Chapter 4 - The Best Man
Daniel Price entered the library.
Ethan's best friend.
His best man.
The man scheduled to stand beside him at the altar in eight hours.
Daniel stopped when he saw the police.
“What's happening?”
Ethan studied him.
Vanessa had gone pale.
“Tell him,” Ethan said.
Daniel looked confused.
“Tell me what?”
Vanessa whispered, “I gave you the drive.”
Daniel's expression changed.
Only for a second.
But Ethan saw it.
“What drive?” Daniel asked.
Ethan almost admired the speed of the lie.
“Wrong answer.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Ethan—”
“Where is it?”
“I don't know what she's talking about.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You told me you'd protect me.”
Daniel turned on her.
“Shut up.”
The room went silent.
Ethan stepped closer.
“Interesting.”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“This isn't what it looks like.”
“Apparently everyone rehearsed that sentence.”
Daniel looked toward the officers.
Then at Ethan.
“I wasn't part of Richard's plan.”
“Then explain.”
Daniel hesitated.
“I knew Vanessa was scared.”
“You knew about the spying?”
“Later.”
“How much later?”
“Three months ago.”
Ethan felt another piece of his life crack.
“You knew for three months?”
“I was trying to help her get out.”
“By keeping it from me?”
“She said Richard would hurt her father.”
“So you believed her.”
“Yes.”
“And the drive?”
“She gave me copies as insurance.”
“Where?”
Daniel stared at him.
“At my apartment.”
Police searched it.
The drive wasn't there.
Daniel insisted it had been stolen.
Ethan no longer knew whether to believe anything he said.
Then investigators discovered something worse.
Daniel had accessed Caldwell Holdings servers seventeen times using credentials that did not belong to him.
He claimed Richard had forced him.
The evidence suggested otherwise.
At 4:20 a.m., Daniel was taken for questioning.
The wedding estate emptied.
Guests were notified of an unspecified emergency.
Ethan instructed staff to dismantle everything.
The ceremony arch.
The flowers.
The tables.
The champagne tower.
All of it.
By sunrise, the wedding had disappeared.
Nora returned from the hospital at 6:12.
She expected to collect her belongings.
Instead, Ethan met her at the service entrance.
“You're not working today.”
“I assumed.”
“Or tomorrow.”
She smiled weakly.
“Am I fired?”
“No.”
He handed her an envelope.
She frowned.
“What is this?”
“Paid leave.”
“I don't need—”
“You were kidnapped because of something happening in my home.”
“That wasn't your fault.”
“It was my responsibility.”
Nora accepted the envelope reluctantly.
Ethan noticed her hand still shook.
“There's something else,” she said.
“What?”
“When they had me in the car, one of the men was arguing on the phone.”
“With Richard?”
“I don't think so.”
“What did he say?”
Nora concentrated.
“He said, ‘Price changed the deal.’”
Ethan went still.
“Price?”
“That's what I heard.”
Daniel Price.
Ethan immediately called Marcus.
Daniel had been released pending further investigation.
And his phone was off.
By noon, forensic accountants had begun tracing Richard's network.
The conspiracy was larger than Ethan expected.
Shell corporations.
Hidden transfers.
Corporate espionage.
Bribes.
And payments connected to Daniel.
One payment stood out.
Five million dollars.
Sent two days earlier.
Ethan stared at the record.
Marcus said, “Your best man wasn't helping Vanessa.”
“No.”
“He was selling something.”
“The drive.”
Ethan understood.
Daniel had taken Vanessa's insurance copy and tried to sell it.
But to whom?
That answer arrived that evening.
A courier delivered a package.
No return address.
Inside was Daniel's phone.
Cracked.
Bloody.
And switched off.
Nora stood across the room.
“Is he dead?”
“I don't know.”
Ethan turned the phone over.
A tiny sticker had been placed on the back.
A storage locker number.
Marcus traced it to Union Station.
They arrived after dark.
Locker 314.
Inside was a laptop.
The missing drive.
And a handwritten note.
ETHAN—IF YOU'RE READING THIS, I FAILED.
Ethan opened the laptop.
One video file waited.
Daniel appeared on-screen.
He looked exhausted.
“I made a mistake,” he said.
“I thought I could play Richard and sell the evidence to federal investigators. I thought I could expose him without putting Ethan in danger.”
Daniel looked away from the camera.
“But Richard wasn't the person at the top.”
Ethan leaned closer.
Daniel continued.
“He answers to someone else.”
The video glitched.
Then resumed.
“If anything happens to me, check the original Caldwell trust. Not the current one. The one signed twenty-eight years ago.”
The recording ended.
Ethan looked at Marcus.
“My father was still alive twenty-eight years ago.”
They obtained the archived trust.
One clause had been removed from every later version.
A beneficiary name.
Someone Ethan had never heard of.
Rebecca Caldwell.
Marcus frowned.
“Who's Rebecca?”
Ethan didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
He called the only person who might.
His mother.
There was silence on the line.
Then she whispered, “Where did you hear that name?”
“Who is Rebecca?”
Another long silence.
“Mom.”
Her voice broke.
“Ethan, there are things your father made me promise never to tell you.”
“Tell me now.”
“I can't do this over the phone.”
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“I'll come.”
“No.”
Her voice suddenly sharpened.
“Do not come here.”
“Why?”
A sound came through the line.
A door opening.
His mother gasped.
Then another voice spoke in the background.
A woman's voice.
Calm.
Close.
May you like
“Hello, Ethan.”
The call disconnected.
