Chapter 3: The Missing Hours
The next morning, I hired an investigator.
I didn’t tell Claire.
I didn’t tell Marcus.
And I definitely didn’t tell Ethan.
For the first time in years, I stopped asking people for the truth.
I started looking for it myself.
The investigator’s name was Rachel Morgan. She had spent twenty years working on family cases and had a way of noticing things other people ignored.
When I showed her the drawing, she studied it quietly.
Then she looked at me.
“Your son drew this recently?””
“Yes.””
“Not five years ago?””
“No.””
She tapped the paper.
“That matters.””
“Why?””
“Because children often redraw memories when they finally understand them.””
I swallowed.
“So you think he remembers something?””
“I think he’s trying to explain something.””
Two days later, Rachel contacted me.
“Daniel, I found the security system records.””
I drove to her office immediately.
She turned her computer screen toward me.
The mansion had cameras everywhere.
The garden.
The driveway.
The back entrance.
The hallway.
But when Rachel opened the footage from the day I left Ethan with Claire, there was a problem.
The garden recording was missing.
“Deleted?”” I asked.
She nodded.
“Yes.””
“Can it be recovered?””
“Maybe.””
She opened another file.
“There’s something strange.””
The screen showed a timeline.
A red mark appeared next to the deletion.
I leaned closer.
“What am I looking at?””
“The footage wasn’t deleted after the incident.””
My eyebrows tightened.
“What?””
“It was deleted before you arrived at the mansion that day.””
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible.””
“No,” Rachel said.
“It’s intentional.””
My stomach dropped.
Someone had planned it.
Someone knew I would come.
Someone made sure there would be no record.
“Who had access?”” I asked.
Rachel typed for several seconds.
Then she stopped.
“Daniel…”
“What?””
“There were two accounts.””
“Whose?””
“The homeowner’s account.””
She paused.
“And a second private administrator account.””
“Whose name?””
Rachel looked at the screen.
“Marcus Hale.””
I felt sick.
The man who smiled at family dinners.
The man who shook my hand.
The man who told everyone he loved Ethan like his own child.
He had controlled the cameras.
But why?
That night, I went to see Ethan.
He was sitting on the floor of his room, drawing again.
When he saw me, he quickly covered the paper.
I noticed.
“What are you drawing?””
“Nothing.””
I sat beside him.
“You know you don’t have to hide things from me anymore.””
He stayed quiet.
Then he slowly moved the paper.
It wasn’t a picture this time.
It was words.
A list.
Dates.
Times.
Names.
My heart started beating faster.
“Ethan…”
He looked scared.
“Dad, I didn’t want to tell you because Mom said Marcus would get angry.””
“What is this?””
He whispered:
“Things I remembered.””
I picked up the paper.
The first line said:
“June 14 — Marcus told Mom if Dad knew, everything would be ruined.””
The second line said:
“June 21 — Marcus took the phone away.””
The third line made my blood run cold.
“July 3 — Marcus found the old papers.””
I looked at Ethan.
“What old papers?””
He shook his head.
“I don’t know.””
“Where did he find them?””
“In Grandpa’s office.””
I froze.
My father’s old office.
The room that had been locked since his death.
“Ethan, what papers?””
He looked toward the door.
Then lowered his voice.
“The ones that prove I was never supposed to stop seeing you.””
The next morning, Rachel and I went through the family records.
Buried among old documents was an envelope with Claire’s name on it.
Inside was a custody agreement.
But it wasn’t the agreement I had signed.
It was something else.
A private document.
A document created before Claire married Marcus.
I read the first page.
Then the second.
Then the final signature.
My hands went numb.
Because the person who had signed the agreement wasn’t Claire.
It wasn’t me.
It was Marcus.
And at the bottom of the page was one sentence that changed everything:
“Once the father is removed, the child’s inheritance will remain protected under the new guardian arrangement.””
I looked at Rachel.
“What inheritance?””
She didn’t answer.
Because she was staring at the final sealed page.
A page nobody had opened for years.
Then she slowly said:
“Daniel… I think Marcus wasn’t trying to keep your son away from you.””
May you like
She opened the seal.
“He was trying to keep you from finding out who Ethan really belonged to.””
