Chapter 8: What Ethan Put In The Box
I wanted to hit him.
I wanted to hug him.
Instead, I stood at the bottom of the stairs staring at the brother I had mourned for four years.
Ethan came down slowly.
When he reached the final step, Daniel moved first.
“You knew where I was?””
Ethan looked at him.
“Yes.””
“For four years?””
“Yes.””
Daniel’s jaw trembled.
“And you never came?””
“I watched from a distance.””
“That isn’t being a father.””
“No.””
Ethan’s answer was immediate.
“It isn’t.””
Daniel looked away.
Grace stepped forward next.
“You left me alone with everything.””
“I know.””
“You knew about Lily.””
“Yes.””
“You knew Victoria had found us.””
Ethan’s eyes dropped.
“Yes.””
Grace’s voice cracked.
“And you still stayed hidden?””
Ethan looked at her.
“Because every time I tried to come back, someone close to Nathan found out first.””
My anger returned.
“Who?””
“That’s what’s in the box.””
I pulled the two keys from my pocket.
“Then we open it.””
Ethan grabbed my wrist.
“No.””
I stared at his hand.
He released me.
“The box was insurance.””
“Against whom?””
“Everyone.””
My mother whispered, “Ethan.””
He looked at her.
“No more protecting people, Mom.””
Then he faced me.
“I didn’t fake my death because Victoria frightened me.””
“What?””
“I stayed dead because I discovered someone had been tracking everything I did.””
“Victoria?””
“At first, I thought so.””
He walked to the table and opened the ledger.
“But Victoria was cleaning up someone else’s mess.””
Grace stared at him.
“Richard’s.””
“Some of it.””
“Some?””
Ethan nodded.
“Our father stole money. Victoria found out. She helped hide it because she wanted access to the Cole family.””
“That makes her innocent?”” Daniel asked.
“No.””
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“She intercepted Grace’s letters. She helped convince Grace that Nathan wanted nothing to do with Lily. And when Grace returned three months ago, Victoria recognized her.””
I remembered Victoria standing over Grace.
The dropped hockey stick.
The fear on Lily’s face.
My hands curled into fists.
“She knew Lily was mine.””
“Yes.””
“Why didn’t you warn me?””
“I tried.””
“The phone call?””
“Wasn’t me.””
I stared at him.
“Then who called?””
Ethan looked at my mother.
She lowered her eyes.
“You?””
She shook her head.
Ethan pulled out his phone.
“Someone cloned an old number of mine. They wanted you chasing the safe.””
Daniel frowned.
“Why?””
“To force us together.””
“Who would want that?””
Ethan looked at the keys.
“Someone who needed that deposit box opened.””
The bank was twenty minutes away.
We left Lily with my mother and drove there together: Grace, Daniel, Ethan, and me.
The private banking manager recognized Ethan’s name and nearly dropped his pen.
Two signatures.
Two keys.
The lock clicked.
Inside the box was not money.
There were three things.
A flash drive.
A sealed envelope.
And an old voice recorder.
Ethan stared at them.
“I didn’t put that envelope there.””
I picked it up.
My name was written across the front.
Nathan.
The handwriting was familiar.
I had seen it on birthday cards my entire childhood.
My father’s.
I opened it.
Nathan,
If Ethan survives long enough for you to read this, then I have failed to protect this family from my own mistakes.
I stopped.
Grace touched my arm.
“Keep going.””
I swallowed.
Years ago, I moved company money illegally. Victoria discovered it. She threatened exposure unless I helped her gain permanent access to the family through you.
My stomach turned.
So my engagement had been part of a bargain.
But the next paragraph was worse.
The night Ethan disappeared, I followed Victoria because I believed she intended to frighten him into surrendering the trust documents. I did not know someone else was already waiting aboard the boat.
I looked at Ethan.
“Someone else?””
He nodded.
“That’s the part I couldn’t remember.””
I continued.
I saw that person only briefly. If Ethan ever recovered his memory, he would know the truth.
The letter ended there.
No name.
Daniel grabbed the recorder.
“Maybe this has it.””
Ethan shook his head.
“That recorder isn’t mine.””
Daniel pressed play anyway.
Static.
Wind.
Water.
Then voices.
Victoria.
“You weren’t supposed to follow me.””
My father.
“Where’s Ethan?””
Then a third voice spoke.
A woman.
Calm.
Familiar.
“You both need to stop panicking.””
I froze.
I knew that voice.
Grace knew it too.
Her face emptied of color.
The recording continued.
Victoria whispered, “What did you do?””
The woman answered.
“What your family was too weak to do.””
Then Ethan’s voice came faintly from somewhere farther away.
“Get away from me.””
A struggle.
The recording cut.
Daniel stared at me.
“Who was that woman?””
I couldn’t answer.
Because the voice belonged to someone who had held me as a baby.
Someone who had sat beside me at Ethan’s funeral.
Someone who, only an hour earlier, had claimed she rescued him after the accident.
My mother.
Then Ethan whispered behind me:
“I remember now.””
We turned.
May you like
His face was white.
“My mother was on the boat.””
