Chapter 5 - The Man Ethan Trusted More Than Me
The exchange never happened.
At 11:42 a.m., police found the warehouse address Mason had instructed us to approach.
It was empty.
A child’s juice box sat on the floor.
So did Lily’s stuffed rabbit.
Vanessa screamed when she saw it.
I picked it up.
Pink ears.
One button eye.
Lily had carried that rabbit in the photograph.
I pressed it against my chest.
“She was here.”
Alexander looked toward the officers searching the building.
“She still may be close.”
Ethan stood near the doorway.
He had not spoken for several minutes.
I knew why.
Mason Reed had disappeared.
His office had been cleared.
His phones were dead.
His wife told investigators she believed he was attending a conference in Toronto.
There was no conference.
Colin Ward was still missing too.
Two men Ethan trusted had taken a child from under his security system and vanished.
For perhaps the first time in Ethan Blackwood’s adult life, the fear in his eyes had nothing to do with losing power.
It had everything to do with realizing he had never possessed as much control as he believed.
My phone rang.
The police negotiator motioned for me to answer.
“Mason?”
A familiar voice spoke.
I had heard it at charity dinners.
At Ethan’s birthday.
Once at my own engagement party.
“Hello, Sophia.”
My stomach turned.
“You were at my father’s funeral.”
“Yes.”
“You shook my hand.”
“I did.”
“And now you have my niece.”
A pause.
“So you finally know.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“If you hurt her—”
“I’m not going to hurt a child.”
“You kidnapped one.”
“Temporary leverage.”
“You sound like every coward who calls cruelty strategy.”
Alexander glanced at me.
Ethan almost smiled despite the situation.
Mason did not.
“You always were sharper than Blackwood appreciated.”
Ethan’s face turned hard.
“What do you want?”
“Daniel’s files.”
“You already know we copied them.”
“Yes.”
“Then taking the originals changes nothing.”
“It changes something.”
“What?”
“Proof of chain.”
Alexander quietly mouthed, Keep him talking.
I did.
“What are you really afraid of?”
Mason laughed.
“You think this is about theft?”
“I think you stole millions.”
“Millions are replaceable.”
“What isn’t?”
Silence.
Then Mason said, “Reputation.”
The call ended.
We learned what he meant two hours later.
Daniel’s files contained evidence of financial crimes.
But buried deeper was something more damaging.
Mason and Colin had spent years manufacturing conflicts between several major families.
A threat sent in one family’s name.
A shipment interrupted and blamed on another.
Rumors.
False reports.
Manipulated payments.
Every conflict increased the demand for security, intermediaries, private transport, and emergency financing controlled through companies Mason secretly influenced.
He had built a business model around fear.
Daniel discovered it because Bennett properties kept appearing in the financial chain.
And apparently, Daniel had planned to expose him.
“Why kill Daniel?” I asked.
We were back at the apartment.
Margaret and several investigators occupied the dining room.
“If they killed him,” Alexander reminded me.
“They threatened him.”
“That matters. It still isn’t proof they caused the crash.”
Ethan stood near the window.
“They did.”
I looked at him.
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Mason.”
“No.”
My voice became hard.
“You knew the version of Mason he wanted you to know.”
Ethan looked at me.
Pain crossed his face.
I did not soften.
Because I had spent six years letting Ethan’s pain become more important than the damage he caused.
Not anymore.
Vanessa sat on the couch holding Lily’s rabbit.
She had not changed clothes.
“Sophia.”
I turned.
“There’s something else.”
I almost laughed from exhaustion.
“Of course there is.”
She flinched.
I sat across from her.
“What?”
“Daniel had a second copy of the files.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he tell you?”
“He said he gave something to someone who could destroy Mason if necessary.”
Ethan looked toward Alexander.
Alexander frowned.
“Not me.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Daniel didn’t trust Alexander then.”
Alexander seemed offended.
“I’m wounded.”
“You were a rival crime boss he barely knew.”
“Fair.”
I almost smiled.
Then Vanessa continued.
“He said he gave it to the one person nobody would suspect because she looked harmless.”
A memory hit me.
My father’s secretary.
Mrs. Evelyn Parker.
She had worked for the Bennett family for thirty-two years.
Seventy years old.
Tiny.
Silver-haired.
Always carried peppermints.
Daniel adored her.
“She looked harmless,” I whispered.
Alexander followed immediately.
“Who?”
“Evelyn.”
Evelyn Parker now lived in a retirement community outside Chicago.
We contacted her.
When I explained Daniel’s name, she went quiet.
Then she said, “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me about that boy for four years.”
Twenty-five minutes later, we were on our way.
Ethan tried to come.
I stopped him.
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“I’m going.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
“Police are coming.”
“Sophia.”
“No.”
He stared at me.
“You trust Hayes more than me now?”
I looked toward Alexander.
Then back at Ethan.
“Yes.”
The answer wounded him.
It was also true.
Ethan nodded once.
Then stepped back.
That hurt me too.
Six years could not disappear simply because I had finally stopped accepting less.
Love died slowly.
Even bad love.
Especially bad love.
At Evelyn’s retirement community, she greeted me wearing a lavender cardigan.
She hugged me before saying anything.
“You look like your mother.”
I almost cried.
Alexander politely stepped back while Evelyn touched my face.
Then she noticed him.
“So this is the husband.”
I stared.
“How do you know?”
“I watch television.”
