Chapter 5 - The Cleaning Job Was Never an Accident
Sarah confronted Nancy privately.
The older woman did not deny it.
“I know your mother,” Nancy said.
Sarah stared.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“What does she have to do with Claire Whitmore?”
Nancy sighed.
“She worked here eighteen years ago.”
Sarah took a step back.
“That isn't possible.”
“You were a child.”
“You knew me?”
“I knew your family.”
Sarah's heart raced.
“My mother told me this estate was dangerous.”
“It was.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Claire asked me not to.”
Sarah stared.
“What?”
Nancy opened a drawer.
Inside was an old envelope.
Sarah's mother's name was written across it.
SUSAN MILLER.
Sarah's hands trembled.
“My mother died six years ago.”
“I know.”
“She never told me about Claire.”
“She was protecting you.”
“From what?”
Nancy whispered:
“From the same people who are trying to destroy Ethan.”
Sarah opened the letter.
Her mother's handwriting filled the page.
Sarah,
If you ever find yourself back at the Whitmore house, leave immediately.
Don't trust the people who tell you wealth makes people powerful.
The most dangerous people here are the ones who never need to raise their voices.
Sarah's eyes filled with tears.
There was one final sentence.
Claire is not the only woman they tried to silence.
Sarah looked up.
“What happened to my mother?”
Nancy hesitated.
“She discovered financial fraud.”
“And?”
“She was threatened.”
“By who?”
Nancy looked toward the door.
“Daniel.”
Sarah felt the room spin.
“Daniel Whitmore threatened my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother found evidence that he was stealing from the foundation.”
Sarah remembered her mother's strange fear.
The locked filing cabinet.
The old stories about rich people.
For years Sarah had thought her mother had simply been paranoid.
Now she understood.
Someone had been hunting truths for decades.
And Sarah had walked directly into the middle of it.
Meanwhile, Ethan went to confront Daniel.
The meeting took place in an abandoned restaurant.
Daniel sat at a corner table.
“You look terrible.”
Ethan sat across from him.
“You look alive.”
Daniel laughed.
“I always knew you were dramatic.”
“Did you kill Claire?”
Daniel stopped smiling.
“No.”
“Did you help someone try?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“Because Claire was destroying everything.”
“What everything?”
“Our father’s legacy.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“Our father built the company.”
“He built the public company.”
Daniel smiled.
“There was another operation.”
Ethan's expression changed.
“What operation?”
“Political influence.”
“Money laundering.”
“Control.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“You think this was about stealing?”
“No.”
“It was about ownership.”
Daniel pulled out a photograph.
A man stood beside Claire.
Ethan recognized him.
“It can't be.”
Sarah's mother stood next to them.
And another man stood behind them.
The man who had attended Ethan's wedding.
The man who had comforted him after Claire's death.
The man who had been advising Whitmore Holdings for years.
Jonathan Hale.
Ethan's chief financial officer.
His oldest friend.
Daniel whispered:
“He runs everything.”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
“Why tell me?”
“Because he wants me dead too.”
Ethan didn't believe him.
Not completely.
But he took the photograph.
Then Daniel said:
“And there's something else.”
“What?”
“Your wife didn't die in the crash.”
May you like
Ethan froze.
“I saw her afterward.”
