Chapter 10 - Ethan’s Voice
Ethan stopped at the threshold.
“The sale was not Victoria’s idea.”
Eleanor stared.
He opened the suitcase.
Inside were closing contracts and a private compensation agreement.
If Northbridge bought the care centers, Ethan would receive forty million dollars and remain chief executive.
Eleanor’s face emptied.
“You said you were negotiating protections.”
“I planned to use part of the money for displaced employees.”
Leah looked at him.
“Was that written in the contract?”
He said nothing.
Again, the powerful man’s good intentions existed only where no one could verify them.
Then Leah found a competency petition beneath the closing binder.
It claimed Eleanor suffered progressive confusion and could no longer control her affairs.
Victoria had signed it.
Northbridge’s attorney had signed it.
And beneath them appeared Ethan’s verified signature.
He stared.
“I never signed that.”
Leah looked at him.
“You said the same thing about the power of attorney.”
The filing came from Ethan’s London hotel suite while he was confirmed to be alone.
Inside the suitcase’s sealed pocket, Leah found a small silver recorder.
She pressed play.
Ethan’s voice filled the foyer:
“Once my mother is declared unfit, the sale can proceed without her.”
Another voice asked:
“And Leah?”
Ethan answered:
“Remove her first.”
Eleanor began crying.
Ethan went pale.
“That is my voice.”
A pause.
“But I never said those words.”
The black double doors opened behind him.
Victoria stood outside beside a white-haired Northbridge executive.
The man held the original competency file.
He looked at Ethan and smiled.
“Tell your mother why you really came home.”
Then Eleanor recognized him.
Her hands began shaking.
Because the Northbridge executive was not merely the buyer.
He was Ethan’s biological father.
May you like
And the man Eleanor had been told died thirty-six years earlier.
TO BE CONTINUED.
