Chapter 2 - THE LIE INSIDE THE BACKPACK
Arthur demanded a lawyer before answering another question.
Officer Ruiz escorted him to a private waiting area while another officer remained outside Noah’s room. Margaret asked if she could stay, but I refused.
“You stood behind the door while my child begged to come inside,” I told her. “You do not get to sit beside his bed now.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Claire, you don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
She glanced toward the hallway where Arthur had disappeared.
“I can’t.”
“That answer nearly killed Noah.”
Margaret pressed one hand against her chest. “Arthur controls everything. The accounts, the company, the house. He decides what happens to anyone who crosses him.”
“You could have opened a door.”
Her face crumpled, but I felt no sympathy.
She left without another word.
Noah was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit for observation. His body temperature had stabilized, and the doctors believed his fingers would heal, but his exhaustion ran deeper than the cold.
Daniel still had not answered my calls.
My husband had supposedly flown to Chicago for a commercial development conference that morning. I called his hotel, his assistant, and two coworkers. No one could confirm where he was.
At midnight, Noah woke from a nightmare and grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t let Grandpa take my backpack.”
“He won’t,” I promised.
His breathing slowed, but he did not release me.
“Mason put the watch in the front pocket,” he said. “But Grandpa kept asking what else I had.”
“What did he mean?”
“I don’t know. He dumped everything on the floor. My schoolbooks, my clothes, my inhaler. He cut the inside with a knife.”
My pulse quickened.
“The lining?”
Noah nodded.
“Then Grandma screamed at him to stop. Grandpa told her she should have burned it years ago.”
“Burned what?”
“He didn’t say.”
I sat back, trying to make sense of it.
“Where did you get the backpack?”
“Dad gave it to me.”
The answer struck me like a blow.
Daniel had brought it home three months earlier, saying it was a promotional gift from a client. It looked ordinary—navy fabric, brown straps, a small mountain logo.
“Did your father tell you anything about it?”
“No. But Mason said it used to belong to someone named Ethan.”
I had never heard the name.
At one in the morning, Elena returned.
“We examined the flash drive,” she said quietly. “It’s encrypted.”
“Can you open it?”
“Our digital crimes unit is working on it. But there’s something else.”
She showed me a photograph taken from inside the backpack’s torn lining. Beneath the hidden compartment was a faded handwritten message.
IF I DISAPPEAR, ARTHUR DID IT.
The initials below the sentence were E.W.
“Ethan Whitaker?” I asked.
Elena nodded. “We searched older records. Arthur and Margaret had two sons.”
I stared at her.
“No. They only have Daniel.”
“That’s what their current public biographies say. But twenty-three years ago, their older son, Ethan Whitaker, was reported missing at seventeen.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What happened to him?”
“The official report says he ran away after stealing money from the family business.”
“That sounds exactly like what Arthur accused Noah of doing.”
Elena’s expression told me she had reached the same conclusion.
“There was no body,” she continued. “No confirmed sighting. The investigation went cold.”
I looked at my sleeping son.
“Why would Daniel give Noah something that belonged to his missing brother?”
“That’s what we need to ask him.”
My phone vibrated.
Daniel’s name appeared on the screen.
I answered instantly.
“Where are you?”
His voice was low and breathless.
“Claire, listen carefully. Take Noah and leave the hospital.”
My blood ran cold.
“What?”
“My father knows about the flash drive. You are not safe there.”
“Daniel, your father nearly killed our son.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
There was a pause.
Then he said the words that shattered what remained of my trust.
“I knew the backpack contained evidence. I gave it to Noah because I thought Arthur would never search a child.”
I could barely breathe.
“You used our son to hide evidence?”
“I was trying to protect both of you.”
“No. You put him in danger.”
“I didn’t know Mason would find the watch. I didn’t know Dad would lose control.”
“Where are you?”
Another pause.
“At the lake house.”
A loud crash sounded through the phone.
Daniel gasped.
Then a man’s voice spoke in the background.
Arthur’s voice.
May you like
“You should have left the past buried, son.”
The call ended.
