Chapter 7 - The Woman Derek Was Ordered to Kill
Lily was shaken but alive.
She told us Henry had asked her questions.
About me.
About Ethan.
About the wedding.
But there was one detail that mattered.
“He kept asking about your mother.”
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He said she had something he needed.”
We found my mother in the library.
She looked frightened.
“I knew this day would come.”
“You knew Henry wanted you.”
“Yes.”
“What do you have?”
She removed a key from around her neck.
“My father gave this to me.”
“Your father?”
Ethan stared.
She nodded.
“Henry's father.”
I frowned.
“He had another son?”
“No.”
“He had a daughter.”
Silence.
“Me.”
The room seemed to change.
My mother was Henry's half-sister.
She had spent years trying to bring him down.
She had married my father because he was the only person willing to help.
And the key opened a private vault beneath an old church.
Inside was the original ledger.
Not financial records.
Names.
Every person connected to Henry.
Judges.
Police chiefs.
Port officials.
Billionaires.
Politicians.
And one name made Ethan go pale.
His father.
At the bottom of the page was another.
Ethan Carter.
My heart stopped.
“What does this mean?”
My father spoke.
“It means Ethan was marked from the beginning.”
“For what?”
“Replacement.”
Henry had planned to kill Ethan's father and put Ethan in charge.
Then he would control Ethan.
But Ethan had rebelled.
That was why Henry wanted him dead.
“He needs Ethan removed before the network collapses,” my mother said.
I looked at Ethan.
“What happens if Henry gets the ledger?”
“He controls everyone.”
“And if we release it?”
“The city explodes.”
“Then we release it.”
Ethan looked at me.
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“My wife.”
It sounded different now.
Not possession.
Pride.
That night, we took the ledger to a federal investigator my father trusted.
The handoff was supposed to be safe.
It wasn't.
The investigator was dead before we arrived.
The room had been emptied.
The ledger was gone.
And Derek was waiting.
He looked exhausted.
He put down his weapon.
“I'm done.”
Ethan aimed at him.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because Henry is going to kill me too.”
“Where is the ledger?”
Derek shook his head.
“Not with Henry.”
“Who has it?”
“Your mother.”
I looked at my mother.
She went pale.
“No.”
Derek smiled bitterly.
“She gave it to me years ago.”
My mother stepped forward.
“That's impossible.”
“You don't remember?”
Derek opened his jacket.
Inside was a photograph.
My mother.
Derek.
A baby.
Me.
Taken when I was six.
My mother had not been trying to abandon me.
She had been trying to hide me.
Derek had been assigned to protect us.
Then Henry discovered him.
He disappeared into the organization.
He became Ethan's right-hand man.
All those years, he had been playing both sides.
“But you tried to kill me,” I said.
“I was ordered to.”
“You left the bird.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To warn you.”
I stared.
“The bird wasn't a threat?”
“No.”
“It was a warning that Henry had marked you.”
Ethan lowered his gun.
“You could have told me.”
“Then Henry would have killed us all.”
Derek looked at me.
“I've been waiting seventeen years for your mother to come back.”
My mother cried.
I stepped toward him.
“Where is the ledger?”
He smiled.
“You have it.”
I frowned.
“What?”
He pointed at my wedding ring.
I froze.
Ethan removed it carefully.
A tiny compartment opened inside the ring.
A memory chip.
My father's voice played.
“If you're hearing this, Henry has failed.”
I covered my mouth.
“Dad?”
The recording continued.
“Jane, I left the evidence in the one place Henry would never search.”
The ring.
“The truth is yours now.”
Then the recording said one final thing.
“Do not trust Brian.”
Silence.
Ethan turned.
May you like
Brian stood in the doorway.
Gun raised.
