Chapter 13 - The First AttemptEthan's family had rehearsed his murder years before I ever met him.
Margaret told me everything.
It happened nineteen years earlier.
Ethan was twenty.
Derek was twenty-four.
Nathan had already built the family business into a regional empire.
Derek was expected to inherit it.
Ethan had never wanted it.
He wanted to study law.
One night, Derek and Ethan drove to a construction site.
The truck's brakes failed.
Ethan survived.
Barely.
Derek told everyone it was mechanical failure.
Nathan believed him.
Margaret believed him.
Ethan didn't.
But he had no proof.
The incident was buried.
Years later, Ethan quietly began investigating the company's records.
He found the same shell structures.
The same missing money.
The same pattern.
Derek hadn't become dangerous when Ethan discovered the forty-eight million.
He had always been dangerous.
The money simply gave him a reason to act again.
We gave everything to Detective Ellis.
The department prepared arrests.
Derek.
Paul.
Grant.
And, eventually, Evelyn.
But Evelyn remained missing.
Two days later, Derek's attorneys requested a private settlement meeting.
I agreed.
Not because I trusted them.
Because Detective Ellis had wired the room.
Derek arrived alone.
He looked exhausted.
Older.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“The account.”
“No.”
“The house.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“The truth.”
He laughed.
“You wouldn't recognize the truth if it hit you.”
I placed a recorder on the table.
“Try me.”
His face tightened.
“I never wanted Ethan dead.”
“That's not what your messages say.”
He looked at the table.
“Ethan ruined everything.”
“Why?”
“He was going to destroy the company.”
“Because you stole from it?”
“Because he didn't understand what was necessary.”
I leaned forward.
“What was necessary?”
Silence.
Then he said:
“People had to be paid.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
“For what?”
“Approvals.”
“Bribes.”
He shrugged.
“Call them what you want.”
“And the twelve million?”
“Debt.”
“Your debt?”
He looked away.
“Yes.”
I stared.
“You stole millions to pay your gambling debts.”
“I was going to replace it.”
“You lied.”
“I made mistakes.”
“You murdered your brother.”
His head snapped up.
“I didn't murder Ethan.”
“Then who did?”
He didn't answer.
I pushed forward.
“Was it Evelyn?”
His expression changed.
There.
I had found it.
“She wasn't supposed to be there.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“Evelyn was supposed to handle the transfer.”
“Transfer what?”
“The settlement.”
“Into whose account?”
“Someone else.”
“Whose?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“You tried to change the beneficiary to yourself.”
“No.”
“You told an employee to change it.”
“I was trying to stop Evelyn.”
“Why?”
“Because she wanted to move the money.”
My pulse accelerated.
“So Evelyn wasn't after the money for Mercer Development.”
Derek looked at me.
“She wanted the entire settlement.”
“Why?”
“Because the settlement records could expose her.”
That was the missing piece.
The forty-eight million dollars wasn't just money.
It was the receipt for a criminal empire.
Whoever controlled it could prove how much had been recovered and why.
Evelyn wanted the money moved.
Derek tried to seize it first.
Ethan blocked them.
That was why he had to disappear.
I stood.
“Did you order Paul to sabotage Ethan's brakes?”
Derek's silence lasted too long.
Then:
“Yes.”
The recorder captured it.
Cleanly.
I swallowed.
“Did you know Ethan would die?”
“I thought he would lose control.”
“That's murder.”
“I didn't touch him.”
“You don't have to.”
He looked at me.
For the first time, I saw fear.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“Claire,” he whispered, “Evelyn is not finished.”
The room seemed colder.
“What does that mean?”
“She doesn't care about Derek Mercer.”
“I know.”
“She doesn't care about the company.”
“I know.”
“She cares about the settlement.”
“Why?”
His eyes filled with something close to despair.
“Because the money came from her.”
I stared.
“What?”
“The forty-eight million wasn't money recovered from her victims.”
He swallowed.
“It was her money.”
I couldn't breathe.
“Then why was Ethan entitled to it?”
Derek looked at the door.
Because someone was listening.
May you like
Then he whispered:
“Ethan was the only person who could prove where it came from.”
