Chapter 10 - GERTRUDE'S REAL NAMEI stared at the woman I had trusted.
“Laura.”
She smiled.
“Very good.”
Garrett looked devastated.
“You married my brother.”
“I needed access.”
“To what?”
“The company.”
Garrett stepped forward.
She pointed the remote at Evelyn.
“Don't.”
I stopped him.
“What's in the safe?”
“You know.”
“No.”
She laughed.
“Your father left instructions.”
She turned to me.
“The B-17 key opens the first lock.”
I looked at Garrett.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
She continued.
“The second lock requires a biometric scan.”
“Mine?”
“No.”
“Then whose?”
She smiled at Garrett.
“Yours.”
I looked at the wheelchair.
So that was why they needed him alive.
Not because of the company.
Because of what was hidden inside the company.
Gertrude forced us downstairs.
The vault was beneath the original house.
Garrett pressed his hand against the scanner.
The door unlocked.
Inside were stacks of documents.
Boxes.
Hard drives.
A red folder.
Gertrude took it.
Then she froze.
“This isn't everything.”
Garrett looked at her.
“What were you expecting?”
“The ledger.”
“There is no ledger.”
She slapped him.
“You're lying.”
Garrett smiled.
“Then why are you afraid?”
Gertrude's face twisted.
Because he had finally stopped pretending.
She stared at his legs.
“You were supposed to remain broken.”
“I was.”
She lowered the remote.
“You don't understand what happens if the merger fails.”
“I don't care.”
“You will.”
She opened the red folder.
Inside was a photograph.
Garrett's father.
Ethan.
Douglas.
And one more person.
A woman.
I stared.
Evelyn.
But younger.
Much younger.
Gertrude whispered:
“She built the network.”
I looked at Evelyn.
She said nothing.
Garrett turned toward his mother.
“Is it true?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“I was involved.”
“Why?”
“Because your father was dying.”
“So you stole?”
“I protected this family.”
Garrett laughed bitterly.
“You almost got me killed.”
“I never ordered the accident.”
“Then who did?”
A voice answered from the doorway.
“I did.”
Everyone turned.
Ethan Vale entered.
Two armed men stood behind him.
He looked calm.
Almost bored.
Garrett stared.
“Why?”
Ethan smiled.
“Because you wouldn't sign.”
“Sign what?”
“The transfer.”
“What transfer?”
Ethan pointed at Rebecca.
“The one your father hid from you.”
My heart stopped.
He continued.
“Corbin Holdings was never entirely yours.”
Garrett looked confused.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your father created a secret trust.”
“For whom?”
Ethan smiled.
“For Rebecca Miller.”
I stopped breathing.
Garrett looked at me.
“What?”
Ethan continued.
“Her father discovered the criminal network. He also discovered the original beneficiary.”
“Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
Ethan looked at me.
“Your father put controlling shares of Corbin Holdings into a trust under your name.”
I couldn't move.
Garrett stared at me as if I had become a stranger.
“That means...”
“Yes,” Ethan said.
“Rebecca owns the company.”
The room went silent.
Then Douglas laughed.
Everyone looked at him.
“I knew it.”
Garrett frowned.
Douglas shook his head.
“That's why they married her.”
My entire body went numb.
Ethan smiled.
“Now you understand.”
“My marriage was arranged?”
“Not exactly.”
He looked at Christopher.
“Your husband was supposed to locate the trust.”
I turned toward Christopher.
He closed his eyes.
“I was told it didn't exist.”
“But you stayed married for twelve years.”
Christopher's voice cracked.
“I fell in love with you.”
I looked away.
Ethan raised the gun.
“Enough.”
He pointed at me.
“Open the ledger.”
“I don't know where it is.”
“You will.”
“How?”
He smiled.
“Because your father left one final clue.”
He pointed at my father's photograph.
“On the back.”
I touched the photograph.
And suddenly remembered.
The sentence my father had told me a hundred times.
Never trust the first page.
I turned it over.
There was writing I had never noticed.
Four words.
THE NAME IS HIDDEN.
May you like
Ethan smiled.
“Now we're getting somewhere.”
