Chapter 4 - Someone Above Ethan
Until that moment, Ethan had been the monster at the center of everything.
Then I learned monsters could be frightened too.
The unidentified number belonged to a prepaid phone.
No registration.
No location history.
But the message changed the investigation instantly.
Mason ordered two officers outside my hospital room.
Nobody entered without clearance.
Not even hospital staff.
“What does ‘bring Claire to me’ mean?”
“We’re going to find out.”
“You think Ethan answers to someone?”
“I think Ethan may not be the highest person in this operation.”
That terrified me.
Hours later, police arrested Ethan leaving a private airfield.
He had one suitcase.
Two passports.
And nearly eighty thousand dollars in cash.
He demanded a lawyer before saying a word.
Then he learned Margaret had been arrested for attempting to kill me.
According to Mason, Ethan’s confidence disappeared.
“He asked whether she talked.”
“Did she?”
“Not yet.”
I laughed bitterly.
“He’ll blame her.”
“That’s what Rebecca warned you about.”
By evening, Margaret had requested a deal.
She would explain Emily’s death, the trust, Rebecca, and my “accident.”
But only if prosecutors guaranteed protection.
“Protection from Ethan?”
Mason shook his head.
“From someone named Arthur.”
I had never heard that name.
Margaret refused to provide a last name.
She only said Arthur had been controlling Ethan’s family finances for years.
Then she said something stranger.
“Claire was never supposed to marry Ethan.”
I stared at Mason.
“What?”
“She says Ethan chose you against instructions.”
“Instructions from Arthur?”
“Yes.”
A sick feeling settled in my stomach.
“Why would this Arthur care who Ethan married?”
Mason opened a new file.
“We searched your marriage records, financial records, employment history.”
“And?”
“We found something about your father.”
My father had died when I was fourteen.
A warehouse fire.
At least, that was what I had always been told.
“What does he have to do with this?”
Mason laid an old newspaper clipping on my blanket.
The headline described the warehouse fire that killed Daniel Carter.
My maiden name was Carter.
Beside my father’s picture stood another man.
A younger man.
But unmistakable.
Arthur Morgan.
Ethan’s father.
I stared at the image.
“Ethan told me his father died before we met.”
“He did.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
Something clicked.
“The same year Emily died.”
Mason nodded.
Then he showed me a newly recovered photograph.
Arthur Morgan and my father stood beside a concrete wall.
Between them was a metal lockbox.
Written across the back were four words.
May you like
FOR CLAIRE WHEN SHE TURNS THIRTY.
My thirtieth birthday was eleven days away.
