Chapter 7 - Ethan’s ChoiceThe live feed showed Ethan standing in Margaret’s drawing room.
I had spent countless afternoons there during therapy sessions.
I knew the pale carpet.
The antique clock.
The French doors leading to the garden.
Now armed men surrounded it.
Thomas stood near the fireplace with one arm in a sling beneath his jacket.
Caleb stood across from Ethan.
Nobody trusted anyone.
Margaret sat in the center of the room.
Calm.
Her gold crucifix rested against her blouse.
Mercer’s voice came through a speaker in the warehouse.
“Twenty minutes.”
Ethan looked directly at one of the estate cameras.
He knew Mercer could see him.
“If Emily is hurt—”
Mercer laughed beside me.
“Wrong opening.”
Ethan’s expression did not change.
“You are alive only because I have not found you yet.”
“Again.”
Mercer pressed a button.
The feed changed.
Me.
My face.
Bandages.
Rebecca beside me.
Ethan froze.
I had never seen his expression change that quickly.
“Emily.”
I looked toward the camera.
“I’m okay.”
Mercer grabbed my injured shoulder.
Pain exploded.
I screamed.
Ethan moved toward the screen.
“DON’T TOUCH HER!”
Mercer released me.
“Much better.”
Rebecca glared at him.
“You sadistic bastard.”
Mercer ignored her.
Ethan’s breathing was heavy.
I could see him trying to control it.
“Let them go.”
“The necklace.”
Margaret touched the crucifix.
“Ethan.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Give it to him.”
“No.”
“It is a piece of metal.”
“It is Black Harbor.”
“It is my necklace.”
“Mother.”
Margaret stood slowly.
“My son.”
Her voice was firm.
“I am alive because that young woman threw herself in front of bullets meant for me.”
Ethan looked away.
“She has done enough.”
“She’s not dying.”
“Neither are you.”
Margaret smiled sadly.
“You cannot always decide that.”
Caleb looked toward the screen.
For once, there was no sarcasm on his face.
He looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca stared back.
Caleb stopped breathing.
“Aunt Rebecca?”
Her face crumpled.
“Caleb.”
He stepped toward the monitor.
“No.”
Rebecca cried.
“Oh, Caleb.”
“No.”
He looked at Ethan.
“This is fake.”
Mercer laughed.
Rebecca said, “You used to hide behind the pantry door when Patrick was angry.”
Caleb froze.
“You had a red blanket you carried until you were seven.”
His face drained.
“You called me Becca because you couldn’t say Rebecca.”
Caleb’s eyes filled.
“No.”
“Your mother’s name was Marianne.”
His lip trembled.
“She used to sing Blue Moon when you couldn’t sleep.”
Caleb backed away from the screen.
“Stop.”
Rebecca was crying openly now.
“Your father hurt you, Caleb.”
“Stop.”
“He lied to you.”
“STOP!”
Caleb grabbed a glass and hurled it at the wall.
Margaret flinched.
Ethan watched him carefully.
Rebecca continued.
“I did not leave you.”
Caleb’s face collapsed.
“I saw them take you.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel was there.”
“Later.”
“You left with Mercer.”
“Because Patrick gave me to him.”
Caleb shook his head.
“No.”
“Your father sold me.”
Caleb covered his ears.
“No.”
“You know.”
His eyes closed.
A memory was coming back.
I could see it.
Caleb whispered, “Basement.”
Rebecca nodded.
His breathing changed.
“There was blood.”
“Yes.”
“My father said you fell.”
Rebecca cried.
“No.”
“He gave me medicine.”
“Yes.”
“He said Daniel made you betray us.”
“No.”
Caleb opened his eyes.
Rage replaced grief.
Not toward Ethan.
Not toward me.
Toward a dead man.
His father.
Mercer switched the feed off.
“Enough family therapy.”
Caleb shouted toward the camera.
“Turn it back on!”
Mercer smiled.
“I only need one thing from you.”
“What?”
“You possess the third key.”
Caleb froze.
