Chapter 6
Ethan called Patricia immediately.
For once, she answered.
“Where is Samantha?”
No greeting.
No accusation.
No denial.
Just silence.
Then Patricia whispered, “You shouldn’t know that name.”
Rachel shut the blinds.
Noah started recording the call on another phone.
Ethan paced beside the dining table.
“You have a daughter.”
“Ethan.”
“You have another child.”
“It isn’t what you think.”
“Then tell me what it is.”
Patricia breathed into the phone.
“Not there.”
“Where?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You sent Emily a message saying Marcus could kill Samantha.”
“I shouldn’t have sent that.”
“Is Samantha my sister?”
Silence.
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Mom.”
“Yes.”
The word changed him.
His shoulders dropped.
His face became blank.
“How old is she?”
“Thirty-one.”
Ethan was thirty-six.
“Did Dad know?”
Another pause.
“Eventually.”
I looked at Ethan.
His eyes opened.
“Eventually?”
Patricia began crying.
Real crying this time.
Or maybe I simply couldn’t tell anymore.
“Marcus and I made a terrible mistake.”
“When?”
“Before you were born.”
Ethan stopped pacing.
He looked at me.
“If Samantha is thirty-one and I’m thirty-six, that makes no sense.”
Patricia said nothing.
“Mom?”
No answer.
His expression changed.
“Is the DNA test real?”
Patricia whispered, “Ethan, please.”
“Is Marcus my father?”
The line went quiet.
I thought she had disconnected.
Then she said, “Yes.”
Ethan sat down.
Hard.
Rachel covered her mouth.
I felt terrible for him despite everything between us.
A life could crack without making a sound.
I watched it happen across his face.
Daniel had raised him.
Daniel had loved him.
And Marcus was his biological father.
“What happened to Daniel?” Ethan asked.
Patricia immediately said, “Marcus killed him.”
“How?”
“I can’t do this over the phone.”
“You’ve had twenty-seven years.”
“Marcus will hear.”
“How?”
“He has people watching.”
Ethan laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“Everyone is always watching you, Mom. Everyone is always threatening you. Everyone is always responsible except you.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Did you kill Dad?”
“No!”
The answer was immediate.
Too immediate.
“Did you help Marcus?”
“No.”
“Did you know he was going to die?”
Patricia’s breathing became ragged.
“Ethan, listen to me. Find Samantha before Marcus does.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how am I supposed to find her?”
“She uses a different last name now.”
“What name?”
Patricia hesitated.
“Brooks.”
Noah was already typing.
“Samantha Brooks,” Ethan repeated.
“She works with children.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
“What city?”
“Last I knew, Richardson.”
“And Marcus?”
“He discovered I’d been sending her money.”
“When?”
“A month ago.”
A month.
Around the same time Patricia began telling Ethan I was unstable.
I leaned toward the phone.
“Why does Samantha have anything to do with Lily?”
Patricia went silent.
“Patricia.”
“This isn’t about Lily.”
“You tried to take Lily.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
My rage returned instantly.
“You smashed my head against a bed.”
“I lost control.”
“You prepared custody papers.”
“Marcus told me—”
“No.”
I cut her off.
“No more blaming Marcus for choices you made.”
Patricia’s voice hardened.
“You know nothing about what he’s capable of.”
“Then explain it.”
“He wanted access to Ethan.”
“For what?”
“Money.”
Ethan frowned.
“What money?”
Patricia started crying again.
“Your father left more than you know.”
Daniel’s company.
Property.
Insurance.
Maybe other assets.
“Where is it?” Ethan asked.
“In a trust.”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Patricia did not answer.
“How much, Mom?”
“Almost eight million dollars.”
Nobody moved.
Ethan looked stunned.
“I don’t have eight million dollars.”
“You do when you turn thirty-seven.”
His birthday was in eleven weeks.
The timing suddenly made sense.
Marcus hadn’t returned because of Lily.
He had returned because Ethan was about to gain control of a fortune.
But Patricia had targeted me.
Why?
I asked the question aloud.
“Why did you need me gone?”
