Chapter 6 - MARGARET’S LETTER
Ethan read the sentence again.
Richard stood perfectly still.
Sophia remained near the doorway.
Even she looked surprised.
Natalie moved closer to her brother.
“Read the rest.”
Ethan hesitated.
Richard’s voice was quiet.
“Read it.”
Ethan unfolded the page completely.
The paper was yellowed.
Margaret’s handwriting covered both sides.
Ethan began.
“My darling Ethan.”
“If you are reading this, then something I prayed would remain buried has returned.”
Richard closed his eyes.
Ethan continued.
“Your father does not know the full truth about Victor Kline.”
Sophia’s breathing changed.
“Keep reading.”
Ethan ignored her.
“Richard believes Thomas became a witness only after discovering Victor’s fraud.”
“That is not true.”
Richard slowly sat down.
Natalie whispered.
“Dad?”
He raised a hand.
Ethan read on.
“Thomas was involved from the beginning.”
“Not as deeply as Victor.”
“But deeply enough.”
Sophia’s face tightened.
Ethan continued.
“Thomas helped create the offshore accounts.”
“He told me he believed the transactions were legal until he discovered Victor was using false client approvals.”
“By then Thomas had already signed documents that could send him to prison.”
Richard looked toward the floor.
This part matched what he knew.
Then Ethan reached the next paragraph.
His voice became quieter.
“When Thomas decided to cooperate, Victor threatened him.”
“Thomas came to me because he did not trust Richard to remain calm.”
Richard gave a painful laugh.
Margaret had known him well.
Ethan continued.
“I helped Thomas copy the records.”
“I also helped him enter Victor’s office after hours.”
Sophia’s eyes widened.
Richard looked up.
“What?”
Ethan read.
“That is where we found the original authorization.”
“The document contained Victor’s signature.”
“It also contained mine.”
Richard’s hands tightened.
Ethan paused.
Sophia stepped forward.
“So she admitted it.”
Ethan looked at her.
“No.”
Then he continued.
“I did not sign that document.”
Sophia’s expression hardened.
Ethan read.
“I swear to you, Ethan, I did not sign it.”
“My signature was copied from a trust amendment I had signed six months earlier.”
Richard covered his mouth.
Ethan continued.
“Thomas believed Mason Vale forged it.”
Everyone looked toward Sophia.
She said nothing.
“Mason had access to Victor’s books.”
“He also had access to our family financial records because Whitmore Holdings used his accounting firm for two subsidiary audits.”
Richard whispered.
“I forgot that.”
Ethan looked at him.
Richard was staring into the past.
Ethan kept reading.
“Thomas wanted to expose Mason immediately.”
“But I stopped him.”
Richard’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
Ethan read the answer.
“Because Thomas had discovered something worse.”
“There was another account.”
“An account Victor did not know existed.”
Sophia stepped closer.
“The forty-eight million.”
Ethan looked at her.
Then back at the letter.
“Nearly forty-eight million dollars had been moved through Victor’s network and transferred to a numbered account.”
“Thomas believed Mason created the account.”
Richard stood abruptly.
“Mason stole it.”
Ethan continued.
“Victor was guilty of many things.”
“But Thomas believed the largest theft was not his.”
Sophia’s expression changed.
For years she had believed her father was completely innocent.
Margaret’s letter said otherwise.
Victor had been guilty.
Just perhaps not guilty of everything.
Ethan read.
“I made Thomas promise not to tell Richard until we could prove it.”
“I was afraid Richard would confront Victor.”
“I was afraid someone would be hurt.”
Richard whispered.
“She was right.”
The next paragraph was harder.
Ethan stared at it for several seconds.
“What?”
Natalie asked.
Ethan read slowly.
“Three nights later, Victor Kline was arrested.”
“The account vanished.”
“Thomas believed Mason moved the money.”
“Then Mason disappeared.”
Sophia frowned.
“That isn’t true.”
Everyone looked at her.
She realized what she had said.
Ethan stared.
“You know when Mason disappeared?”
Sophia said nothing.
Richard stepped forward.
“When?”
She crossed her arms.
“I heard stories.”
“From whom?”
“My father.”
“Victor was already in custody.”
“He could make telephone calls.”
“To you?”
Sophia hesitated.
“Yes.”
Richard looked at her.
“What did he say?”
“Nothing that matters.”
Ethan lowered the letter.
“It matters now.”
Sophia looked at him.
“My father said Mason visited him two days before the arrest.”
Richard stared.
“Why?”
“He wanted Victor to sign something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
Richard moved toward her.
“Victor told you something.”
Sophia’s eyes filled with anger.
“He told me Mason was more dangerous than any of you understood.”
Silence.
Richard looked at Margaret’s letter.
Ethan continued reading.
“Thomas disappeared to Lake Vernon.”
“I visited him twice.”
Richard looked shocked.
“You visited him?”
Ethan stopped.
The sentence was Margaret’s.
But Richard responded as if she were standing before him.
Ethan continued.
“I did not tell Richard.”
“Thomas had become convinced Mason was watching us.”
“During my second visit, Thomas gave me a bank key.”
Richard looked toward the cedar desk.
Ethan continued.
“He said the key opened a private box containing proof of the second account.”
Sophia moved closer.
Ethan read.
“I hid the key where no one would search.”
“Inside the blue music box Richard gave Natalie when she was born.”
Natalie’s mouth fell open.
“My music box?”
Richard turned toward her.
“Where is it?”
Natalie stared.
“I don’t know.”
Richard looked horrified.
“You took it when you moved out.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Dad, I left half my childhood things here.”
Richard was already walking.
They went upstairs to the attic storage room.
Dust-covered boxes lined the walls.
