Chapter 6 - THE VOICE OF A DEAD FATHER
No one moved.
The voice came again.
“Ethan?”
He could barely answer.
“Who is this?”
A pause.
Then:
“You still sound angry when you’re frightened.”
Ethan went pale.
Only one man had ever said that to him.
His father.
Margaret whispered,
“No.”
Too late.
The call continued.
“Do not let Vanessa destroy the black folder.”
Vanessa stopped breathing.
Ethan stared at the phone.
“My father is dead.”
The voice answered,
“Yes.”
The room froze.
That was the first crack.
Then the man continued.
“But the recording you are hearing was scheduled to play if the foundation proxy moved before tomorrow’s vote.”
Emily looked at the papers.
Automatic trigger.
A message from six years ago.
Charles had prepared for this moment.
Ethan’s eyes filled.
The recording continued.
“If this message activated, Adrian is using the emergency transfer.”
Margaret looked away.
Wrong move.
Ethan saw it.
The voice continued.
“He will need three things.”
“My signature.”
“Margaret’s approval.”
“And your emotional disqualification.”
Emily stopped breathing.
Ethan looked at Vanessa.
The kitchen crisis.
The weapon.
The daughter crying.
The frightened mother.
The furious father.
A perfect scene.
Charles continued.
“If you appear unstable, dangerous, or incapable during the hours before the vote, Adrian can activate temporary board protection.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“They needed me to react.”
Emily whispered,
“Yes.”
The room changed.
That was the second crack.
The weapon had not only been about fear.
It had been bait.
Vanessa had expected Ethan to charge.
Fight.
Lose control.
Then witnesses would say he became dangerous under pressure.
Margaret looked at him.
“I didn’t know that part.”
Ethan turned.
“But you knew there was a plan.”
Silence.
No clean escape.
Charles’s recording continued.
“One more thing.”
“Emily must not be blamed.”
Everyone froze.
Emily stared at the phone.
Why would Charles know her name?
Vanessa looked terrified now.
Not cold.
Not controlled.
Terrified.
That was the third crack.
Ethan stepped closer to the speaker.
“How does he know Emily?”
The recording answered.
“Because she was the only person I trusted to receive the original evidence.”
Emily stopped breathing.
Margaret whispered,
“That’s impossible.”
Charles continued.
“She was eighteen.”
“Working summers at the estate library.”
Emily’s face changed.
A memory.
An old man.
A locked archive room.
A sealed box.
Ethan looked at her.
“You knew my father.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know who he was.”
The room went still.
Then she remembered.
He had asked her to hide one envelope in a place Margaret never checked.
Ethan stared at her.
“Where?”
Emily looked toward the living room.
The white fireplace.
The mantel.
The old brass clock.
Her face went pale.
“He told me never to open it unless someone used my father’s name.”
Silence.
Ethan frowned.
“Your father?”
Emily nodded.
Then looked at Vanessa.
“Her.”
Vanessa stopped breathing.
Emily’s voice shook.
“She used my father’s name twenty minutes before you came home.”
The room froze.
Ethan stared at her.
“What did she say?”
Emily looked directly at Vanessa.
“She said he was the reason none of us were getting out of this house.”
May you like
And suddenly the biggest question was no longer who Adrian Wells was.
It was why Emily’s missing father had the same name.
