Chapter 18 - The Hidden Accomplice
Ethan arrived home within twenty minutes of my call, his coat slung over his arm, his expression instantly shifting from work-mode to protective husband as soon as he saw the letter spread across my desk.
He read the note twice, his dark blue eyes narrowing as his corporate strategist brain began connecting the dots.
'Your father is trying to minimize his own guilt by spreading the blame,' Ethan said slowly, pacing across the hardwood floor of the study. 'Or... he’s telling the truth. Think about it, Claire. Brooke was twenty-seven, but she spent money like an oil tycoon. She didn't have the sophisticated financial knowledge to set up offshore shell companies or acquire medical-grade synthetic toxins on the black market without professional assistance.'
'Who?' I asked, looking up at him. 'Who in Dad’s network would help Brooke murder our mother and terrorize me?'
Ethan stopped pacing. A dark realization flickered across his face. 'Marcus Sterling. Your father’s former chief financial officer and legal counsel—the man who disappeared the exact week your father was arrested, taking three million dollars of corporate reserve funds with him.'
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The pieces suddenly clicked together into a terrifying mosaic. Marcus Sterling wasn't just my father’s accountant; he had been Brooke’s secret older boyfriend during her college years—a man twice her age with a criminal record for financial fraud that Dad had secretly paid to keep quiet.
'If Marcus helped her,' I whispered, 'then he’s still out there somewhere with millions of dollars in embezzled funds... and a grudge against both of our families.'