Ethan looked at him.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Margaret whispered, “Patrick.”
Caleb reached under his shirt.
He wore a black metal pendant.
I had noticed it before but never thought about it.
Rebecca stared.
“Patrick’s ring.”
Caleb looked at her.
“It was his.”
Rebecca’s face changed.
“The stone.”
Caleb pulled the pendant closer.
A signet ring had been threaded onto the chain.
Black onyx.
Rebecca whispered, “Daniel used Patrick’s family crest as the third encryption pattern.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“So the ring is the key.”
Caleb laughed once.
Twenty-seven years.
He had carried part of Black Harbor against his own chest while searching for it.
Mercer spoke through the speaker.
“We can make this very simple.”
He looked at Ethan through the camera.
“Margaret’s necklace.”
Then at Caleb.
“Patrick’s ring.”
Then he placed one hand on my shoulder.
“And Daniel’s daughter.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“What does Emily unlock?”
Mercer looked at her.
“The final biometric seal.”
I felt sick.
Ethan stared through the camera.
“If I give you the necklace, you release Emily.”
“No.”
“No?”
“You give me the necklace, I do not shoot Margaret.”
Ethan’s face went cold.
“Caleb gives me the ring, I do not kill Rebecca.”
Caleb went still.
“And Emily?”
Mercer smiled.
“Emily opens the archive.”
“And then?”
Mercer looked at me.
“That depends on what I find.”
Ethan stepped closer to the camera.
“I am coming.”
“No.”
“I’ll bring the necklace.”
Mercer’s eyes narrowed.
“Alone.”
“Yes.”
Margaret shouted, “Ethan!”
He ignored her.
Mercer smiled.
“I knew love would make you stupid eventually.”
Ethan’s expression did not move.
“You confuse love with weakness.”
My heart stopped.
He had said it.
Not directly.
But everyone heard it.
Margaret closed her eyes.
Rebecca looked at me.
Caleb stared at Ethan.
Thomas actually smiled.
I forgot the pain for one second.
Then Mercer ended the call.
I looked at him.
“You think he’ll come alone?”
“No.”
“He won’t.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Mercer walked toward the door.
“Because Ethan believes he can rescue everyone.”
“And?”
“He cannot.”
The door closed.
Rebecca came toward me.
“You love him.”
I laughed weakly.
“This feels like a terrible time.”
“Those are usually the clearest times.”
“I barely know him.”
“You nearly died for his mother.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“Maybe not.”
She sat beside me.
“But you looked at him like someone whose heart already made a decision your mind hasn’t accepted.”
I stared at the dark television.
“He is dangerous.”
“So was your father once.”
“That isn’t comforting.”
“He is also loyal.”
“To his family.”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Emily.”
I said nothing.
“People do not look like that when an employee is kidnapped.”
I closed my eyes.
Ethan was coming.
That terrified me more than Mercer.
Because Mercer wanted leverage.
Ethan would walk into hell willingly.
Sixteen minutes later, alarms sounded.
Mercer’s guards moved through the hallway.
A radio crackled.
“Vehicle approaching.”
One SUV.
Ethan.
Alone.
Mercer returned carrying a pistol.
He untied my wrists.
“Stand.”
I struggled upright.
Rebecca helped me.
Mercer placed the barrel against my ribs.
“Walk.”
We moved through the warehouse toward a loading dock.
The enormous steel door opened.
Rain blew inside.
Ethan’s SUV stopped thirty feet away.
He stepped out.
No jacket.
No visible weapon.
Margaret’s gold necklace hung from his hand.
Mercer smiled.
“Right on time.”
Ethan looked at me.
Nothing else.
“Emily.”
“I’m okay.”
“You look terrible.”
I almost smiled.
“So do you.”
His jaw tightened.
Mercer raised the gun.
“Enough.”
Ethan held up the necklace.
“Release her.”
“Put it down.”
“Release her.”
Mercer fired into the concrete beside Ethan’s foot.
I flinched.
Ethan did not.
“Put. It. Down.”
