Chapter 3 - THE DAY ETHAN STOPPED LOOKING
Ethan’s father, Richard Whitmore, arrived at the mansion forty minutes later.
He was sixty-seven, tall, silver-haired, and accustomed to walking into rooms where people stood before he asked them to. He entered the sitting room without knocking, looked at Anna, then at Lily.
His expression did not change.
That disturbed Ethan more than surprise would have.
“Anna,” Richard said. “You should have contacted our attorneys.”
Anna tightened her grip around Lily’s shoulders.
“You knew she was alive?” Ethan asked.
Richard turned toward him.
“Of course. She contacted the company several times over the years.”
Ethan stared at him.
“You told me she vanished.”
“She did.”
“You said nobody knew where she went.”
“We didn’t.”
“You just said she contacted you.”
Richard sighed as though Ethan were deliberately misunderstanding something simple.
“She occasionally sent demands through lawyers. None established a legitimate claim.”
Ethan remembered a different version. Richard had told him Anna stole records, drained a company account, and left the country. He said investigators found evidence she used an alias. He also said Anna sent Ethan a final letter.
Ethan had kept that letter for years.
He could still remember the sentence that ended it.
Please stop looking for me. I never loved you enough to stay.
Anna read the words when he repeated them.
Her face drained of color.
“I never wrote that.”
Richard looked toward the doorway.
“Ethan, this is precisely why I warned you against reopening old matters.”
Ethan took out his phone and called his attorney, David Mercer.
“Come to the house. Bring the file from Anna’s disappearance. Everything.”
Richard’s expression sharpened.
“That file contains private family documents.”
“I know.”
The confrontation ended when Lily began crying. Richard had stepped closer to Anna, and the girl reacted before anyone touched her.
“Don’t let him take Mommy.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Who told you he would?”
Lily pressed her face into Anna’s coat.
Anna said nothing until Richard left.
Then she explained.
Three weeks earlier, someone visited the small apartment where she and Lily lived in Queens. The man claimed he represented the Whitmore family. He offered money if Anna signed a declaration surrendering any claim connected to Michael Bell’s estate.
When she refused, he mentioned Lily’s school.
Her address.
The time she collected groceries.
Anna moved Lily that night.
“Why come here instead of going to the police?” Ethan asked.
“I did go.”
“What happened?”
“The first officer told me to speak to an attorney about the property claim. The threats weren’t specific enough to act on immediately.”
“Then why work as a maid?”
“Your grandfather told me something before he died. He said the original partnership documents were kept in his office because he didn’t trust digital records.”
Ethan felt another memory return.
Walter had never liked Richard managing all the company archives. The two argued often during Walter’s final years. Ethan assumed it was an ordinary conflict between an aging founder and his ambitious son.
Anna watched him.
“I knew the office was being emptied. I applied to the agency because it was the only way I could get inside without Richard knowing.”
“Vanessa recognized you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she expose you immediately?”
Anna looked toward the hallway.
“Because she wanted to know what I came for.”
David arrived just before evening.
He carried the old disappearance file.
Inside was the letter Ethan had kept for six years.
Anna read it once.
Then she pointed to the signature.
“That isn’t mine.”
David examined the page.
“The signature came from a scanned copy of your employment paperwork.”
Ethan looked up sharply.
“How do you know?”
May you like
David swallowed.
“Because I was the attorney who prepared that paperwork.”
