Chapter 16 - The MotherThe world seemed to tilt.
Ethan looked at Claire.
“Is that true?”
Claire didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Ethan stepped back.
“You're not my mother?”
Claire began crying.
“I am.”
“But not biologically.”
“No.”
Ethan stared at the photograph.
Thomas smiled.
“She raised you.”
Claire whispered:
“I loved you.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”
“No.”
She took a breath.
“I gave birth to Adam.”
Ethan stared at his brother.
“I gave birth to him,” Claire said.
“And you?”
Ethan asked.
Thomas answered.
“You were carried by another woman.”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
The woman beside Claire.
“Who?”
Claire shook her head.
“Her name was Sarah.”
“Where is she?”
Thomas smiled.
“She died.”
“When?”
“Six months after you were born.”
Ethan felt sick.
“Did you kill her?”
Thomas didn't answer.
Richard did.
“Yes.”
Silence.
Richard pointed his gun at Thomas.
“She knew the truth.”
Thomas slowly turned.
“You're very brave tonight.”
Richard's hands shook.
“You ruined all of us.”
Thomas smiled.
“No.”
“I ruined you.”
Thomas reached inside his coat.
Everyone raised their weapons.
But he pulled out a photograph.
A newborn Ethan.
Held by Sarah.
On the back was a message:
HE'S YOURS. PROTECT HIM.
Ethan stared.
“My real mother knew?”
“Yes,” Thomas said.
“She knew what you were.”
“What am I?”
Thomas smiled.
“The final heir.”
“To what?”
“Everything.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“He means the Vale estate.”
“No.”
Thomas shook his head.
“The estate is irrelevant.”
He pointed at the journal.
“Arthur created something far more valuable.”
“Money?”
“Access.”
Thomas explained that Arthur's network stretched across corporations, governments, private banks, and international trusts.
Ethan's DNA could prove the legal chain of inheritance.
Not just money.
Control.
Richard looked at Ethan.
“That's why they need you alive.”
Ethan understood.
The coffin.
The funeral.
The hospital.
The chase.
All of it.
They were never trying to kill him.
They were trying to capture him.
Thomas stepped closer.
“Come with me.”
“No.”
“I can show you everything.”
“No.”
Thomas smiled sadly.
“Then Claire dies.”
He pressed a button.
A screen appeared.
Claire's body was strapped to a chair in an unknown location.
A countdown appeared.
30
Ethan stared.
Thomas said:
“Choose.”
The timer dropped.
Ethan looked at Richard.
Then Daniel.
Then Adam.
And finally Claire.
He whispered:
“I choose all of them.”
Thomas laughed.
“You can't.”
Ethan smiled.
“I don't have to.”
He held up the black journal.
“Because you forgot one thing.”
Thomas's smile disappeared.
“What?”
May you like
Ethan said:
“The whole thing is being recorded.”
