” Ethan said.
“Already moving.”
“And duplicate every security feed before anyone can erase it.”
Daniel nodded.
Vanessa folded her arms.
“So now some former employee breaks into your apartment and somehow I’m responsible?”
Ethan held up the photograph.
“I haven’t said what you’re responsible for.”
“You’re looking at me like a criminal.”
“I’m looking at you like a woman kissing someone eleven days before marrying me.”
Her face tightened.
“That photograph is old.”
“The date says last month.”
“It could be altered.”
“Good. Then you’ll have no objection to Daniel verifying it.”
She said nothing.
Ethan turned toward Maria.
“Take Lily somewhere quiet.”
Maria nodded gratefully.
But Lily resisted.
“Mr. Ethan.”
He looked down.
“What?”
“Bunny heard the man.”
Vanessa’s eyes snapped toward the toy.
Ethan crouched.
“What do you mean?”
Lily pointed at one plastic eye.
“Mommy got me a talking bunny.”
Maria frowned.
“No, honey. It doesn’t talk.”
“Mr. Ethan made it talk.”
Ethan remembered.
Six months earlier, Lily had brought the rabbit to the penthouse with one eye missing. Ethan had jokingly asked one of his engineers to install a tiny voice recorder inside it because Lily wanted the rabbit to “remember stories.”
He had forgotten entirely.
Daniel had not.
“Sir.”
Ethan handed him the toy.
Daniel examined the seam.
“There’s a recorder.”
Vanessa backed toward the altar.
Ethan noticed.
“Don’t leave.”
“I need air.”
“You’ll get it in a minute.”
Daniel connected the rabbit’s recorder to a tablet.
Several files appeared.
Most were harmless.
Lily singing.
Maria reading bedtime stories.
Ethan himself asking the rabbit whether it intended to pay rent.
Then Daniel found a file recorded eleven days earlier.
He pressed play.
At first there was only fabric rustling.
Then Vanessa’s voice.
Clear.
“I’ve read the agreement sixteen times, Christian.”
Ethan felt his stomach drop.
Another voice answered.
Male.
“If Cole discovers the transfers before the ceremony, we lose everything.”
Vanessa’s recorded laugh filled the silent ballroom.
“He won’t.”
The real Vanessa stood ten feet away.
Pale.
Motionless.
On the recording, Christian said, “Once the marriage is legal, we move the money.”
“How much?”
“Enough that he notices too late.”
“And after?”
A pause.
“After, Ethan Cole becomes a problem someone else solves.”
The recording ended.
Maria covered her mouth.
Daniel slowly lowered the tablet.
Ethan stared at Vanessa.
She whispered, “That isn’t what it sounds like.”
He almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the sentence was so predictable.
“Then tell me what it sounds like.”
“I was being threatened.”
“You sounded comfortable.”
“I was pretending.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
“From Christian?”
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.
“My brother.”
Ethan frowned.
Vanessa was an only child.
At least according to everything he knew.
“My half brother,” she added quickly.
“What’s his last name?”
She hesitated.
“Vale.”
The name struck Ethan like a physical blow.
“Richard Vale’s son?”
Vanessa nodded.
Suddenly the past eighteen months reorganized themselves in Ethan’s mind.
The museum fundraiser.
The crooked bow tie.
The childhood baseball glove.
Her uncanny knowledge of him.
Perhaps none of it had been accidental.
“Did Richard send you to me?”
“No.”
“Did Christian?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me who your family was?”
“Because I knew you’d react exactly like this.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m guilty because of my blood.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“No. I think you’re guilty because I just heard you discussing stealing my money.”
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“You don’t understand the agreement.”
“Then explain it.”
She looked toward Daniel.
“Privately.”
“No.”
“Ethan.”
“No more private conversations.”
For the first time, she looked genuinely defeated.
Daniel’s phone vibrated.
He read the message.
“Penthouse team arrived.”
“And Richard?”
“Gone.”
“Grace’s room?”
“Disturbed.”
Ethan felt anger rise.
That room contained almost nothing valuable.
His mother’s clothes.
A box of photographs.
Her recipe cards.
The cheap ceramic mug she had used every morning.
He had preserved it because grief had made him irrational.
“What was taken?”
“They’re checking.”
Daniel paused.
“One thing is definitely missing.”
“What?”
“Your mother’s old laptop.”
Ethan looked at the flash drive.
G. COLE — FINAL MESSAGE.
He had never known Grace possessed anything worth stealing.
Perhaps he had been wrong.
“Get us to Manhattan.”
Daniel nodded.
Vanessa stepped forward.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“You need me.”
“Why?”
“Because I know what Christian is looking for.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What?”
She looked at the flash drive.
“That.”
He held it tighter.
“What’s on it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know he wants it?”
“Because my father spent five years looking for it.”
“Richard isn’t your father.”
Vanessa’s silence answered him.