Ethan placed the necklace on the wet pavement.
Mercer motioned to a guard.
The man retrieved it.
Mercer examined the cross.
Satisfied.
Then gunfire erupted from somewhere above.
Mercer’s guard dropped.
Ethan dove behind the SUV.
Caleb appeared on the catwalk overhead.
“You forgot my ring!”
He fired twice.
Mercer dragged me backward.
Rebecca screamed.
Thomas’s men crashed through a side entrance.
Chaos exploded.
Ethan shot one guard.
Caleb shot another.
Rebecca grabbed my arm.
“Move!”
We ran.
Or tried.
My body failed.
I collapsed.
Mercer caught me first.
He dragged me against his chest, gun pressed beneath my jaw.
“STOP!”
Everything froze.
Ethan emerged from behind the SUV.
Caleb stood on the catwalk.
Thomas appeared near the side door.
Mercer tightened his arm around me.
“One more step and she dies.”
Ethan lowered his gun.
“Let her go.”
“You first.”
He dropped the weapon.
Caleb shouted.
“Ethan, don’t!”
“Shut up.”
Mercer laughed.
“You really do love her.”
Ethan looked at me.
No denial.
Nothing.
Just that terrifyingly calm stare.
Mercer backed toward a waiting van.
Then Rebecca stepped into the open.
“Vincent.”
Mercer looked at her.
She held Patrick Doyle’s ring.
Caleb froze.
“Aunt Rebecca?”
She must have taken it from Caleb during the chaos.
Mercer’s eyes locked onto it.
Rebecca smiled.
“You want Black Harbor?”
“Yes.”
“Then take me.”
“No.”
“Emily doesn’t know how it works.”
“She is the biometric key.”
“I designed the biometric key.”
Mercer froze.
My mother’s voice became cold.
“You think Daniel created Black Harbor alone?”
Mercer stared at her.
Rebecca held up the ring.
“I wrote the encryption.”
That changed everything.
Mercer shifted the gun away from me.
Only slightly.
Enough.
Ethan moved.
A single shot.
Mercer screamed.
Blood exploded from his shoulder.
I dropped.
Ethan reached me before I hit the ground.
Then more gunfire erupted.
Mercer escaped into the van.
The vehicle tore away into the rain.
Thomas’s men pursued.
Caleb ran toward Rebecca.
She stared at him.
Twenty-two years separated them.
Then Caleb stopped three feet away.
His face crumpled.
“I’m sorry.”
Rebecca reached for him.
He collapsed into her arms.
I had never seen a man cry that way.
Not quietly.
Not proudly.
He held onto the aunt he thought had abandoned him and sobbed like the nine-year-old boy who had watched her disappear.
Ethan lifted me into his arms.
“You came alone,” I whispered.
“No.”
I looked around.
Thomas.
Caleb.
Security.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
I smiled.
“Good.”
He carried me toward the SUV.
Then Thomas shouted.
“Ethan!”
We turned.
He was staring at the recovered necklace.
The crucifix had opened.
Inside was a tiny metal chip.
Black Harbor’s second key.
But Thomas’s expression was not relief.
It was horror.
“What?” Ethan asked.
Thomas held up the chip.
“There’s a transmission beacon inside.”
Caleb went pale.
Rebecca whispered, “No.”
Ethan tightened his arms around me.
Thomas looked toward the road Mercer had taken.
“Mercer didn’t need to keep the necklace.”
“He scanned it,” Rebecca said.
Thomas nodded.
“Which means he has two keys now.”
Ethan looked at Caleb’s empty chain.
The ring.
Mercer had the digital copy of Margaret’s key.
And during the struggle, Rebecca had dropped Patrick’s ring.
It was gone.
Mercer had it too.
My mother looked at me.
“The only thing he still needs…”
Everyone turned toward me.
My blood.
My face.
My biometric seal.
Somewhere in the distance, an engine roared away into darkness.
And I realized Mercer had never come to the warehouse expecting to win the gunfight.
May you like
He had already taken exactly what he needed.
Everything except me.
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