Chapter 5 - The Enemy Inside the House
Ethan's safe house was supposed to be untouchable.
Three security teams.
Motion sensors.
Cameras.
Armed guards.
Yet the message had arrived anyway.
By sunrise, Ethan had ordered a complete lockdown.
No one left the property.
Norah sat at the kitchen table with Sam in her arms.
She hadn't slept.
Neither had Ethan.
“I want answers,” she said.
“So do I.”
“Then tell me everything.”
Ethan poured coffee.
“What do you want to know?”
“My father.”
“You never met Victor.”
“No.”
“He was a complicated man.”
“Was he cruel?”
Ethan looked at her.
“Sometimes.”
“Did he love my mother?”
Ethan took a slow breath.
“Yes.”
That answer surprised both of them.
“My mother loved him.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“I found letters.”
Norah lowered her eyes.
“How many children did he have?”
Ethan hesitated.
“I was told one.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“Now I know there were at least two.”
The house grew silent.
Sam reached for Ethan’s watch.
Ethan allowed him to touch it.
Norah watched.
“You like him.”
Ethan looked at the baby.
“I don't know him.”
“He likes you.”
“Babies are poor judges of character.”
Norah smiled faintly.
It was the first time he had seen her smile.
Then a gunshot sounded outside.
The kitchen windows shook.
Norah screamed.
Ethan moved instantly.
He grabbed both Norah and Sam and pushed them behind the reinforced wall.
Finn shouted from the hallway.
“North fence!”
Three more shots.
Then silence.
Ethan handed Sam to Norah.
“Stay here.”
“Ethan—”
“Lock the door.”
He disappeared.
Within minutes, the attacker was gone.
No casualties.
One guard was wounded.
A shell casing was recovered.
Ethan examined it.
Not a standard round.
Custom-made.
The same kind his father’s killers had used eight years ago.
Finn approached.
“Boss.”
Ethan looked at him.
“You know what this means.”
“The same person?”
“Or someone trained by them.”
They searched the property.
Nothing.
Then Mrs. Bell approached.
“I found something.”
She handed Ethan a small key.
“It was in the pantry wall.”
Ethan recognized it.
His father's old office key.
He looked at Norah.
“She knows how to hide things.”
Norah frowned.
“My mother?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Ethan stared at the key.
“My father.”
The old office was still standing in a private warehouse.
They traveled there that afternoon.
Inside, dust covered everything.
Victor’s desk remained exactly as it had been.
Ethan opened the locked cabinet.
A steel box sat inside.
The key fit.
He lifted the lid.
A stack of letters.
A tape recorder.
Three photographs.
And a handwritten ledger.
Norah took the first photograph.
She froze.
It showed Eleanor.
Victor.
And another woman.
Pregnant.
The woman beside them was Nora Hayes.
Victor's legal wife.
Ethan's mother.
Norah looked at Ethan.
“She knew.”
Ethan couldn't answer.
He had spent his whole childhood believing his mother hated Eleanor.
Maybe she had loved her.
Maybe she had helped hide her.
Maybe everything he'd ever believed about his family had been constructed by people who needed him obedient.
He turned on the tape recorder.
Victor's voice filled the room.
“If Ethan ever hears this, it means I failed.”
Ethan stiffened.
“I am recording this because I no longer trust the people closest to me.”
Static.
“Eleanor was never the enemy.”
Another pause.
“She saved our daughter.”
Norah covered her mouth.
“Our daughter, Norah, was never supposed to be involved in this life.”
Victor continued.
“There was another child.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“My son was not the first.”
The room fell silent.
“Before Ethan, there was a boy.”
Ethan opened his eyes.
“A child born to Nora during the first year of our marriage.”
Norah stared at him.
Victor's voice cracked.
“They took him.”
A long silence.
“I was told he died.”
Then:
“I no longer believe that.”
The recording ended.
Nobody moved.
Ethan looked at Norah.
“Our family had another child.”
“Your brother.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
The ledger contained coded payments.
Names.
Dates.
Safe houses.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Gabriel Stone.
Norah recognized it.
“My grandmother used that name.”
Ethan looked sharply at her.
“What?”
“She said it belonged to someone who helped my mother.”
Finn searched the records.
“Gabriel Stone was the alias used by one of Victor’s most trusted men.”
“Who?”
Finn's face changed.
“Daniel Hayes.”
Ethan stared.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?”
“Daniel was my father's older brother.”
“And?”
“He died before I was born.”
Finn looked at the final page.
“He didn't.”
The room became ice-cold.
Daniel Hayes had been alive.
And according to the ledger, he had been paying someone named Samuel Davis every month.
Norah's face went white.
“Samuel?”
Ethan looked at the baby.
Sam.
“What if…”
Norah stopped.
Neither wanted to finish the thought.
Could Sam's name have been inherited from someone in the family?
Could the secret of the first child be connected to Norah's son?
The answer came that evening.
A man walked into the warehouse.
He carried no weapon.
He wore a dark coat.
His face was older, but unmistakable.
Ethan recognized him from the family portrait.
Daniel Hayes.
Alive.
He looked at Norah first.
Then at Ethan.
May you like
And smiled sadly.
“You took too long.”
