Chapter 6 - The Woman Before the Engagement
Ethan did not go alone.
He told the investigator about Charles’s call, then agreed to meet his father in a public area while officers remained nearby. Mara waited in a café across the street with June and Ruth.
The old station had been converted into a Christmas exhibition. Model trains circled miniature villages beneath artificial snow. Ethan remembered visiting it with his mother when he was small.
Charles stood beside the largest display.
“You always loved the trains,” he said.
“Why did Vanessa know Mom?”
Charles looked older than he had a week earlier.
“Vanessa’s mother worked for the foundation.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“She was Evelyn’s assistant.”
Ethan stared.
Vanessa had told him her mother was a nurse.
Charles admitted that Vanessa had grown up around the family. She knew Evelyn’s habits, the location of her papers, and the existence of a daughter Charles had tried to keep secret.
“Why introduce her to me?”
“Because she could manage the house. You were alone after your divorce.”
Ethan’s first marriage had ended five years earlier. Vanessa appeared the following spring at a charity auction, pretending they had never met.
“You arranged it.”
Charles said nothing.
“Did she know Mara was my sister?”
“Yes.”
Ethan stepped away.
“Then she knew exactly who she was hurting.”
Charles looked toward the model train.
“She was supposed to keep Mara from finding the will. Not harm her.”
“You say that as if the difference excuses you.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Why hide Mara?”
Charles’s expression hardened.
“Because the will would have transferred half the foundation to her.”
“So?”
“So the board would have discovered the old transactions.”
“You stole from a charity and let my sister suffer to hide it.”
Charles lowered his eyes.
“I thought I could repay everything.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“With whose money?”
Before Charles could answer, an announcement sounded over the station speakers. The exhibition would close in ten minutes.
Charles handed Ethan an envelope.
“Your mother’s final letter.”
Ethan did not take it immediately.
“Why now?”
“Because Vanessa found a copy. She’s going to use it.”
“What does it say?”
Charles looked at him.
“That you weren’t meant to inherit the foundation.”
Ethan accepted the envelope with trembling hands.
Inside was a letter written by Evelyn. She explained that the foundation should pass to an independent board, with Ethan and Mara serving as equal family representatives. She feared Charles had turned charitable donations into a private bank.
At the bottom was a note to Ethan.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DEFEND A WRONG THING JUST BECAUSE OUR NAME IS ON IT.
Ethan folded the letter.
“Did you kill her?”
Charles flinched.
“No.”
“Did you know she was in danger?”
A long pause.
“Yes.”
Ethan stared.
Charles whispered, “She was going to meet Daniel Price. He called to warn me someone had tampered with her car.”
“And you did what?”
“I called her.”
“Did you tell the police?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I thought the threat was meant to frighten her.”
Ethan walked away before he said something he could never take back.
Outside, Mara waited beneath a wreath hung over the café door. He handed her a copy of the letter.
“She wanted us to run it together.”
Mara read silently.
“Then we do it properly,” she said. “Not for him. For the people the foundation was supposed to help.”
A police car pulled up beside the curb.
The investigator stepped out.
“Mr. Whitlock, we found Daniel Price.”
“Where?”
“In a motel near the highway.”
“Is he willing to talk?”
“He’s dead.”
Ethan felt the station lights blur.
May you like
The investigator continued.
“And someone left your mother’s photograph in his room.”
