Chapter 10 - Ethan's Father
I called my mother from the warehouse floor.
She answered with my brother arguing with someone in the background.
“Mom, did Whitmore Capital pay you two hundred and fifty thousand dollars after Dad died?”
Everything behind her went quiet.
“Clara.”
“Yes or no.”
She started crying before she answered.
“Yes.”
I sat down on a cardboard records box.
Ethan turned away to give me privacy. Richard did not.
“Why?”
“They offered a settlement if I stopped challenging the accident report.”
“Who offered?”
“Richard Whitmore’s lawyers.”
I looked at him.
He did not deny it.
“You took it.”
“I had you and Ben. The mortgage was behind. Daniel’s insurance was being contested. I thought if I kept fighting, I’d lose the house too.”
Her voice broke.
“I hated myself every day.”
“Did Dad leave anything?”
Silence again.
“Mom.”
“One envelope.”
“Where?”
“My safe.”
“Have you opened it?”
“No. He wrote on the front that only you should open it, and only if Whitmore Capital ever contacted you.”
My skin went cold.
“I applied there twelve days ago.”
“I know.”
I stood. “Bring the envelope to Detective Ruiz. Do not go anywhere alone.”
We were preparing to leave when the warehouse alarm started screaming.
Someone had opened a loading door from inside.
Officers ran toward the sound.
Richard looked at the Blue Ledger in my hands. “Give it to police now.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do with my father’s evidence.”
“Clara, if Graham gets that book—”
“He already had twenty years to destroy it. Dad kept it from him.”
Ethan returned from the loading bay. “No intruder. Alarm wire was cut.”
Ruiz frowned. “Distraction.”
My phone rang.
Graham again.
This time there was no video.
“You found the ledger,” he said.
I looked around the warehouse. “How do you know?”
“Daniel always did love old-fashioned paper.”
“Where is Lily?”
“Safe until you force me to make her unsafe.”
“You killed my father.”
He was quiet for a second.
“No.”
“You were following him.”
“I was trying to get the files back.”
“His brake line was cut.”
“Ask Richard who authorized security that night.”
“He already admitted it.”
“Did he tell you who gave Sloan the order?”
I looked at Richard.
Graham continued.
“Bring the ledger to the old Redbridge tower. Forty minutes.”
“Why there?”
“Because that’s where all of this was supposed to end.”
The line disconnected.
Before anyone could speak, Detective Ruiz’s phone chimed.
She read the message, then looked at Ethan.
“Graham just emptied a thirty-eight-million-dollar liquidity account.”
Ethan’s eyes hardened.
May you like
Ruiz added, “And the transfer authorization uses your signature.”
