Chapter 6 - The Account Ethan Never Told Me About
We returned to Boston and went straight to my old office building.
The company had changed names, floors, and half its staff since I left.
But the archive system still existed.
I spent three hours searching old records.
The suspicious revision on the cargo interface had been created from an executive account.
Victor Hale.
I found a second credential.
Ethan's.
He had accessed the same system years later.
My stomach tightened.
“You used my old project.”
Ethan nodded.
“I was looking for the vulnerability Daniel found.”
“And you never told me.”
“I was afraid.”
I looked at him.
“Of Victor?”
“Of what knowing would do to you.”
I closed the laptop.
“You have to stop saying that.”
He lowered his head.
“You're right.”
That simple admission hurt more than his excuses.
Because it was the first real apology.
Not a defense.
Not an explanation.
Just an apology.
That night, we discovered something else.
The monthly transfers to Tessa weren't for her.
They went to Emma's guardian.
A retired teacher in New Hampshire named Margaret Collins.
Tessa had arranged the payments.
Ethan had been funding Emma's housing, schooling, medical care, and legal expenses.
I stared at the records.
“You've been supporting Daniel's daughter this whole time.”
“Yes.”
“Why hide that from me?”
“Because every account connected to Emma was monitored.”
“By Victor?”
“I think so.”
That word appeared too often.
Think.
Suspect.
Maybe.
For years, Ethan had lived in uncertainty.
And he had dragged me into it without my consent.
The next morning, we visited Margaret.
She opened the door cautiously.
Then she saw Ethan.
Her face softened.
“It's finally happening?”
Ethan nodded.
“Yes.”
Margaret looked at me.
“Claire.”
I was stunned.
“You know me?”
“Daniel told me about you.”
I froze.
“Daniel never met me.”
“He did.”
That changed everything.
She invited us inside.
On the mantel stood a photograph.
Daniel.
Me.
And Ethan.
I stared at it.
It was from a company event eight years earlier.
I remembered it.
Daniel had been there.
I had briefly spoken to him.
I had forgotten.
He hadn't.
Margaret explained.
“Daniel knew Ethan was falling in love with you. He thought you were the only person Ethan would ever trust completely.”
My eyes burned.
“Then why did he write my name in that letter?”
“Because he knew Victor was watching his family.”
She disappeared into another room.
When she returned, she carried a metal box.
“This is for Claire.”
Ethan stepped forward.
Margaret shook her head.
“Only her.”
I took it.
Inside was a flash drive.
And a handwritten note.
You were never the problem.
You were the key.
I looked at Ethan.
He seemed as shocked as I was.
The drive contained videos.
Daniel had recorded himself months before his death.
In the first video, he explained the fraud.
In the second, he identified Victor.
In the third, he talked about me.
“I don't know Claire well,” Daniel said on the screen, “but Ethan does. And that's why Victor will eventually use her. Not because she matters to the investigation. Because Ethan will sacrifice anything to keep her alive.”
I cried.
Daniel continued.
“Ethan will lie. He'll isolate her. He'll push her away. If he starts acting like he hates her, that's how you'll know he's protecting her.”
I looked at Ethan.
“You should have told me.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
The final video showed Daniel holding Emma.
“She is innocent. Please keep her safe.”
Then the screen went black.
I wiped my eyes.
“What happens now?”
Ethan sat beside me.
“Now we expose Victor.”
“How?”
The flash drive contained enough evidence.
Shipment records.
Payments.
Names.
Video testimony.
But there was one missing piece.
Proof connecting Victor to Daniel's death.
We needed the original airport security files.
The same files Ethan had altered the staffing schedule to disguise his movements.
I looked at him.
“The schedule.”
He nodded.
“The real schedule is still in the airport archive.”
“You changed it because you weren't working.”
“I changed it because I was meeting Tessa.”
“So you could investigate Daniel's case.”
“Yes.”
“And now we need the original.”
“Yes.”
We went to Logan that afternoon.
The archive office was nearly empty.
A supervisor recognized Ethan.
“Christmas Eve really was busy.”
Ethan nodded.
“I need the original staffing log from three years ago.”
The supervisor hesitated.
“Why?”
“Legal investigation.”
He looked at me.
Then he opened the system.
We found the file.
And there it was.
Daniel's car had supposedly entered a restricted loading area twenty-seven minutes before the crash.
But the gate log showed something impossible.
His vehicle had never entered.
Someone had cloned his access ID.
The accident report had been fabricated.
Someone had wanted it to look like Daniel was somewhere he had never been.
Then I noticed another access ID.
Victor Hale.
I looked at Ethan.
“He was there.”
Ethan nodded.
Before we could download the record, the terminal shut down.
All the lights went dark.
Someone had pulled the power.
The emergency alarms began.
A door slammed somewhere down the hall.
Ethan grabbed my hand.
“Run.”
We moved through the archive corridor.
Footsteps followed.
I heard someone shout my name.
We reached an emergency exit.
Outside, snow was falling.
We ran to the car.
Tessa was already there.
“How did you know?”
She shook her head.
“I didn't.”
Then she pointed behind us.
A second black SUV was leaving the airport.
Ethan watched it disappear.
“We have the evidence.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
He looked confused.
“We have enough evidence to know we're in danger.”
I squeezed the flash drive in my hand.
“And we have one night left before Christmas ends.”
“Why does that matter?”
I looked toward Boston.
“Because Victor thinks the story ends at Harbor & Vine.”
Ethan stared.
“It doesn't.”
“No.”
May you like
I smiled for the first time in days.
“It's where he thinks we'll all be gathered.”
