Chapter 12 - THE PRISON INSIDE ETHAN’S COMPANY
Caldwell Tower belonged to Ethan.
Forty-two floors.
Corporate offices.
Executive suites.
Private boardrooms.
A building Ethan entered almost every day.
And somewhere inside it, Maya’s father had apparently been held prisoner.
“How?” Ethan demanded.
Daniel checked building access records.
“Private sublevels.”
“There are only two.”
“No.”
He turned the blueprints.
“There’s a third.”
Ethan stared.
A hidden floor beneath the underground parking structure.
Built before Caldwell purchased the property.
The previous owner?
Hale Financial.
Maya whispered, “Your company was built on top of their operation.”
Daniel nodded.
“Literally.”
Federal agents prepared a raid.
Ethan insisted on accompanying them to the command level.
Maya refused to leave him.
“You know,” Ethan said, “our fake relationship has become unusually demanding.”
She looked at him.
“You’re still calling it fake?”
He stopped.
The question landed between them.
Maya’s expression softened.
“Later.”
“Later?”
“If we survive your underground billionaire dungeon.”
“It isn’t mine.”
“You own the building.”
“Technically.”
She smiled.
Then agents breached the hidden level.
They found medical equipment.
Servers.
Financial records.
Photographs.
And one prisoner.
Thomas Bennett.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Maya ran to him.
“Dad?”
His eyes opened.
“Maya.”
She fell against him.
Ethan turned away, giving them privacy.
Something inside him ached.
He had recovered his brother.
Maya had recovered her father.
Maybe broken families weren’t always permanently broken.
Then Thomas looked at Ethan.
“You’re Robert’s boy.”
Ethan approached.
“Yes.”
Thomas smiled weakly.
“You look like him.”
Ethan swallowed.
“People tell me that.”
Thomas’s expression changed.
“Robert trusted the wrong Caldwell.”
“Charles?”
“No.”
Ethan frowned.
“Then who?”
Before Thomas could answer, alarms sounded.
Daniel shouted.
“Servers are wiping!”
Agents rushed toward the equipment.
Thomas tried to sit up.
“Martin.”
“What?”
“He triggered the purge.”
Daniel checked the network.
“He’s accessing remotely.”
“From where?”
The screen revealed the source.
Caldwell executive floor.
Ethan stared.
Someone was inside his own office.
Security cameras activated.
A man stood behind Ethan’s desk.
Martin Hale.
Beside him was Charles.
And Vanessa.
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“They’re together.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Look closer.”
Vanessa’s hands were tied.
She was a hostage.
Charles held a gun.
Martin paced.
Then someone else entered the camera frame.
A woman.
Elegant.
Silver-haired.
Ethan stopped breathing.
Maya looked at him.
“Who is she?”
He couldn’t answer.
The woman had been dead for twenty-one years.
At least, that was what Ethan had been told.
His mother.
Margaret Caldwell.
She looked directly into the security camera.
Then spoke.
“Ethan.”
His entire body went cold.
“Mom?”
She smiled sadly.
“I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”
And then she said the words that shattered the last piece of his childhood.
“Charles isn’t your uncle.”
May you like
A pause.
“He’s your biological father.”
