Chapter 45
[Chapter 45: The Resurrection]
Ethan stared at the tablet screen. The GPS dot in southern Illinois was moving east, toward the Indiana border.
“Who picked it up, Edward?” Ethan demanded, his heart beginning to hammer violently against his ribs. “Who has the ledger?”
Edward took a slow sip of his scotch, his eyes gleaming with dark amusement. “The NTSB found two bodies in that crash, Ethan. A male matching your father’s description, and a female. But DNA matching takes time, especially when a cabin fire is involved. It takes weeks to verify dental records when the medical files have been... altered.”
Ethan’s vision blurred. The cockpit video. Lauren screaming. The terrain warning.
“Ethan! Look in the elephant!”
She hadn't been screaming a warning for him to save Noah. She had been broadcasting a coded message, ensuring that Ethan would find the birth certificate and cause a massive legal distraction with Patricia while she executed her final escape.
Lauren wasn't on that plane when it crashed.
She had parachuted out or jumped before the final impact, or the video had been pre-recorded to simulate her death. The female body in the wreckage belonged to someone else—likely a hired operative or an unfortunate victim used to fake her death.
“She’s alive,” Ethan breathed, the horror of his wife's absolute genius suffocating him.
“She’s very alive,” Edward said, standing up and closing his laptop. “And she has the keys to twelve million dollars. Your mother knows it too. That’s why she wanted the boy. Noah isn't just leverage against you, Ethan. Noah is the biometric key required to unlock the final custody-trust account in Switzerland. Lauren can’t withdraw the money without the child’s physical signature and DNA verification at the bank in Zurich.”
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Ethan looked at the tire iron on the floor. The family war hadn't ended with a crash. It was just entering its final, most brutal phase.
Lauren was coming back for Noah.