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“You lied again.”
“He raised me.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
She lowered her voice.
“Richard believed your mother kept proof.”
“Proof of what?”
Vanessa looked toward the empty ballroom doors.
“Of why Northstar really survived its first year.”
Ethan almost dismissed it.
Then he remembered Grace asking him not to prosecute Richard.
He remembered her exact words.
Some debts are uglier than money.
He had assumed she meant compassion.
Maybe she had meant something else.
Maria approached.
“Mr. Cole.”
Lily had stopped crying.
She looked exhausted.
“Go home,” Ethan told Maria. “Stay somewhere safe tonight.”
Maria shook her head.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Someone came to my apartment yesterday.”
Ethan froze.
“Who?”
“I don’t know. The building superintendent said a man asked questions about Lily.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Maria looked ashamed.
“Because I thought it was her father.”
Ethan knew almost nothing about Lily’s father.
“Was it?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Maria reached into her apron pocket.
She produced an envelope.
It contained five thousand dollars in cash.
And a note.
KEEP THE CHILD AWAY FROM THE WEDDING.
Ethan looked at Vanessa.
She shook her head immediately.
“That wasn’t me.”
Maria said, “I believed you.”
Vanessa stared at her.
Maria continued.
“Until Lily told me what she heard.”
Ethan felt the scale of the situation expanding.
This was no affair.
No ordinary fraud.
Someone had known Lily heard something.
Someone had paid Maria.
Someone had entered Grace’s room.
And someone had expected the marriage to trigger access to Ethan’s fortune.
“Daniel, Maria and Lily come with us.”
Maria began to protest.
“No. Whoever paid you knows where you live.”
That ended the argument.
Twenty minutes later, Ethan’s wedding limousine left Rosewood Manor carrying no newlyweds.
Vanessa remained behind with her parents and attorneys.
Daniel had advised Ethan not to let her leave the estate until police arrived to take statements.
As Manhattan approached, Lily fell asleep against Maria.
The rabbit remained in Ethan’s hands.
He turned it over.
The toy was old.
Patched twice.
One ear crooked.
He thought about how close he had come to ignoring the child.
Another thirty seconds and the ring would have been on Vanessa’s finger.
Another signature and the marriage certificate would have been filed.
Grace’s voice returned to him.
The person who stays when there’s nothing left to take.
Had she known this day might come?
At the penthouse, security officers waited.
Grace’s room stood open.
Ethan had not entered it in nearly a year.
The smell hit first.
Lavender.
His mother’s hand cream.
He had forgotten it could remain after so long.
Drawers had been emptied.
Boxes overturned.
The laptop was gone.
Daniel examined the flash drive.
“We should open this offline.”
Ethan nodded.
They moved into his secure office.
Maria remained outside with Lily.
Daniel inserted the drive into an isolated computer.
One folder appeared.
GRACE.
Inside were seventeen documents and one video.
The video was dated three days before Grace died.
Ethan clicked it.
His mother appeared on the screen.
Thinner than he remembered.
A scarf covered her hair.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Ethan, if you’re watching this, Richard finally came back.”
Ethan’s throat closed.
Grace continued.
“I need you to understand something. Northstar was never the thing he wanted most.”
She coughed.
“The money matters. But the secret matters more.”
Ethan leaned closer.
“I made a mistake when you were twenty-four. I thought I was protecting you. Richard helped me hide it.”
She looked frightened.
Grace Cole had rarely looked frightened.
“There is an account attached to your company that you do not know exists.”
Daniel turned toward Ethan.
Onscreen, Grace reached for something outside the camera frame.
“The account was created in your name.”
Ethan whispered, “What?”
“But you didn’t create it.”
The video suddenly distorted.
Static.
Then the picture returned.
Grace held up a photograph.
Ethan could not see it clearly.
“Richard knows whose money is in that account. If he finds the original agreement, he can destroy everything you built.”
The screen went black.
A message appeared.
FILE CORRUPTED.
Daniel swore softly.
Ethan opened the documents.
Most were encrypted.
One was not.
A bank statement.
Account balance:
$312,408,771.
Account holder:
ETHAN JAMES COLE.
Ethan stared at it.
“I’ve never seen this account.”
Daniel leaned closer.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
Daniel pointed at the transaction history.
Money had moved out that morning.
$10 million.
Then $20 million.
Then $40 million.
Someone was emptying it.
Ethan reached for his phone.
Before he touched it, the computer chimed.
A new file appeared on the flash drive.
It had not been there before.
Someone had remotely activated it.
The filename was simple.
HELLO, ETHAN.
Daniel disconnected the network even though the machine was supposedly isolated.
Too late.
A second message appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE MARRIED HER.
Then the office lights went out.
Maria screamed from the hallway.
Ethan ran for the door.
May you like
On the other side, Lily was crying.
And a man’s voice said her name...
