Clara Bennett agreed to meet them two days later.
She arrived at a small hotel near the airport carrying a brown leather case.
She was older than the photograph but still recognizable.
Daniel saw Victor in the shape of her face.
Mara noticed too.
Clara looked at Daniel for a long moment.
“You have his eyes.”
Daniel did not answer.
“Did you know me?”
“I knew of you.”
“Why didn't you contact me?”
Clara sat down.
“Because your grandmother asked me never to.”
Daniel felt the old pattern returning.
Another person had made a promise.
Another silence had been built around him.
“What did she offer you?”
“Nothing.”
“What did she threaten?”
Clara looked toward the window.
“She told me that if I returned, Victor would use my child to hurt me.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Your child.”
Clara nodded.
“The boy in the photograph.”
Mara's hands tightened around her cup.
“Who was he?”
Clara opened the leather case.
Inside were documents.
Birth records.
Letters.
Photographs.
A small hospital bracelet.
She placed one paper on the table.
Daniel read the name.
Ethan Bennett.
Born twenty-eight years ago.
Victor Hale listed as father.
Daniel looked at Mara.
“So Victor had another son.”
Clara nodded.
“He never wanted Ethan to carry his name.”
“Why?”
“Because Ethan was born before Victor's marriage.”
Mara asked, “Did Victor know where he was?”
“He knew.”
“Did he ever meet him?”
“Several times.”
Clara's voice became bitter.
“He wanted Ethan close enough to control but far enough away that nobody would know.”
Daniel remembered the hidden payments.
“Was Ethan involved with Richard's account?”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who is?”
Clara looked at him.
“I don't know.”
Daniel showed her the statement.
She studied it.
“This company.”
“Yes.”
“I've seen the name.”
“Where?”
“In letters Victor sent me.”
She opened another folder.
A letter described a trust established for Ethan.
Victor had ordered Richard to manage it.
Daniel's pulse quickened.
“Then Richard wasn't stealing.”
“Not all of it,” Clara said.
Mara looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
“Richard moved money because Victor wanted Ethan protected.”
Daniel frowned.
“But Arthur used the same account.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Clara shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Samuel placed the old notebook on the table.
“Arthur and Richard were partners.”
Clara read several pages.
Then she stopped.
“This isn't Richard's handwriting.”
Daniel looked.
“What?”
“This.”
She pointed to an instruction.
“Richard copied these.”
“From whom?”
Clara stared at the page.
“Victor.”
Daniel felt a strange disappointment.
Another assumption had been wrong.
The family had not been a simple chain of villains.
Some had committed crimes.
Some had tried to prevent worse crimes.
Some had done both.
Clara reached into the case again.
She produced a cassette tape.
“Victor recorded one conversation.”
Daniel stared.
“What conversation?”
“Between him and Richard.”
“Why did you keep it?”
“Because Richard asked me to.”
They found a player at the hotel.
The tape was old.
Victor's voice came first.
Then Richard.
The conversation concerned Ethan.
Victor wanted Richard to use the trust to control him.
Richard refused.
He told Victor that children were not property.
Victor threatened him.
Then Richard made a decision.
He would protect both children.
Daniel looked at Mara.
Both children.
Ethan and Daniel.
The recording ended.
Clara spoke quietly.
“Richard was not innocent.”
Daniel nodded.
“He helped move the money.”
“Yes.”
“He lied.”
“Yes.”
“But he was trying to protect us.”
“Yes.”
Daniel leaned back.
The family history was becoming impossible to divide into heroes and villains.
Mara asked the question that mattered.
“Where is Ethan now?”
Clara looked at her.
“He lives in the city.”
Daniel stared.
“You know him?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know who Victor was?”
“He knows his biological father was Victor Hale.”
“Does he know about me?”
Clara shook her head.
“Not until recently.”
Daniel frowned.
“Recently?”
Clara opened the final letter.
It had been written only four weeks earlier.
The writer identified himself as Ethan.
He had discovered the trust.
He had discovered Victor's name.
And he had started asking questions.
At the bottom was one sentence.
I think someone has been using my identity to access the account.
Daniel looked up.
“That explains the recent activity.”
Mara nodded.
“Someone is pretending to be Ethan.”
Clara looked frightened.
“Who?”
Daniel thought of Arthur.
But Arthur was in custody.
Then he thought of Richard.
Dead.
He looked at Samuel.
“Could someone have obtained Ethan's documents?”
Samuel nodded.
“If the trust was never closed, someone with access could imitate him.”
Clara looked at Daniel.
“There's more.”
She removed one final photograph.
A man stood outside the railway station.
Daniel recognized him.
He had seen him before.
At the first wedding.
Standing among the guests.
Daniel's face went cold.
“The stranger.”
Mara looked.
“You know him?”
Daniel nodded.
“He was there the night everything began.”
Samuel took the photograph.
“Who is he?”
Clara answered.
“Ethan.”
Silence.
Daniel stared.
His biological half-brother had been present at his wedding.
He had watched the family uncover its secrets.
And he had never approached them.
“Why?”
Clara shook her head.
“He was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel looked at the photograph again.
Ethan was standing beside someone.
The second figure was partly hidden.
Mara pointed.
“That's Arthur.”
Daniel stared.
Arthur had claimed Ethan was irrelevant.
But the photograph showed them together after Arthur's confession.
The date was only six weeks old.
Daniel stood.
“Then Arthur wasn't finished.”
Samuel looked at the image.
“Or Ethan isn't who we think he is.”
Clara immediately objected.
“No.”
“You're certain?”
“I raised him.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Then why was he meeting Arthur?”
Clara's expression faltered.
“I don't know.”
The answer frightened everyone.
They returned to the villa that evening.
Daniel placed the photograph beside the ledger.
The pieces now formed an uncomfortable pattern.
Richard had protected Ethan.
Arthur had accessed the trust.
Someone had recently used Ethan's identity.
And Ethan had been seen with Arthur.
Mara stood beside Daniel.
“What are you thinking?”
“That the last secret isn't about my father.”
“What is it about?”
Daniel looked at the photograph.
“It is about the person who inherited everything Victor left behind.”
Mara understood.
“Ethan.”
Daniel nodded.
At that moment, the front door opened.
A young man entered.
Daniel turned.
The face from the photograph stood before him.
Ethan looked at Daniel.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Ethan said quietly:
“You need to stop looking for Arthur.”
Daniel's voice was calm.
“Why?”
“Because he isn't the person you should be afraid of.”
Mara stepped closer.
“Then who?”
Ethan looked at Daniel.
“Me.”
Click Here to continue read next: PART12: Ethan Finally Explains Why He Watched Daniel’s Wedding in Silence, and the Last Hidden Agreement Reveals a Choice Victor Never Expected Anyone to Make
On the Wedding Steps, a Groom Notices His Mother Holding His Hand Too Tightly, as Though She Already Knows the Ceremony Cannot Continue
Part 11 of 16
