Chapter 5 - THE EMPIRE BENEATH THE SURFACE
Sunday morning brought a different kind of light to Lake Geneva.
The resort suite was filled with the sound of cartoons and the smell of pancakes.
Liam was reading a book about architecture,
Noah was trying to jump from one sofa to another,
and Caleb was drawing a picture of the "big house."
I sat at the window,
watching the gates of the Montgomery estate.
At exactly 10:00 AM,
a single car pulled up to the resort entrance.
It wasn't a limousine.
It wasn't an armored SUV.
It was Ethan’s personal vintage Porsche,
the only thing he truly owned that his mother hadn't bought for him.
He stepped out,
wearing jeans and a simple sweater.
He looked exhausted,
but he also looked more present than I had seen him in years.
Maya let him in.
He stopped at the threshold of the living room,
frozen by the sight of the three boys.
Liam looked up from his book.
"Are you back to make her cry again?"
Ethan shook his head,
his throat working as he tried to swallow the emotion.
"No, Liam."
"I’m here to say I’m sorry."
"I’m here to be...
whatever you let me be."
Noah stopped jumping and looked at him.
"Can you play dinosaurs?"
Ethan blinked,
a tear finally escaping and rolling down his cheek.
"I think I can learn."
I stood up and walked to him.
"The firm is in shambles, Ethan."
"The Hastings have pulled every contract."
"The board is calling for Eleanor’s arrest."
Ethan nodded.
"I know."
"I spent the night with the lawyers."
"I’m not fighting it, Ava."
"She needs to answer for what she did."
"And the company?"
"It’s yours,"
he said softly.
"You held the debt."
"You’re the one who actually knows how to build something."
"I just want to know my sons."
I looked at the boys,
then back at the man who had once been my husband.
The anger was still there,
but it was being crowded out by a strange sense of responsibility.
"They deserve the truth, Ethan."
"They deserve to know who their father is."
"But I won't let you hurt them."
"One mistake,"
"one lie,"
"one mention of Eleanor’s 'legacy',"
"and you’ll never see them again."
Ethan reached out,
his fingers brushing mine for a split second before he pulled back.
"I promise."
For the next three hours,
I watched.
I watched Ethan sit on the floor and learn the names of the different T-Rexes.
I watched him listen to Caleb explain his drawing.
I watched him try to answer Liam’s questions about why the sky was blue.
He was a natural,
hidden beneath years of Montgomery conditioning.
But then,
Maya’s phone rang.
"Ava,"
she said,
her face pale.
"It’s the estate."
"There’s a fire."
I looked out the window.
A column of black smoke was rising from the center of the Montgomery mansion.
Eleanor’s final act of control.
May you like
She wasn't going to let me have it.
She was burning the legacy to the ground.
