CHAPTER 6: THE GHOST OF THOMAS HALE
The Blackwood mansion had transformed overnight.
The place that once represented wealth and control now felt like a battlefield waiting for an invisible enemy to strike.
Every hallway was guarded.
Every entrance was sealed.
Every person inside the mansion was being investigated.
But none of that mattered to Victor.
Because his son was somewhere out there.
And every second Ethan was away from him felt like a blade cutting deeper.
Victor stood alone inside his private office.
The city of Chicago stretched beyond the glass windows.
Millions of people moving through their ordinary lives.
Laughing.
Working.
Living.
While his world had stopped.
On his desk were three files.
Three names.
Thomas Hale.
Richard Blackwood.
Adrian Cross.
Three men connected by a secret that had survived fifteen years.
Victor opened the first file.
Thomas Hale.
His father's most loyal protector.
A man remembered by everyone as honorable.
A man who died saving the Blackwood family.
But now everything had changed.
Because if Thomas Hale's past was connected to Ethan's kidnapping, then Victor needed to know the truth.
Not the version people told him.
The real truth.
A knock came at the door.
“Come in.”
Lily entered.
She looked exhausted.
She had not slept since Ethan disappeared.
Victor noticed the dark circles beneath her eyes.
“You should rest.”
Lily shook her head.
“I can’t.”
“You need to.”
“My son is missing.”
Victor looked at her.
The words surprised him.
Not because of what she said.
Because of how she said it.
Not my employer’s son.
Not Ethan Blackwood.
My son.
Six months was enough.
Six months of bedtime stories.
Six months of first words.
Six months of holding him through nightmares.
Lily had become family.
Victor understood that now.
“Sit.”
She hesitated.
Then sat across from him.
Victor pushed a file toward her.
“We need to talk about your father.”
Lily looked at the folder.
Her fingers tightened.
“I don’t know much.”
“Tell me everything you do know.”
She took a deep breath.
“My father was a security expert.”
Victor nodded.
“He worked for my family.”
“Yes.”
“My mother said he was killed because of a mission.”
Lily looked down.
“But she never told me what mission.”
Victor opened another document.
“Did your father ever mention Richard Blackwood?”
Lily frowned.
“No.”
“Adrian?”
She looked up.
“Adrian Cross?”
“Yes.”
A strange expression appeared on her face.
“What?”
“You know him?”
“My father hated him.”
Victor froze.
“What?”
Lily looked confused.
“I never understood why.”
She continued slowly.
“When I was little, I remember my father arguing with someone on the phone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
A pause.
“But I remember him saying one sentence.”
Victor leaned forward.
“What sentence?”
Lily closed her eyes.
“He said…”
Her voice became quieter.
‘The person closest to Victor will be the one who destroys him.’
The room went silent.
Victor felt a cold sensation move through him.
Because those words sounded like a warning.
A warning his father’s people had ignored.
A warning that had waited fifteen years to return.
Before Victor could speak, the office door opened.
Adrian entered.
“Victor.”
His expression was serious.
“We found the location.”
Victor immediately stood.
“Where?”
Adrian placed a folder on the table.
“An abandoned warehouse near the old harbor district.”
Victor opened the file.
Pictures.
Maps.
Surveillance.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Adrian looked at Lily.
“Because of this.”
He placed a small object on the desk.
A silver bracelet.
Lily immediately recognized it.
Her breath caught.
“That’s my father’s.”
Adrian nodded.
“We found it near the warehouse.”
Victor looked at him.
“You said it belonged to Thomas Hale.”
“It did.”
“Then how did it end up there?”
Nobody answered.
Because they all knew.
The answer was impossible.
Unless Thomas Hale was not dead.
Victor looked at Lily.
“Your mother ever show you proof of his death?”
Lily’s face changed.
“No.”
“Funeral?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Body?”
Again, no.
Victor leaned back slowly.
For fifteen years, everyone believed Thomas Hale was dead.
But nobody had actually seen him buried.
A ghost.
That was what Thomas Hale had become.
A ghost from the past.
Then Victor’s phone received a message.
One image.
Ethan.
Sitting on a chair.
Alive.
Terrified.
Victor immediately grabbed the phone.
Below the picture was a message.
"Come alone."
Lily saw it.
“No.”
Victor looked at her.
“I’m going.”
“You can’t.”
“I can.”
“It’s a trap.”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
“Of course it’s a trap.”
He placed the phone down.
“But my son is inside it.”
Lily stood.
“Then I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Ethan trusts me.”
Victor stopped.
“He needs someone familiar.”
Silence.
Because she was right.
The kidnapper had taken Ethan.
But Ethan’s fear would be different with Lily there.
Victor hated admitting it.
But his son needed her.
“You stay behind me.”
Lily nodded.
“I will.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Victor, think carefully.”
Victor looked at him.
“About what?”
“About who you trust.”
The words hung in the air.
Because Adrian was right.
Victor had trusted the wrong people before.
And now he was walking directly into another trap.
But this time, he would not make the same mistake.
“Prepare the vehicles.”
Adrian nodded.
As he turned away, Victor watched him carefully.
Something still bothered him.
A feeling he could not ignore.
Adrian knew too much.
He always knew too much.
And sometimes…
The person who helps you find the enemy…
Is the person who knows exactly where to look.
The abandoned harbor warehouse stood beneath a dark sky.
The ocean wind cut through the empty streets.
Victor stepped out of the car.
Lily followed.
No guards.
No weapons visible.
Exactly as ordered.
The warehouse doors slowly opened.
Inside was darkness.
“Ethan!”
Victor’s voice echoed.
A small cry answered.
“Daddy!”
Victor moved forward.
But Lily grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
He stopped.
She pointed.
On the floor.
A trail.
Not blood.
Not footprints.
Photographs.
Victor picked one up.
It was an old picture.
Thomas Hale.
Standing with Victor’s father.
Another picture.
Richard Blackwood.
Another.
Adrian Cross.
Then the final photograph.
Victor himself.
As a child.
Standing beside his father.
On the back of the picture were words:
"The truth was never hidden from you, Victor."
A sound came from the darkness.
A man stepped forward.
Older.
Tired.
But familiar.
Lily froze.
Her entire body stopped moving.
Because she knew that face.
A face she had spent fifteen years believing belonged only to memories.
The man looked at her.
His eyes filled with emotion.
“Lillian…”
The world seemed to disappear.
Lily whispered:
“Dad?”
Victor stared.
Impossible.
Thomas Hale was alive.
The dead man from his childhood had returned.
And behind him…
Was Ethan.
Safe.
But the expression on Thomas Hale’s face told Victor one thing.
This reunion was not the end of the mystery.
May you like
It was the beginning.
Hết Chapter 6. Mình sẽ viết tiếp Chapter 7: “The Father Who Never Died” ở phần tiếp theo.
