Chapter 7 - THE COUSIN WHO DISAPPEARED
Derek was gone.
His phone was still in the house.
His car was still parked outside.
His coat was hanging in the hallway.
He had simply disappeared.
Ethan looked at Brian.
“Lock everything down.”
Brian nodded.
I watched Ethan's face.
He looked betrayed.
Not angry.
Betrayed.
“Derek knew?”
Brian said nothing.
Ethan turned toward him.
“Did he?”
Brian answered carefully.
“His father was one of the three.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“No.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
Brian sighed.
“Derek knew some of it.”
“How much?”
“Enough to be dangerous.”
I remembered Derek standing in the hidden room.
His warning.
His photograph.
His claim that he came to protect me.
Maybe he had been telling the truth.
Or maybe he had been manipulating me.
I looked at Eleanor.
“Where would he go?”
She shook her head.
“Derek always goes where he thinks the truth can't follow.”
I remembered the Bluebird Hotel.
Then another place came to mind.
The Carter family lake house.
Ethan's childhood home.
We drove there.
The house stood near Lake Michigan.
Old.
Quiet.
Abandoned for years.
Inside, everything smelled like dust.
Ethan walked through the rooms slowly.
“My father kept records here.”
“Where?”
“Study.”
We entered.
There was a large painting over the fireplace.
Ethan moved it.
A safe appeared.
The combination was his birthday.
Inside were files.
Bank statements.
Photographs.
Letters.
And one envelope addressed to Ethan.
He opened it.
His father's handwriting appeared.
My son,
If you're reading this, then I failed to keep you outside this world.
Ethan stopped.
I touched his arm.
He continued.
There are three people who know how this operation began.
One of them is your father.
One is Jane's father.
The third is the person you trust most.
Ethan looked up.
Brian stood behind us.
The letter continued.
But the third person did not start the operation. He inherited it.
Ethan stared at the page.
“Inherited it.”
I understood.
The Broker wasn't simply a group.
It was a position.
A role passed between people.
Then another photograph fell from the envelope.
It showed Derek's father.
My father.
Ethan's father.
And a fourth person.
My mother.
But my mother wasn't standing with them.
She was pointing a gun at them.
On the back:
SHE FOUND OUT FIRST.
I looked at Ethan.
“She tried to stop them.”
“Yes.”
“Then why was she killed?”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
“She wasn't.”
I froze.
“What?”
“My father didn't kill your mother.”
“Derek said he did.”
“He was wrong.”
“How do you know?”
Ethan pulled another document from the safe.
A police report.
My mother's car had been tampered with.
Brake failure.
But the report had been altered.
The original investigator had written:
Possible sabotage.
The final report said:
Mechanical failure.
I stared at the signature.
Detective Marcus Reed.
My stomach dropped.
“Reed changed it.”
Brian nodded.
“He was young.”
“That doesn't excuse it.”
“No.”
“Why would he protect The Broker?”
“Because The Broker had his family.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“His brother was in prison.”
Brian explained that The Broker threatened to kill Reed's family if he exposed the network.
Reed became compromised.
Not innocent.
But not the mastermind either.
Then we found the real revelation.
A letter from my mother.
It was addressed to me.
She had written it the week before she died.
Jane,
I don't know if you'll ever read this.
If you do, remember one thing.
Your father loves you.
I stopped.
That wasn't what I expected.
She continued.
But love doesn't make people incapable of terrible choices.
My father's involvement had been deeper than I knew.
He had helped create the shipping network.
He had made compromises.
He had eventually tried to leave.
But he wasn't innocent.
Neither was Ethan's father.
Neither was Brian.
Neither was Reed.
They were all part of a system that had become bigger than any one man.
Then came the line that changed everything.
The person who betrayed me was not a Carter or a Miller.
I looked at Ethan.
The next sentence:
It was someone who called herself my friend.
A name was missing.
The paper had been torn.
I stared at the empty space.
“Who?”
Ethan didn't know.
Brian didn't know.
Eleanor looked at the letter.
Then she whispered,
“I know.”
Everyone turned.
“Who?”
She looked at me.
“Your mother's closest friend.”
“Who was she?”
Eleanor swallowed.
“Lily.”
My heart stopped.
“Lily?”
“My best friend?”
“Yes.”
“That isn't possible.”
“She worked for The Broker.”
I remembered Lily sitting beside me at the wedding.
Lily holding my hand.
Lily telling me to leave Ethan.
Lily asking questions about his business.
Lily knowing when I was at the gallery.
The car photographs.
The security changes.
The timing.
I felt sick.
“She was the one who told me to trust no one.”
Ethan looked at me.
“Did you tell her about the locket?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Then my phone buzzed.
A message.
No number.
Just a photograph.
Lily was standing outside the Carter lake house.
Behind her was Derek.
Both were alive.
Under the photograph were six words.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT ANSWERS.
Ethan took my phone.
“No.”
I grabbed it back.
“Derek might know where my aunt is.”
“It's a trap.”
“Probably.”
“You're not going.”
I looked at him.
“I spent my whole life being protected by secrets.”
“Jane.”
“No.”
I held his gaze.
“If Lily knows the truth about my mother, I'm going.”
Ethan stared at me.
Then he said something I had never heard from him before.
“I won't let you go alone.”
I almost smiled.
“You can't stop me.”
“I know.”
He picked up his coat.
“So I'm coming with you.”
May you like
And for the first time, we weren't walking toward danger as husband and wife because of a contract.
We were walking toward it because we had finally chosen each other.
