Chapter 6 - A Photograph from Twelve Years Ago
Lucian drew Eliza behind him.
Ethan moved toward the door.
“Don't,” Lucian ordered.
The footsteps stopped.
A shadow appeared beneath the bedroom door.
Then a phone rang.
Not theirs.
The sound came from the hallway.
Lucian opened the door.
Nobody.
A phone rested on the floor.
Its screen displayed an incoming video call.
ADRIAN.
Lucian answered.
A man's face appeared.
Older.
Silver at the temples.
Alive.
“Hello, nephew.”
Lucian's entire body went rigid.
“Where are you?”
Adrian smiled.
“Still impatient.”
Eliza stepped closer.
Adrian saw her.
“Margaret's granddaughter.”
“You destroyed my family.”
“No. Your husband did remarkably well without assistance tonight.”
Ethan lunged toward the phone.
“You used me.”
“I recruited you.”
“You forged those transfers.”
Adrian laughed.
“You spent the money.”
“I didn't know where it came from.”
“Does that help you sleep?”
Eliza took the phone.
“What do you want?”
Adrian's smile disappeared.
“Finally. Someone asking the useful question.”
“What?”
“Seventeen.”
Her blood chilled.
“What does it mean?”
“A percentage.”
Lucian said, “No.”
Adrian smiled again.
“You remember.”
Eliza looked at Lucian.
“Seventeen percent of what?”
Lucian answered reluctantly.
“The voting block needed to control Ellison-Valente Holdings.”
Adrian nodded.
“Margaret hid it.”
“With me?” Eliza asked.
“In something you already own.”
The call ended.
They searched Margaret's records until dawn.
At 4:12 a.m., Eliza found the photograph.
Twelve years old.
Her and Ethan outside a diner on their third date.
She almost skipped it.
Then she noticed the man reflected in the window behind them.
Adrian.
Watching.
On the back Margaret had written:
HE THINKS ETHAN IS THE KEY.
HE IS WRONG.
E.H. IS THE KEY.
Ethan Hartwell?
Eliza Hartwell?
They argued over it.
Then Lucian noticed the photograph had been cut.
A thin slit along one edge.
Inside was a tiny brass key.
Stamped 17.
It opened a safe-deposit box.
By sunrise, they were standing inside a private bank vault.
The box contained no money.
Only corporate certificates.
Seventeen percent.
In Eliza's name.
She now held enough voting power to determine control of a corporation worth hundreds of millions.
Ethan sat down.
“My God.”
Lucian looked at Eliza.
“That's why Adrian needed you.”
“And why he used Ethan.”
“Yes.”
She stared at the certificates.
Then at her husband.
“You knew none of this?”
“No.”
“Can you prove it?”
“I'll try.”
“Don't try for me.”
He flinched.
“Do it because it's true.”
Lucian's phone rang.
His security chief spoke quickly.
Lucian looked at Ethan.
“What?”
Lucian ended the call.
“Daniel Cross has been found.”
“Where?”
“In Ethan's office.”
They drove downtown.
Police were already there.
Daniel had vanished again.
But he had left something on Ethan's desk.
A photograph.
Eliza picked it up.
It showed Ethan outside Margaret's nursing home.
But this copy was wider than the anonymous version.
Someone else stood beside him.
A young woman.
Eliza recognized her.
Her name was Claire.
Ethan's former assistant.
The woman Eliza had once suspected he was having an affair with.
On the back was a date.
And one sentence.
ASK ETHAN WHAT HAPPENED TO CLAIRE.
Eliza slowly looked up.
Ethan had gone completely pale.
“She wasn't my mistress,” he whispered.
“Then who was she?”
Ethan stared at the photograph.
“She was working for your grandmother.”
Eliza's pulse quickened.
“Where is she now?”
Ethan's voice broke.
“I thought she was dead.”
The office elevator chimed.
The doors opened.
May you like
A woman stepped out.
And Eliza recognized Claire immediately.