Natalie found three boxes marked NATALIE — CHILDHOOD.
They searched.
Old dolls.
School awards.
Photographs.
A ballet costume.
No music box.
Sophia stood near the stairs.
Ethan watched her.
“Have you ever been up here?”
She looked insulted.
“Of course.”
“When?”
“When we decorated for Christmas.”
“Did you ever see the music box?”
“No.”
Richard searched another container.
Nothing.
Natalie suddenly froze.
“I remember.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What?”
“The blue music box was in my old bedroom until two years ago.”
Richard frowned.
“What happened to it?”
“I gave it to Lily.”
Ethan looked confused.
“Your daughter?”
Natalie nodded.
Lily was twenty-one and attending university in Boston.
Natalie grabbed her phone.
She called.
No answer.
Again.
Voicemail.
Natalie frowned.
“She usually answers me.”
Ethan’s phone buzzed.
Another unknown message.
A photograph appeared.
The image showed a blue music box.
Sitting on a wooden table.
Beside it was today’s newspaper.
Natalie whispered.
“No.”
A message followed.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE PAST ALONE.
Richard’s face hardened.
Then another photograph arrived.
This one showed Lily.
She was sitting in what looked like a hotel room.
Her eyes were frightened.
She was not visibly injured.
A man’s hand rested on the back of the chair beside her.
Natalie screamed her daughter’s name.
Richard grabbed the phone.
A third message arrived.
BRING SOPHIA.
COME ALONE.
MIDNIGHT.
LAKE VERNON.
Ethan stared at his wife.
Sophia went pale.
Richard looked at her.
“Mason wants you.”
Sophia backed away.
“No.”
Ethan’s voice became cold.
“You worked with him.”
“That doesn’t mean I trust him.”
Natalie grabbed Sophia’s arm.
“My daughter is with him!”
“I didn’t know.”
“You brought this into our family!”
Sophia pulled away.
“I didn’t know he would take Lily.”
Natalie’s eyes widened.
“You admit you were working with him?”
Sophia realized what she had said.
Too late again.
Ethan stared.
“Tell us everything.”
Sophia shook her head.
“If Mason knows I told you anything—”
Richard interrupted.
“He already believes you failed.”
She looked at him.
Richard held up the phone.
“He wants you brought to him.”
Sophia’s confidence disappeared.
Richard stepped closer.
“You were never his partner.”
Sophia swallowed.
“He was using you.”
“No.”
“He used your anger at me.”
“No.”
“He used your father.”
“Stop.”
“He used Ethan.”
“Stop.”
“And now he is using Lily.”
Sophia slapped Richard.
The room went silent.
Richard’s head barely moved.
Sophia froze.
Ethan stared at her.
Richard looked back slowly.
Unlike Ethan’s earlier slap, this one did not surprise him.
Richard simply said.
“You truly have learned nothing.”
Sophia’s eyes filled with tears.
Richard walked away.
Natalie called the police officer downstairs.
Ethan remained facing Sophia.
“Was any of our marriage real?”
She looked at him.
The question seemed to hurt her more than every accusation.
“Yes.”
Ethan waited.
Sophia whispered.
“That was the problem.”
“What does that mean?”
She looked toward the photograph of Lily.
“I was supposed to marry you.”
Ethan’s face changed.
Sophia continued.
“I was supposed to get close to Richard.”
“Supposed to?”
“Yes.”
“According to who?”
She closed her eyes.
“Mason.”
Ethan felt as though the floor disappeared.
“How long?”
Sophia opened her eyes.
“Before I ever met you.”
Ethan stepped backward.
“No.”
“We met by accident.”
“No.”
“The charity auction…”
Ethan remembered.
Eight years earlier.
Sophia spilling champagne near him.
Her laughter.
Their first conversation.
Their first date.
She shook her head.
“It wasn’t an accident.”
Ethan looked physically sick.
Richard had stopped in the doorway.
He heard everything.
Ethan whispered.
“You targeted me.”
Sophia nodded.
“At first.”
“At first?”
“I didn’t expect to love you.”
Ethan laughed brokenly.
“You framed my father to make me destroy him.”
“I was trying to finish something that started before us.”
“There is no before us anymore.”
Sophia started crying.
These tears seemed real.
Ethan did not move.
“What did Mason want?”
“The trust.”
“Why?”
“The forty-eight million is tied to Whitmore assets.”
Richard stepped into the room.
“How?”
Sophia looked at him.
“Mason believes Thomas hid the account behind one of your dormant companies.”
Richard stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“He thinks Margaret moved it.”
Richard’s expression changed.
Sophia continued.
“He believes she took control of the stolen money after Thomas disappeared.”
“No.”
“He believes you inherited access after she died.”
“I didn’t.”
“Mason doesn’t believe you.”
Richard looked toward Margaret’s letter.
“And the music-box key?”
Sophia nodded slowly.
“Opens the only box that can prove where the money went.”
Natalie grabbed her coat.
“Then we go to Lake Vernon.”
Richard stopped her.
“No.”
“That’s my daughter.”
“And Mason knows that.”
“I am not staying here.”
Richard looked toward Ethan.
Then Sophia.
Then the photograph of Lily.
Midnight was three hours away.
But Richard understood something Mason had overlooked.
Lake Vernon had once belonged to Thomas.
And fourteen years earlier, Richard had installed something beneath the old cabin that Mason could not possibly know about.
A second security room.
With an independent telephone line.
Richard looked toward Ethan.
“We are going to the lake.”
Sophia stared.
“You’ll get Lily killed.”
Richard shook his head.
“No.”
May you like
He looked at his daughter.
“We’re going to find out whether Mason Vale is the only ghost waiting for us there.”
