Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO LOST EVERYTHING
Three weeks after the custody hearing, Ethan Carter's carefully constructed life began to collapse.
The investigation into the Carter-Wells Foundation uncovered more than anyone expected.
The money transferred to Whitmore Strategic Holdings had not been used for charity.
It had been moved through shell companies.
Some of it had gone to corrupt contractors.
Some had been used to purchase property.
And some had disappeared entirely.
The worst discovery came when investigators found a second account.
An account Ethan had opened under a false name.
The money inside it had been transferred from the foundation.
My foundation.
The one my mother had built.
The one Ethan had tried to control.
Rebecca called me early one morning.
“They found something.”
I sat at the kitchen table in my temporary apartment.
“What?”
“Your husband has been paying someone.”
“Who?”
She paused.
“Martin Carter.”
I nearly dropped my coffee.
“That’s impossible.”
“Martin is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then someone has been receiving money under his name.”
I felt cold.
“Who?”
“We don't know yet.”
My father was standing by the window.
He turned when he saw my face.
“What happened?”
I covered the phone.
“They found payments to Martin.”
Dad went completely still.
Rebecca continued.
“The account was opened six months after Martin supposedly died.”
My father closed his eyes.
“That means…”
“Someone has been pretending to be dead.”
The room became silent.
I thought of the photograph.
Martin standing beside my mother.
Ethan standing beside Martin.
The bridge.
The gunshot.
The poison.
The body found near the river.
What if the body had not been Martin?
What if someone had wanted us to believe he was dead?
That afternoon, Rebecca sent me the DNA results.
The body found near the river was not Martin Carter.
It was an unidentified man.
The watch had belonged to Martin.
But the body did not.
I stared at the report.
My father sat beside me.
“I should have known.”
“You did what you thought was right.”
“No.”
His voice was bitter.
“I was afraid.”
I looked at him.
“Of what?”
“The Carter family.”
I had never heard my father say those words before.
He had been a police officer for thirty years.
He had faced criminals.
Gang members.
Corrupt politicians.
But he had been afraid of Ethan's family.
“Why?”
“Because they owned half the city.”
He looked at me.
“And because I knew your mother was still alive after the shooting.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
Dad's eyes filled with pain.
“She survived the gunshot.”
“I know.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You don't understand.”
“What don't I understand?”
“Your mother didn't die three weeks later.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“She disappeared.”
The room went silent.
I could barely breathe.
“What do you mean?”
“She vanished from the hospital.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed someone was coming to finish the job.”
“Who?”
Dad looked at me.
“Your mother believed it was Ethan.”
My hands began to shake.
“Then where did she go?”
“I don't know.”
I stood.
“You knew she was alive and you never told me?”
“I thought she was dead.”
“But you just said—”
“She called me once.”
“When?”
“Two days before the hospital records showed her death.”
I stared at him.
“What did she say?”
Dad looked toward the window.
“She said, ‘Daniel, if Amelia ever finds out the truth, tell her I loved her.’”
My heart broke.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because the call came from a number that didn't exist.”
I sat down.
For twenty years, I had believed my mother was dead.
Now I was learning that she might have survived.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
No one spoke.
Then I heard breathing.
“Hello?”
A woman's voice whispered:
“Amelia?”
My entire body froze.
I knew that voice.
I had not heard it in twenty years.
But I knew it.
The voice had lived inside my memories.
The voice that had sung me to sleep.
The voice that had called me “my little girl.”
I stood slowly.
“Who is this?”
The woman began to cry.
Then she whispered:
May you like
“It's Mom.”
The phone slipped from my hand.
