Chapter 6 - THE SECRET MY MOTHER COULDN'T BURY
Ethan couldn't speak.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then he whispered:
“You knew?”
Dad nodded.
“Since you were a baby.”
Ethan's face crumpled.
“Mom knew?”
“Yes.”
“And you let me believe…”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“Everyone was always protecting me.”
He turned toward me.
“And somehow Jake was always the one who paid for it.”
I didn't know what to say.
Dad opened another document.
“This is the adoption agreement.”
Ethan stared at it.
His hands shook.
Then he saw the name.
Thomas Vale.
The same man from the photograph.
“The attorney?”
Dad nodded.
“Thomas was your biological father.”
Ethan sat down.
“Why did he give me up?”
Dad's expression hardened.
“He didn't.”
I looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“Your mother took you.”
The room went silent.
Dad explained that Thomas had been involved in my grandfather's company.
He had discovered that Thomas was diverting money.
When my grandfather confronted him, Thomas threatened to expose secrets about the family.
Then, shortly afterward, Thomas disappeared.
My mother had taken Ethan in as an infant.
She claimed his biological parents were dead.
But they weren't.
Thomas had been alive.
And according to the documents, he had spent decades trying to regain control of the trust.
Ethan looked sick.
“So all this…”
“Wasn't about your wedding,” Dad said.
“No.”
“It was about the estate.”
I looked at the Northbridge documents.
“What does Leah have to do with it?”
Dad hesitated.
“Your grandfather chose you as trustee because he believed you were the only person Thomas couldn't manipulate.”
“Why me?”
“Because you're not his son.”
Ethan looked at me.
“You're Grandpa's biological grandson.”
I stared at the papers.
Suddenly, the favoritism made sense.
My grandfather had trusted me.
But my mother had spent years trying to compensate Ethan.
Not because she loved him more.
Because she was afraid of losing him.
Then another document caught my attention.
It was a recent letter.
Dated two months earlier.
Signed by Margaret Hale.
My supposedly dead aunt.
I read the first line.
Jake, if you're reading this, your grandfather was right. Thomas is still alive.
My heart pounded.
I continued.
Margaret claimed she had spent twenty years gathering evidence.
Thomas had been using shell companies to move money.
He had recruited lawyers, accountants, and even family members.
But there was one person who had unknowingly helped him.
My mother.
Margaret wrote:
Your mother did not steal from the family. She was blackmailed into helping Thomas conceal the transfers.
I looked at Dad.
“So Mom was protecting us?”
“Partly.”
“Partly?”
Dad looked away.
“There were things she did willingly.”
“What things?”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he pointed to the final paragraph.
Margaret had written one sentence in bold:
Do not trust the person who tells you Thomas is dead.
Then the lights went out.
All of them.
Leah screamed.
May you like
A window shattered downstairs.
Someone had entered the house.
