Chapter 5 - THE ESCAPE
Ethan hit the accelerator.
The Range Rover shot backward.
The man jumped aside.
Ethan spun the wheel and smashed through the wooden side gate leading toward the old service road.
Sophie screamed once.
Then Ethan heard her whispering to herself.
“You’re okay.”
“You’re okay.”
The words broke his heart.
They were the same words Claire used to say when Sophie was afraid of thunderstorms.
Two SUVs followed them down the narrow road.
Ethan called Daniel again.
“I need somewhere safe.”
Daniel gave him an address in Stamford.
“Old medical office.”
“No cameras.”
“No staff.”
“Get there.”
Celeste kept looking behind them.
“They’re getting closer.”
Ethan turned toward the wooded road bordering the estate.
He knew every curve.
Richard’s men did not.
At the second intersection, Ethan took the old bridge road.
One SUV missed the turn.
The other stayed close.
Sophie was silent now.
Too silent.
Ethan glanced back.
She was watching Celeste.
Not fearfully.
Carefully.
“Sophie?”
She looked at him.
“What is it?”
Sophie pointed at Celeste.
“She knows the lake.”
Celeste froze.
Ethan’s hands tightened around the wheel.
“What does she mean?”
Celeste looked away.
“Sophie heard Richard and me talking.”
“About what?”
“The lake house.”
Claire’s message immediately returned to Ethan.
Do not let Richard near the lake property.
“Why were you talking about it?”
Celeste began crying quietly.
“Because Richard told me Claire hid documents there.”
“And you believed him?”
“I believed a lot of things.”
Ethan turned sharply onto another road.
The pursuing SUV overshot the corner.
They gained distance.
Celeste spoke again.
“When Richard and I started seeing each other, he told me you had hidden millions from Claire before she died.”
Ethan felt disgust more than surprise.
“You were sleeping with my closest friend in my house, and somehow I was the villain?”
“I know what I did.”
“No.”
“You know you were caught.”
Celeste flinched.
Sophie suddenly leaned forward.
“Daddy.”
“What, sweetheart?”
“Richard was at our house when Mommy got sick.”
Ethan’s heart seemed to stop.
“What?”
“She told me.”
“When?”
“Before Celeste came.”
Ethan almost lost control of the vehicle.
Claire had died after collapsing alone at their lake house.
At least that was what the official report had said.
Ethan had arrived afterward.
Richard had claimed he was in Boston that night.
Sophie continued.
“Mommy said if Uncle Richard ever came back, I should hide the picture.”
Ethan looked straight ahead.
May you like
The story he had believed for six years was beginning to fracture.
And somewhere inside that fracture was the truth about Claire’s death.