Patricia exhaled.
“Because if Ethan died before taking control of the trust, the money would pass according to Daniel’s original instructions.”
Ethan’s voice dropped.
“To who?”
“To your children.”
Lily.
The room became deathly still.
I held the edge of the table.
“So Lily inherits it.”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
“As Lily’s mother, you would control it until she became an adult.”
Now I understood.
Marcus couldn’t control Ethan.
He couldn’t control me.
But Patricia thought she could.
She had tried to remove me legally.
Make me look unstable.
Get Ethan emergency custody.
And then what?
I asked.
“If you got custody away from me, what was supposed to happen next?”
Patricia didn’t answer.
Ethan stood.
“What was supposed to happen?”
Her voice broke.
“I was going to take Lily somewhere safe.”
“You mean kidnap her.”
“No.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You had a plan without knowing where?”
“Marcus was arranging it.”
Ethan’s face twisted.
“So you were working with him.”
“To keep him calm.”
“Stop lying!”
Lily startled at his voice and cried.
Ethan immediately lowered his tone.
That one instinctive movement made something ache inside me.
He walked away from the table.
Patricia said, “Please find Samantha.”
“Why?”
“Because she has the original trust documents.”
Noah looked up.
“What?”
Ethan put the call on speaker.
Patricia continued.
“Daniel gave them to her adoptive father before he died.”
“Samantha was a baby.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel knew she was yours?”
“Yes.”
“He knew everything?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t he leave?”
Patricia began sobbing.
“He tried.”
That memory.
The suitcase.
The argument.
Marcus in the kitchen.
The night before Daniel died.
Ethan whispered, “You stopped him.”
“I begged him not to destroy the family.”
“And the next night he was dead.”
“I didn’t know what Marcus was going to do.”
“But you knew he was dangerous.”
Silence.
Ethan’s face hardened.
“You knew.”
“I was scared.”
“Were you in the car?”
“No.”
“Did you give Marcus Dad’s location?”
Patricia said nothing.
Ethan slowly sat down again.
“Oh my God.”
“I didn’t know he would kill him.”
“You told Marcus where Dad was.”
“I thought he wanted to talk to him.”
“You told him.”
“I was twenty-nine years old. I had two children. I was terrified.”
“Two children?”
Patricia caught herself too late.
Ethan leaned forward.
“You had Samantha before Dad died.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel knew she wasn’t his.”
“Yes.”
“But he still protected her?”
Patricia cried harder.
“He was a good man.”
Ethan whispered, “Better than either of you.”
Then he hung up.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Noah broke the silence.
“I found a Samantha Brooks.”
He turned his laptop.
A preschool website.
Staff directory.
Samantha Brooks.
Director.
The photo showed a woman with dark blond hair and a familiar smile.
Ethan’s smile.
It was unmistakable.
Rachel whispered, “That’s your sister.”
I looked at the preschool address.
Richardson.
Twenty minutes away.
Noah clicked the contact page.
The school was closed on Sundays.
But there was an emergency staff number.
Ethan called.
Voicemail.
He left a message.
“My name is Ethan Carter. I believe Samantha Brooks may be my sister. This is urgent. If you know her, please ask her to contact the police.”
Ten minutes later, Officer Bennett called.
“We found Marcus’s truck.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned behind a shopping center.”
“Was he there?”
“No.”
Then Bennett asked a question.
“Does the name Samantha Brooks mean anything to you?”
Every person in the room froze.
Ethan gripped the phone.
“Yes.”
“How do you know her?”
“She’s my sister.”
Bennett was silent for a beat.
“Ethan, patrol officers were dispatched to Samantha Brooks’s home thirty minutes ago.”
“Why?”
“A neighbor reported her front door open.”
My heart started pounding.
“Is she okay?”
“We don’t know.”
“What do you mean?”
“The house is empty.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Bennett continued.
“But there’s a message written on the kitchen wall.”
I felt sick.
“What does it say?”
Officer Bennett hesitated.
May you like
Then she read it.
“TRADE THE BABY FOR THE DOCUMENTS.”
