Chapter 10 - The Father Behind the Curtain
Ethan had told me his father died from a heart attack when Ethan was nineteen.
There had been photographs from the funeral.
A grave.
An obituary.
Everything.
Elise opened a folder.
Inside was a photograph taken six months earlier.
Thomas Cole sat beside Victor Hale at a private airport.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
I felt physically sick.
“Ethan doesn’t know.”
Elise said.
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Then why use his own son?”
“Because Thomas has been using Ethan his entire life.”
Luka studied the photographs.
“Northbridge Capital.”
Elise nodded.
“Thomas controls it.”
Mara had joined us.
She looked stunned.
“So Ethan’s success was engineered.”
“Every deal.”
“Every investor.”
“Every promotion.”
Elise nodded.
“He was positioned to meet Clara.”
My stomach twisted.
“Our coffee shop meeting.”
“Arranged.”
“How?”
“They knew your schedule.”
“They paid an employee to spill a drink near you.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“My entire marriage began as an operation.”
Elise looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“But Ethan wasn’t told?”
“No.”
“He thought it was coincidence.”
That made it worse in a different way.
Ethan had been both betrayer and pawn.
“What was Thomas trying to achieve?”
Luka asked.
“A child.”
Elise replied.
“Why Ethan?”
“Because Thomas altered Ethan before he was born.”
Silence.
Mara leaned forward.
“Altered how?”
“Thomas used Meridian gene therapy on his own wife during pregnancy.”
“So Ethan carries something too.”
“Exactly.”
I looked at Emma.
“Their plan was to combine our markers.”
Elise nodded.
“Your marriage was a breeding program disguised as romance.”
The words made my skin crawl.
Luka punched the wall.
The plaster cracked.
I understood his rage.
They had reduced all of us to genetics.
My mother.
Luka’s son.
Ethan.
Me.
Emma.
“What happens if they get Emma’s blood?”
Elise hesitated.
“They can attempt to stabilize the M-17 therapy.”
“And make money?”
“Money is part of it.”
“What else?”
“Victor Hale has leukemia.”
Mara sat back.
“He wants the treatment for himself.”
“He believes Emma’s cells can make it work.”
A phone vibrated.
Elise checked hers.
Her face went pale.
“We have to move.”
“Why?”
“They found Ethan.”
My heart jumped.
“Where?”
“Meridian’s old research facility.”
Luka was already heading for the door.
I grabbed his arm.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Stop saying that.”
“You can barely stand.”
“He’s my husband.”
“Ex-husband.”
“Not legally yet.”
Luka stared at me.
“Why do you care whether he lives?”
I thought of Ethan walking away.
Vanessa beside him.
His cruel words.
Then I thought of a nineteen-year-old Ethan attending his father’s fake funeral.
A young man unknowingly shaped into a weapon.
“Because I need him alive long enough to tell me what part of our marriage was real.”
Elise’s phone buzzed again.
This message included a photograph.
Ethan was strapped to a chair.
Blood ran down his face.
Behind him stood Thomas Cole.
Alive.
The caption read:
May you like
BRING M-17 TO US.
OR ETHAN LEARNS HOW HIS FATHER REALLY DIED.
