Chapter 13 - PAGE SEVENTY-TWOThe police arrived forty minutes later.
The warehouse burned behind us.
Victor was dead.
Two of his men were dead.
Lucas survived.
Vanessa survived.
Daniel survived.
Claire had a broken wrist.
Noah was unharmed.
For the first time in days, I thought it was over.
It wasn't.
Back at Daniel's house, we opened the ledger.
Page seventy-two.
The page contained one name.
Mine.
ETHAN CARTER.
Under it:
FINAL BENEFICIARY.
I stared.
“What does this mean?”
Daniel looked terrified.
Lucas answered.
“It means your father lied.”
“About what?”
“You weren't the shield.”
He turned the page.
“You were the target.”
I felt sick.
“Why?”
Lucas showed me a second document.
My birth records.
The original ones.
My mother's handwriting appeared at the bottom.
Ethan is not Victor's biological son.
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Your mother told me years ago.”
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Then who was my father?”
No one answered.
Claire approached.
She looked at me.
“I found the answer.”
She pulled out another report.
My DNA.
Victor's DNA.
No match.
Then another sample.
A match.
Lucas stared.
“No.”
I looked at the name.
Martin Hale.
The accountant.
The man who had been shot in the basement.
My real father.
I shook my head.
“That doesn't make sense.”
Claire whispered,
“Your mother had an affair.”
“With Martin?”
“Yes.”
“So Victor knew?”
“He knew.”
“Then why raise me?”
Lucas answered.
“Because he needed a successor he could control.”
I felt dizzy.
Everything I had believed about myself was collapsing.
Then Daniel found something taped behind page seventy-two.
An envelope.
Inside was a letter from my mother.
I opened it.
Ethan,
If you ever discover who you really are, remember this: blood does not decide family. Choices do.
I cried.
For the first time in twenty years, I let myself grieve for a mother who had been murdered.
Then one final line caught my attention.
And if Claire ever tells you she never lied to you, don't believe her.
I looked up.
Claire was standing across the room.
Her face had gone white.
I stared at her.
“What did you lie about?”
She didn't answer.
“Claire.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“I knew who Noah's real father was.”