Alexander offered his hand.
“Alexander Hayes.”
Evelyn ignored the hand and hugged him.
He looked horrified.
I laughed for the first time in twenty-four hours.
“Take care of her,” Evelyn told him.
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
We sat in Evelyn’s small living room.
She listened while I explained Lily.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Daniel had a daughter.”
“Yes.”
“He never told me that part.”
“He was trying to protect her.”
“That sounds like him.”
Evelyn stood slowly.
From a locked cabinet, she removed a red recipe box.
Inside were handwritten cards.
Apple pie.
Chicken soup.
Pot roast.
Then she pulled out a memory card wrapped in wax paper.
“Daniel gave me this.”
Alexander exhaled.
Of course.
Nobody searching for financial evidence would think to examine a grandmother’s recipe box.
“He told me if anyone ever asked about it, I should deny knowing him.”
“Why didn’t you give it to police after he died?”
“Because Daniel told me the police wouldn’t know who to trust yet.”
That answer disturbed me.
“What’s on it?”
“I never looked.”
We took it directly to investigators.
The card contained everything.
Not just financial records.
Video.
Daniel had recorded a meeting with Mason.
The image was grainy.
The audio was clear.
“You don’t understand what you found,” Mason said.
Daniel answered, “I understand enough.”
“You expose this and you destroy more than me.”
“I’m willing to find out.”
“You have a sister.”
My heart stopped.
Mason continued.
“Pretty girl. Sophia, right?”
Daniel’s voice changed.
“You go near my sister and I bury you.”
Mason laughed.
“That Blackwood boy is already doing a fine job keeping everyone away from her.”
The date was six years ago.
Before Daniel died.
Before Lily was born.
Before my engagement to Ethan.
Mason had known my name for six years.
Alexander put his hand on the back of my chair.
Not touching me.
Just there.
Then the recording changed.
Daniel said, “You won’t touch Sophia. You won’t touch Vanessa. You won’t touch my child.”
Mason’s smile disappeared.
“So it’s yours.”
Daniel realized his mistake.
Too late.
The video ended.
Vanessa began sobbing when we showed her.
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“Mason knew Lily was Daniel’s before Daniel died.”
“Yes.”
That meant Lily had not suddenly become valuable when Ethan proposed an adoption.
She had been valuable from birth.
A hidden heir.
A witness to Daniel’s connection with Vanessa.
And potentially the key to a fortune Mason had been stealing from for years.
That evening, Mason called again.
This time, Ethan answered.
“Put Lily on.”
Mason laughed.
“You don’t give orders anymore.”
“I’ll give you anything you want.”
I looked at Ethan.
His voice did not sound like him.
No arrogance.
No threat.
“Money. Property. Whatever.”
“You always think money solves everything.”
“Then tell me what does.”
“Daniel’s second copy.”
Ethan looked at us.
“We have it.”
“I know.”
Ethan’s face changed.
“How?”
“Because Mrs. Parker has a new visitor sitting outside her building right now.”
Alexander was moving before Mason finished speaking.
Police were called.
Evelyn was secured.
The vehicle outside her building drove away before officers arrived.
Mason continued.
“You’re all very predictable.”
“What do you want?”
“Tomorrow morning. The old Bennett hotel on Wabash. Sophia brings the card.”
“No.”
Ethan and Alexander said it simultaneously.
Mason laughed.
“Still competing.”
I took the phone.
“I’ll bring it.”
Alexander looked furious.
Ethan looked worse.
Mason said, “Alone.”
“No.”
“Then you don’t see Lily.”
I closed my eyes.
Daniel’s voice from the recording echoed in my head.
You won’t touch my sister.
He died trying to protect me.
Now his daughter needed someone.
“Fine.”
Alexander shook his head.
Ethan stepped forward.
I raised one hand.
“Fine,” I repeated.
Mason gave instructions.
Then disconnected.
Alexander waited three seconds.
“Absolutely not.”
Ethan agreed.
“For once, Hayes is right.”
I looked at both men.
“I am going.”
“No,” Alexander said.
“I wasn’t asking.”
His jaw tightened.
This was the first real test of our marriage.
Not romance.
Not jealousy.
Choice.
“I know,” he said quietly.
That stopped me.
He came closer.
“I’m not going to lock you in a room or order you to stay.”
Ethan looked at him like he was insane.
Alexander ignored him.
“But if you go, we plan it with the police.”
“Mason said alone.”
“And Mason kidnapped a child. His rules are not sacred.”
I looked at Ethan.
He was struggling visibly.
Part of him wanted to command.
He had commanded me for six years.
Then he did something I never expected.
He asked.
“Please don’t go without protection.”
The word please almost hurt.
I nodded.
“I won’t.”
The next morning, I entered the abandoned Bennett hotel carrying a memory card Mason believed could destroy him.
What he did not know was that the card in my hand was a copy.
What I did not know was that Lily was not inside the building.
Vanessa was.
Bound to a chair.
And when I saw the bruising along her temple, she looked at me through tears and whispered,
“Lily is with Ethan.”
I froze.
“That’s impossible.”
Vanessa shook her head frantically.
“No. Not your Ethan.”
Then I heard a man behind me.
“His father.”
I turned.
A man in his late sixties stepped from the shadows.
A man Chicago believed had died seven years earlier.
May you like
Victor Blackwood smiled at me.
“Hello, Sophia.”
