Part 4: The Secret Ethan Buried
Part 4: The Secret Ethan Buried
I didn’t speak.
For a moment, I couldn’t.
My mind was racing through every possibility.
A business partner.
An enemy.
Someone trying to manipulate me.
Someone trying to save themselves.
But there was something in his voice.
Something I recognized.
Fear.
Not mine.
His.
“Who are you?” I asked again.
The man exhaled slowly.
“My name is Lucas Bennett.”
The name meant nothing to me.
At least not at first.
Then I walked toward Ethan’s office.
The office he never allowed me to enter without a reason.
The office where he kept his locked drawers.
His private files.
His second phone.
The room that always felt like a warning.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I want to tell you the truth.”
I almost laughed.
After everything that happened that morning, the word sounded almost meaningless.
“The truth about what?”
A pause.
“About Ethan.”
I closed my eyes.
“I already know plenty.”
“No.”
His voice became urgent.
“You know what he wanted you to know.”
That sentence stopped me.
Because it was exactly what Ethan did.
He controlled information.
He controlled conversations.
He controlled people.
“What happened that night?” I asked.
Lucas hesitated.
Then he said:
“He wasn’t with another woman.”
I froze.
The answer surprised me.
Not because I cared anymore.
But because I realized something.
Ethan had lied so much that even the truth sounded suspicious.
“Then where was he?”
“He was meeting me.”
“Why?”
Silence.
Then:
“Because I was helping him move the money.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
There it was.
The missing piece.
The thing Ethan never wanted anyone to find.
“Who are you?”
“I worked for Blackwood Holdings.”
“Worked?”
“Yes.”
The bitterness in his voice was obvious.
“Until Ethan decided I knew too much.”
I walked slowly through the hallway.
The house suddenly felt unfamiliar.
Like I was living inside a place built on secrets.
“How much money?”
Lucas answered quietly.
“Over eight million dollars.”
I stopped.
Eight million.
Not a mistake.
Not a bad decision.
A crime.
“How?”
“He created fake investment accounts. Moved funds through shell companies. Used employee identities.”
My chest tightened.
“And you helped him?”
The silence was his answer.
Finally, he said:
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised me.
“Why are you telling me now?”
“Because I realized something.”
“What?”
“He never planned to protect anyone.”
I leaned against the wall.
“What does that mean?”
“He told me everything would disappear. That after the transfer was complete, we would both be safe.”
Lucas laughed bitterly.
“But last night, when I confronted him, he told me I was the only one who would take the fall.”
I remembered Ethan’s face.
The calm.
The confidence.
The way he always believed he was smarter than everyone.
“So you’re protecting yourself.”
“Yes.”
At least he admitted it.
“But I also know something.”
“What?”
“He kept records.”
I frowned.
“Records?”
“Ethan doesn’t trust anyone. Not even people helping him.”
That sounded exactly like him.
“He recorded conversations. Saved documents. Kept copies.”
My mind immediately went back.
The locked drawers.
The hidden files.
The office.
The place I had never been allowed to touch.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You called me but don’t know where?”
“I know he hid them somewhere in the house.”
My heartbeat changed.
Because suddenly the danger felt different.
Ethan was gone.
But his secrets were still here.
“What exactly am I looking for?”
Lucas lowered his voice.
“A black leather journal.”
I remembered it.
Not because I had seen inside.
Because I had seen Ethan holding it.
Always.
Especially during the last few months.
“What’s inside?”
“Everything.”
I walked into Ethan’s office.
The door was slightly open.
I had never noticed that before.
I pushed it.
The room smelled like him.
Leather.
Expensive perfume.
Control.
His desk was perfectly clean.
Almost too clean.
I opened drawers.
Nothing.
I checked shelves.
Nothing.
“Mrs. Blackwood?”
Lucas was still on the phone.
“I’m here.”
“Be careful.”
A strange feeling moved through me.
“Why?”
His answer came immediately.
“Because Ethan knows you’re smarter than he pretended.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“He always talked about you.”
My hand froze.
“What did he say?”
Lucas hesitated.
Then:
“He said the most dangerous thing about you was that you looked harmless.”
A cold feeling moved through me.
I looked around the office.
For years, Ethan underestimated me.
But maybe not completely.
Maybe he knew.
Maybe some part of him always knew.
“You need to find that journal before he gets out.”
I stared at the phone.
“What do you mean?”
Lucas went silent.
“Lucas?”
Then I heard it.
A sound.
Not from the phone.
From downstairs.
The front door.
Opening.
My entire body went still.
“Mrs. Blackwood?”
I didn’t answer.
Because I already knew.
Someone was inside.
Slow footsteps moved through the hallway.
One.
Two.
Three.
Not rushing.
Not hiding.
Walking like they belonged there.
My hand covered the phone.
My voice dropped to a whisper.
“Someone is here.”
Lucas immediately said:
“Leave the room.”
Too late.
The footsteps stopped outside the office.
The doorknob slowly turned.
My breathing stopped.
The door opened.
And the person standing there...
Was the last person I expected.
Not Ethan.
Not the police.
Not Lucas.
It was someone I trusted.
Someone who had sat at my table that morning.
Someone who had watched Ethan get taken away.
Someone who knew exactly what happened.
Margaret.
She looked at me with tears in her eyes.
May you like
And in her hand...
Was Ethan’s black leather journal.
