Chapter 14 - Ethan’s Secret
Nathan could barely believe another secret existed.
“You spoke to Richard Vale?”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“He made me promise.”
Nathan laughed bitterly.
“Apparently everyone in my life has a collection of secrets.”
Ethan looked ashamed.
“Richard said someone inside the company was laundering money through old Cole accounts.”
“Who?”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
“So you flew to Zurich.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“I met him at a hotel.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“And then he conveniently died?”
Ethan ignored her.
“He gave me a drive.”
Nathan stared.
“You still have it?”
“No.”
“What happened to it?”
“It was stolen from my hotel room that night.”
Nathan shook his head.
“You never reported any of this?”
“Richard warned me not to.”
“You believed him?”
“He showed me enough financial data to prove somebody was moving money.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“And you still said nothing to me.”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Nathan’s eyes flashed.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Ethan looked away.
Vanessa watched them.
Then she quietly asked,
“What did Richard look like?”
Ethan frowned.
“What?”
“When you met him in Zurich.”
“Like Richard.”
“Did you see his face clearly?”
“Yes.”
“Did he limp?”
Ethan thought.
“No.”
Margaret, who had entered behind them, stopped.
“What?”
Ethan’s face changed.
“The man on tonight’s security footage limped.”
Nathan looked between them.
Margaret whispered,
“Richard always limped after the accident.”
Ethan understood.
“The man I met in Zurich wasn’t Richard.”
Nathan felt the room tilt.
“Then who was he?”
Ethan thought back.
The meeting had been dimly lit.
The man wore glasses.
He had grown a beard.
But the voice.
Ethan had assumed age and illness had changed it.
Vanessa opened her phone and found Adrian’s photograph.
She covered the lower half of his face.
Ethan stared.
“No.”
Nathan looked.
Ethan whispered,
“It was Adrian.”
Three years ago.
Before Vanessa ever met him.
Adrian had already been approaching the Cole family.
He had impersonated Richard.
He had planted financial evidence.
He had manipulated Ethan.
And later he had manipulated Vanessa.
Nathan finally understood the scale of it.
Adrian Mercer had not improvised this plan.
He had spent years constructing it.
Margaret suddenly searched the files again.
“If Evelyn told Charles that Adrian wasn’t his son, then Adrian needed the original document in C-17 destroyed.”
Ethan nodded.
“And the ledger?”
“Maybe the ledger proves who his real father was.”
Vanessa looked toward the shelves.
Nathan froze.
There was one person whose name kept appearing around Charles.
One person who had money.
Access.
And enough influence to fake his own death.
Nathan whispered,
“Richard Vale.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
May you like
“Yes.”
And suddenly everyone understood why the supposedly dead man might still be part of the story.
